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Copyright 1679 by Heni~y J J'dhnaan 



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GREAT CONTINENT; 



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SKETCHES, 

PIGTaRESaaE and HISieRIG: 

WITHIN AND BEYOND THE STATES. 



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BY 



BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D., 

^T'T-uop OF "THE PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION," " THE WAR OF l8l2," "THE CIVIL 

\ A -., " "a HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOLS," "LIVES OF EMINENT AMERICANS," 

"THE HOME OF WASHINGTON," "LOSSING'S BOOK OF THE HUDSON," "oUR COUNTRY," 

' LOSSING'S NEW HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," "SCENES AND 

EVENTS IN THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WASHINGTON," ETC.; 



GEO. J. HAGAR, 



ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, EDITOR OF "WHAT THE WORLD 

BELIEVES," CONTRIBUTOR TO API'LETON's "ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA," APPLETON's 

'■ CYCLOP.'EDIA OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY," ALDEN'S "MANIFOLD 

CYCLOPEDIA," AND AUTHOR OF "A CHRONOLOGICAL 

HISTORY OF THE UNITIU) STATES;" 

AND OTHEE WELL KNOWJST WEITERS. 



SUPERBLY ILLUSTRATED WITH SEVERAL 
HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. 



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TWO VOLUMES IN ONE 



N E W Y O R K : 

GAY BROTHERS & COMPANY 

30, 32, 34 READE STREET. 



Copyrighted 1889 by John E. Read. 



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ANNOaNGEMENT. 



A LITTLE less than four hundred years ago Columbus first set 
foot on one of the islands of the New World. Other discov- 
erers and explorers followed him to these western shores and numerous 
attempts were made, with varying degrees of success, to establish 
homes upon American soil. But more than a century elapsed before 
a permanent settlement was effected upon that part of the continent- 
which has since become not merely " The Great Republic of the 
West," but the mightiest republic of the world. 

A century and a half ago the only civilized inhabitants of the area 
now occupied by the United States were gathered in a few weak 
colonies. They had been, at various times, on the verge of starvation, 
their resources were still very limited, and they were constantly ex- 
posed to the attacks of savage foes. Yet, in spite of almost insupera- 
ble obstacles, the colonies increased in numbers and strength. British 
tyranny soon drove them into rebellion, and a long and terribly 
destructive war with the Mother Country ensued. 

At the close of the Revolution, the population of the colonies was 
only about three millions. The people were impoverished. Every- 
thing was in an unsettled state. The present was dark ; in the future 
hardly a ray of light could be discerned. From this almost hopeless 
condition there has grown, in a little more than a single century, a 
mighty nation, with a population approaching seventy millions and a 
name respected throughout the world. 

The history of the attempts to found settlements upon the then 
newly discovered Continent reads almost like a fairy tale. The vast 



iv ANNOUNCEMENT. 

region, which four centuries ago was unknown to civilized man, has 
progressed with gigantic strides, until the New World has become the 
peer, and in many respects the superior, of the Old. This is especially 
true of that portion occupied by the United States. The marvellous 
growth of this young Republic is a favorite theme with the orator, the 
poet, and the historian. To the thoughtful man who is familiar with 
the circumstances of its development, it appears one of the wonders 
of the world. It is a subject with which young and old should be 
familiar, not only as a matter of intellectual acquirement, but also, in 
order to enable them to adequately appreciate the services which their 
predecessors rendered to the world, and to teach them to properly 
value the blessings of civil and religious liberty, which are a part of 
the rich heritage of every resident of the United States. 

An acquaintance with the past history and the present condi- 
tion of our country should be considered one of the indispensable 
qualifications for the responsibilities of citizenship. One of the 
greatest dangers to which our country is exposed lies in the fact that 
large numbers of citizens have little knowledge of the history, princi- 
ples, and methods of the government under which they live and the 
policy of which, by their votes, they to a great extent direct. The 
Republic need fear no foe from without. Her destiny as a Nation 
will depend upon the character of the people within her borders. The 
degree of her prosperity will also be modified by the relations which 
she holds with other nations which are geographically her neigh- 
bors, and with which she should have a friendly and intimate relation- 
ship. Unfortunately, these countries have been but slightly treated in 
popular works relating to America, most of such works being devoted 
almost entirely to the United States. Thus the people of this country 
have had but little opportunity to obtain information regarding the 
States lying outside of their own domain. 

Realizing the importance of disseminating information upon the 
vital topics relating to the growth of the Continent and the present 
condition of its various countries, the publishers of this work employed 



ANNOUNCEMENT. v 

an able corps of writers, each eminently qualified for the special part 
assigned him, to prepare a volume which should serve this purpose in 
the best possible manner. Dr. Benson J. Lossing, the eminent his- 
torian, whose numerous works have given him an enviable fame, pre- 
pared a concise and remarkably interesting sketch of each of the States 
and Territories which form The Great Republic of the West. This 
division of the work is followed by The Story of Our Marvellous 
Progress and Growth as a Nation, edited by Dr. Lossing, in which 
is rehearsed the grand story of the nation as a whole and its glorious 
career from the organization of the government to the present admin- 
istration. Another important feature is found in three great State 
papers which should be in every household for convenient reference 
and with which every person in the United States, young or old, 
should be familiar. These are the Declaration of Independence, the 
Constitution of the United States, and the Emancipation Proclamation. 

The next division, which is both valuable and interestinor, is 
devoted to a description of the Great Cities of the United States. 
Here will be found a fund of general information for every one, and 
matters of great local interest to hundreds of thousands of readers 
who will find a description of the city in which they live, or in which 
for various reasons, their interest centres. This division includes the 
largest, most beautiful, and most important cities in the Union. 

Believing that beauty and grandeur, as well as utility, are entitled 
to consideration, the publishers have given one division of the work 
to an account of The Great Wonderlands of Our Republic. 
Here will be found profusely illustrated sketches of natural wonders 
and celebrated summer and winter resorts in various sections of the 
country. With the descriptions are interwoven a large number of 
interesting facts relating to the past history as well as to the present 
condition of the places noted. In this connection many items of 
biography incidentally appear, while in various instances the sketch is 
enlivened by some legend or romance connected with the locality. 
The reader will be surprised to find how rich our country is in striking 



vi ANNOUNCEMENT. 

scenes and in how many and widely separated localities Nature ap- 
pears in magnificent forms. In this department the children as well 
as the older people will be deeply interested, and from it they will 
obtain a large amount of information. The description of Resorts 
will be appreciated by those who have, as well as by those who have 
not, visited them, and will be especially useful to the large number 
who hope at some time to see one or more of these famous places. To 
each of these classes the information here s.upplied in a permanent 
and most attractive form will be of constant interest and value. 

In order to make the work complete, and render it invaluable to 
every American, the publishers have devoted the closing division to 
those portions of our Continent which lie Beyond the States. Here 
the Dominion of Canada, the Republic of Mexico, Cuba, the Bahama 
Islands, and the various countries of South and Central America are 
described in a most interesting manner. In this portion of the work 
will be found an immense number of facts regarding the people, the 
soil, the climate, the material resources and the government of these 
countries, together with descriptions of a large number of the most 
important cities, and many excellent engravings. On account of our 
close commercial relations with Canada, our growing trade with several 
of the countries of South and Central America, and the prospect that 
in the not far distant future, our commerce with these States will be 
wonderfully increased, these sketches must prove extremely useful to 
all who wish to keep informed concerning the political and financial 
affairs of our neighboring nations and the relations of the United 
States thereto. Mexico, too, is destined to greatly increase her trade 
with this country, and on this account, as well as because of her 
proximity, a description of her condition and resources will prove of 
special value. 

This unique work supplies a vast amount of information regarding 
this Continent, which must be of personal interest and value to every 
one in America who is familiar with the English language. It shows 
the widely varying conditions under which the different portions of 



ANNOUNCEMENT. vii 

the continent were settled by white men. The kindly relations which 
existed between the Aborigines of Pennsylvania and the Quakers 
appears in marked contrast with the conflicts and enmities long exist- 
ino; between the Indians and the Colonists of the North and West. 
Nature, too, presented very different phases. The severe climate and 
poor soil of New England were widely variant from the mild air and 
rich land of the South. The differences in the religious belief and the 
general character of the settlers of the various sections were also very 
great. The Pilgrims and Puritans of Massachusetts, the Quakers of 
Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, and the Huguenots of the 
Southern colonies, were widely separated in their beliefs and their 
traditions. Yet, we see that notwithstanding the great differences of 
climate and surroundings, of belief, and of nationality, the people of 
these sections united with zeal and energy to promote the common 
CTood. 

The treatment of the subject from various standpoints is a great 
advantage both to the reader who wishes to obtain a comprehensive 
view from all directions and to the one who desires information in 
some specific line and prefers to have that department treated separ- 
ately. In this work each will find just what is wanted. For, in its 
arrangement, the colonies are traced through their varies stages as 
Settlements, Territories, and States. Then follows a view of the 
Nation as a whole. After this we have the Cities, the great centres 
of trade and manufactures, with full statistics, over which in most cases 
the officials of the respective places had supervision. Then follows 
a description of Natural Wonders, Magnificent Scenery, and Popular 
Resorts. The view of our country is thus made complete, and to the 
general reader must be far more satisfactory than can be obtained 
from a single standpoint. 

With the exception of certain elaborate works which did not come 
within the means of the masses, most of the literature relating to 
America has either been confined to the United States or else the 
other countries have been treated in only a superficial manner. Thus 



viii ANNOUNCEMENT. 

it has come to pass that the people of the United States are much 
better acquainted with the history of Europe than they are with that 
of large portions of the Continent upon which they live. While they 
are comparatively familiar with the history of many nations which are 
"afar off," they have but a slight acquaintance with that of the coun- 
tries which, in a geographical sense, are their neighbors. The present 
volume will enable them to supply this deficiency and will do much to 
popularize knowledge concerning other American countries. 

The illustrations will be found to add greatly to the interest and 
value of the work. The insertion of the portraits of the first Gover- 
nors of the States is a unique feature which has involved great labor 
and expense on the part of the publishers, and will be appreciated by a 
large class of readers who are interested in the history of the country 
in its early times. The engravings of many of the finest buildings in 
the various cities of the Continent add greatly to the interest of the 
text, while the profuse illustrations of scenery and resorts cannot fail to 
increase the usefulness in the same degree that it adds to the beauty 
and attractiveness of the volume. 

From this brief outline it will be seen that Our Great Continent 
contains an immense amount of classified information upon subjects 
with which every American should be familiar, and that it will cer- 
tainly rank among the most important contributions to the historical 
literature of the day. The magnificent progress of this vast Conti- 
nent combines the brilliant qualities of romance with the substantial 
elements of a grand reality. In this work the treatment is in perfect 
accord with the high character of the theme. Thus, while it is a 
rich treasury of information, it is full of interest and entertainment. 
The publishers designed to produce a work which should be of incal- 
culable value as a record of facts and at the same time be a source of 
unfailing pleasure to every reader. They believe that the desired end 
has been attained and they send forth the book in the hope and with 
the expectation that it will both please and profit each and all into 
whose hands it may come. 



• gontents.* 



The Great Republic of the IVest. 

Introduction, 45 

VIRGINIA. 

The Oldest Commonwealth — Boundaries — Area — Natural Features and Resources 
— Failure of Raleigh's Effort for Colonization. — The London Company — The Plymouth 
Company — Captain John Smith — The First Church — Jamestown — Various Disasters 
— Character of Settlers — New Charter — Continued Distress — Arrival of Lord De la 
Warr — First Representative Assembly — Establishment of Homes — Introduction of 
Slavery — A Written Constitution — New Settlement — Indian Troubles — Sickness and 
Famine — Civil War — Hostilities with the French — Representation in Continental Con- 
gress — Adoption of State Constitution — " State Sovereignty " — An Influential State — 
The War of 181 2 — John Brown — Secession — Reorganization — Effects of the War — 
Recovery Therefrom — " The Old Dominion," 47 

NEW YORK. 

"The Empire State" — Boundaries — Area — Population — Scenery and Climate — 
History — Henry Hudson — Dutch Traders — Charters — " Iroquois Confederacy " — 
" Dutch West India Company " — The Walloons — Purchase of Manhattan Island — The 
Patroons — Early Governors — Surrender to the English — Political Troubles — French 
and Indian Invasion — Freedom of the Press — Struggles for Self-government — During 
the Revolution — The State Constitution — Development of Resources — Canal Systems 
— The use of Steam Power for Navigation — The War of 181 2 — AboHtion of Slavery — 
Revision of the Constitution— The Civil War — Population — Industries — Education- 
Charities — Books, Magazines, and Newspapers, 59 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Boundaries — Area — Climate — Early Explorations — The Plymouth Company — First 
Permanent Settlement — Organization of Government — Privations and Sickness — Other 



X CONTENTS. 

Settlements — Dissolution of Partnership with London Merchants — New Organization 
— The " Massachusetts Bay Company " — Religious Intolerance — Indian Troubles — Call 
for Surrender of Charter — Commission to England — Investigation of Affairs of the 
Colony — King Philips' War — English Rule — A New Charter — Invasions by French 
and Indians — Provincial Congress — End of Royal Authority — Organization of the Army 
- — Adoption of the State Constitution — Shay's Rebellion — War of 1812 — In the Civil 
War — Manufactures — Education — Population — Emigration, 69 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Location — Area — Population- -Natural Features — Discovery — Settlement — Annex- 
ation to Massachusetts — Subsequent Separation — Dispute Regarding Western Boun- 
dary — Indian Depredations — Provincial Congress — Organization of State Government 
— In the War for Independence — State Constitution — Ratification of the National Con- 
stitution — Seat of Government — Loyalty to the Union — Manufactures — Education, 78 

CONNECTICUT. 

Boundaries — Area — Population — Aspect — Discovery — Settlement — Withdrawal of 
the Dutch — First Permanent Settlement — Subsequent Arrivals — First Written Consti- 
tution — The Pequod War — Settlement at New Haven — Formation of Government — 
Union of the Colonies — The Colonial Charter — Refusal to Surrender — The Legislature 
— Stringent Laws — In the Colonial Wars — Conflict with the Government of Pennsyl- 
vania — In the War for Independence — The War of 181 2 — The Hartford Convention — 
In the Civil War — Manufactures — Education — Characteristics of the People, . . 84 

MARYLAND. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Divisions — General Appearance — Early 
Settlements — Government — Conflicting Claims — Dissensions — Civil War — A Period of 
Repose — Religious Feud — In the Revolution — French and Indian War—State Govern- 
ment — War of 1 81 2 — In the Civil War — Manufacturing — Transportation Facilities — 
Education, 94 

RHODE ISLAND. 

The Smallest State — Boundaries — Area — Population — Natural Features — Early Ex- 
plorers — The Stone Tower at Newport — Roger Williams — Settlement at Providence — 
Government of the Colony — Other Settlements — Establishment of the Commonwealth 
— Growing Intolerance — King Philip's War — Seizure and Restoration of the Charter — 
Exclusion from the New England Confederacy — Patriotism of the People — During the 



CONTENTS. xi 

Revolution — Admission to the Union — The War of 1812 — Efforts to obtain a State 
Constitution — Dorr's Rebellion — Adoption of the Constitution — In the Civil War^ 
Agriculture and Manufactures — Education, 10 1 

DELAWARE. 

Area — Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Derivation of Name — Discov- 
ery — Settlement — Claims of Lord Baltimore — Surrender of Territory to William Penn 
— Early Government — Favoring Independence — Organization of a State Government 
— In the Revolutonary War — Captain Caldwell — The War of 181 2 — Loyalty to the 
Union — Fruit-growing — Manufactures — Education, 107 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Boundaries — Area — Rank — Population — Seaboard — Surface — The Di,mal Swamp 
— Discovery and Settlement — Roanoke Island — Religious and PoHtical Communities — 
Revolts — Indian Troubles — Division of the Province — The "Regulators" — Provincial 
Convention— State Constitution — In the Revolution — Secession— During the Civil War 
— Re-organization — New Constitution — Industries — Mineral Wealth — Railroads — Edu- 
cation—" The Tar State," 112 

NEW JERSEY. 

Location — Area— Population — Rank — Natural Features — Early History — In the 
Revolution — State Constitution — In the Civil War — Refusal to ratify the Fifteenth 
Amendment — Industries — Railroads — Education, 120 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Discovery and Settlement — Orig- 
inal Grants — Establishment of Government — Political and Religious Dissensions — Ex- 
peditions against the Spaniards and Indians — Attempt to Establish a State Church — 
Attack upon Charleston — War with Indians — A new Government Organized — Separa- 
tion from North Carolina — Resistance to British Oppression — In the Revolution — State 
Constitution — Slavery — "' Nullification " Movement — War Averted — Secession — Open- 
ing of the Civil War — Sufferings During the War — Reconstruction— Climate — Educa- 
tion, 126 

PENNSYLVANIA. 
Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Claims of the Dutch — Grant to 
William Penn — Treaty with the Indians — Purchase of Land of Swedish Settlers — 
Founding of the City of Philadelphia — The " Charter of Liberties "—Penn deprived of 



xii CONTENTS. 

his Colonial Rights — Troubles in the Colony — Reinstatement of Penn — A New Charter 
■ — Withdrawal of the Three Lower Counties — " Mason and Dixon's Line " — French and 
Luiian War — In Favor of Independence — The Continental Congress — Declaration of 
Independence — Organization of the State Government — Military Events — National 
Constitution — The "Whiskey Insurrection" — The War of 1812 — Internal Improve- 
ments — In the Civil War — Manufactures — Coal Fields — Petroleum — Railroads — Edu- 
cation — "The Keystone State," 133 

VERMONT. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Climate — Discovery and Settle- 
ment — Indian Battle Ground — Territorial Boundaries — Bitter Controversy — Organiza- 
tion of a State Government — Diplomacy — Settlement of Land Claims — Admission to the 
LTnion — The War of 181 2 — Aid to Insurrection in Canada — In the Civil War — Agri- 
culture — Manufactures — Education — Population — " The Green Mountain State." 142 

GEORGIA. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Originally Belonged to the Caro- 
linas — Claimed by both Spain and England — The " Colony of Georgia " — Settlement at 
Savannah — Conference with Indians — New Arrivals — War Threatened by the Spaniards 
— Governor Oglethorpe's Repulse of the Invaders — Practical Introduction of Slavery 
—Establishment of a General Assembly — In the Revolutionary War — State Constitu- 
tions — Indian Troubles — Secession — Losses by the War — Under Military Rule — A New 
Constitution — Re-admission to the Union — Agriculture — Manufactures — Education — 
" The Empire State of the South," 149 

KENTUCKY. 

Location^Area — Population — Surface — Orginal Inhabitants — First White Visitors 
— Daniel Boone — Explorations — Settlements — Formed a Territory — Indian Invasion 
—In the Revolution — Proposed Separation from Virginia — Dissatisfaction with the 
Government — First Public Advocate of Secession — Various Conventions — Admission 
to the Union — The War of 181 2 — Progress — In the Civil War — Agriculture — Live Stock 
— Manufactures — Railroads — Education — " The Corn-Cracker State," . . . . 158 

TENNESSEE. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Union with the Carolinas — War 
with the Cherokees — Political Disturbances — Secession from North Carolina — Failure 
of the Revolutionary Movement — Organization of a Territorial Government — Admission 



CONTENTS. xiii 

as a State — The War of 1812 — Secession — During the War — Re-organization — Agri- 
culture — Industries — Railroads — Education — " The Big Bend State," .... 166 

OHIO. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Rank — Aspect — Discovery — Explora- 
tions — Conflicting Claims of French and English — French and Indian War — The 
" Western Reserve " — Organization of a Territory — Influx of People — Various Settle- 
ments — State Constitution — The Seat of Government — War of 1812 — In the Civil War 
— Agriculture and Manufactures — Railroads — Education — "The Buckeye State,'' 174 

LOUISIANA. 

Location — Area — Population — Features of the Country — Boundaries — Discovery 
by Europeans — Early Explorers — La Salle takes formal Possession of the Country for 
France — Subsequent Expeditions — The Province Granted to Crozat — Failure of his 
Enterprise — Founding the City of New Orleans — Various Speculations — Failure of the 
Enterprises — The Province Ceded to Spain — Its Restoration to France — Its Purchase 
by the United States — Admission to the Union — Invasion During the War of 181 2 — 
New Constitution — Secession of the State — Re-organization of State Government — 
Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — Education — " The Creole 
State," 181 

INDIANA. 

Rank — Population — Location — Area — Aspect — First White Visitors — Religious 
and Commercial Stations— In the War for Independence — War With Indians — Estab- 
lishment of a Territory — Efforts to Introduce Slavery — Indian Confederacy — Increas- 
mg Hostilities — Open War — War of 181 2 — Admission to the Union — Rapid Immigra- 
tion — Internal Improvements — Financial Disaster — Recuperation — In the Civil War 
— Agriculture — Manufactures — Education — " The Hoosier State," 190 

MISSISSIPPI. 
Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Explorations by 
De Soto — French Explorers — First Colony — Later Settlements — Cruelty to Indians — 
Their Revenge — The Natchez Tribe Exterminated — End of the French Dominion — 
Formation of a Territory — State Constitution — Secession — Re-organization — Agricul- 
ture — Education — "The Bayou State," 197 

ILLINOIS. 
Location — Boundaries — Rank — General Aspect — First European Settlers — Jesuit 
Missions — Military Posts Established by the French — The English Obtain Possession 



xiv CONTENTS. 

— Territorial Area — In the Revolution — Indian Troubles — The War of i8i 2— Admis- 
sion to the Union — Removal of the Indians — Mormon Troubles — Chicago — Agricul- 
tural Productions — Manufactures — Railroads — Education, 205 

ALABAMA. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Surface — Indian Inhabitants, their 
Character and Customs — Cruelty of De Soto and His Followers — Settlement of Mobile 
— Other Settlements — Transfer to England — Gained by the United States — Indian 
Troubles — Destruction of the Creek Nation — Increase of Population — Territorial 
Organization — Secession — Organization of the Confederate Government — During the 
Civil War — Re-organization — Agriculture — Railroads — Education, 212 

MAINE. 

Area — Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Efforts to Found 
a Colony — Disputed Territory — Charter Obtained — The Region Claimed by Massa- 
chusetts — Hostilities of the French and Indians — William Phipps — In the Revolution 
— War of 1812— Separation from Massachusetts — Admission to the Union — Invasion 
in the Civil War — Colony of Swedes — Agriculture — Lumber Inte'ests — Fisheries — 
Railroads — Commerce — Education — "The Pine-Tree State," 220 

MISSOURL 

Location — Area — Rank — Boundaries — Natural Features — Discovery and Settle- 
ment — Early History — The Slavery Question — The Compromise Bill — Admission to 
the Union — Indian Disturbances — Progress — In the Civil War — A New State Consti- 
tution — Natural Resources — Railroads — Education — Derivation c.f the Name of the 
State, 226 

ARKANSAS. 

Location — Area — Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Subse- 
quent Explorations — Early Settlements — Territorial Government — State Constitution 
Framed — Admission to the Union — Secession — Re-organization of the State Govern- 
ment — A New Constitution — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — 
Manufactures — Education — " The Bear State," 233 

MICHIGAN. 

Boundaries — Area — Population — Characteristics — Discovery and Settlement — 
Jesuit Missions — English Succeed the French — Indian Treachery — The War of 181 2 



CONTENTS. XV 

— Sale of Public Lands — Organization of the Territorial Government — Admission as a 
State — In the Civil War — Agriculture — Mineral Wealth — Live Stock — Manufactures 
— Railroads — Education — " The Wolverine State," 238 

FLORIDA. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Discovery — Search 
for the Fountain of Youth — HostiHty of the Indians — A Disastrous Expedition — First 
Permanent Settlement — Religious Persecutions — The Claim of the Spaniards Dis- 
puted — The Country Ceded to Great Britain — Colony of New Smyrna — Tyranny of 
the Founder — During the Revolution — Re-ceded to Spain — In the War of 181 2 — 
Ceded to the United States — The Seminole War — Admission to the Union — Seces- 
sion — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — "The Peninsula 
State," 245 

TEXAS. 

The Largest State — Location — Area — Boundaries — Population — Surface and Soil 
— First White Colony — Jesuit Missions — Continued Indian Hostilities — Spanish 
Opposition to French and American Occupation — A Grant to Moses Austin — Revolu- 
tions — The Alamo — Independence Secured— Samuel Houston Elected President of 
the RepubHc — Annexation to the United States — Secession — Re-organization of the 
Government — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — Manufactures 
— Education — " The Lone Star State," 253 

IOWA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Rank — Natural Features — Settlement 
— The Black Hawk War — Various Colonies — Organization of the Territory — Admis- 
sion as a State — The Seat of Government — In the Civil War — Agriculture— Live 
Stock — Railroads — Education — " The Hawkeye State," . 260 

WISCONSIN. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Early Settlements 
— Missionary Operations by the Jesuits— The Domain Transferred from the French 
to the EngHsh^-Ceded to the United States— Settlement at Green Bay — The Black 
Hawk War — Territorial Organization — Rapid Growth in Population — A State Con- 
stitution Framed — Admission to the Union — Loyalty During the Civil War — Agricul- 
tural Productions— Manufactures— Railroads — Education—" The Badger State," 265 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CALIFORNIA. 
Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Earli- 
est Settlements — Franciscan Missions — Destruction of the Missions by the Mexican 
Government — Attempt to Expel Americans — The Mexicans Driven Out — Indepen- 
dence Proclaimed — The Territory Ceded to the United States — Discovery of Gold — 
Great Influx of Lawless Adventurers — Organization of Government — Slavery For- 
bidden — Petition to Become a State — Long Delay in Congress — Admission to the 
Union — " Vigilance Committees " — Agricultural Productions — Mineral Wealth — Man- 
ufactures — Railroads — Education — Foreign Commerce — "The Golden State," . 271 

MINNESOTA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Surface — Climate — First European 
Visitors — Establishment of Fur-trading Posts by the French — Exploration by Jonathan 
Carver — Subsequent Explorations — Inception and Growth of the Lumber Industry — 
Rapid Increase in Population — Admission to the Union — Patriotic Devotion in the 
Civil War — The Sioux War — Agricultural Productions — Manufacturing Interests — 
Railroads — Education — Proj^osed Public Parks — "The Gopher State," . . . 279 

OREGON. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — First European 
Visitor — Discovery of the Columbia River — Exploration of the Country — First Per- 
manent Settlement — Controversy between the United States and Great Britain — A 
Temporary Arrangement — Formation of New Colonies — Settlement of Dispute Re- 
garding Boundaries — Territorial Government — Division of the Territory — Admission 
as a State — Increase in Population — War with the Modoc Indians — Agriculture — Live 
Stock — Fisheries — Manufactures — Railroads — Education — Derivation of the Name of 
the State, 286 

KANSAS. 

The Central State — Boundaries — Area — Surface — First European Visitants — 
Earliest Settlement — The Missouri Compromise — Efforts to Organize a Territory — 
Discussion in Congress — The " Irrepressible Conflict " — Extensive Immigration — 
Attempt to Introduce Slavery — Foreign Interference with Elections — The Legislature 
Illegally Chosen — Convention of Actual Settlers — New State Constitution — Great 
Disorder — Congressional Investigation — The Lecompton Constitution — Action of 
Congress — Armed Conflict — Restoration of Peace — Admission to the Union — In the 
Civil War — Agricultural and Manufacturing Interests — Coal Fields — Railroads — Edu- 
cation — " The Garden of the West," 293 



CONTENTS. . xvii 

WEST VIRGINIA. 

Location — Area — Population — Aspect — Loyalty to the Union — Separation from 
Virginia — Admission to the Union — In the Civil War — Rapid Development — Agricul- 
ture — Manufactures— Education — " The Pan -Handle State," 300 

NEVADA. 

Rank — Location — Area — Population — Surface — General Aspect — Cession to the 
United States — Territorial Organization — Admission as a State — Mineral Wealth — 
Discovery of Silver in the Washoe Region — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures 
— Education — Signification of the Name of the State, 304 

NEBRASKA. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — First Exploration and Settle- 
ment — Organization of the Territory — Original Area — Division of the Territory — 
Admission as a State — Increase in Population — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufac- 
tures — Railroads — Education — Meaning of the Name, 308 

COLORADO. 

Location — Area — Boundaries — Natural Features — Discovered by a Spanish Ad- 
venturer — Explorations by Officers of the United States Army — Discovery of Gold — 
Attempt to Establish Civil Government — Territorial Organization — Admission to the 
Union as a State — Mining Interests — Live Stock — Manufacturing Establishments — 
Railroads — Education — " The Centennial State." 311 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

.Area — Location — The City of Washington — Erection of Public Buildings— Ap- 
pearance and Condition of the City in 1800— Government of the District— Dimin- 
ished Area— Education — Population, 314 

INDIAN TERRITORY. 

Formation of the Territory— Extent in 1834 — Present Area— Location— Boundaries 
— Natural Features — Inhabitants — Form of Government — In the Civil War — Progress 
in Civilization— Agricultural and Live Stock Interests — The Leading Tribes— Educa- 
tion — Financial Condition — Population, -j- 



xviii CONTENTS. 

NEW MEXICO. 

Early Inliabitants — Location — Boundaries — Area — Natural Features — Spanish Oc- 
cupation — Indian Troubles — The Country Conquered by the United States — Loyalty 
to the Union — Territorial Organization — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures — 
Education — Mineral Wealth, 320 

UTAH. 

Original Inhabitants — Location — Population — Character of the Region — Cession 
to the United States — Settlement by Mormons — Growth of Salt Lake City— Conflict 
with the National Government — Agriculture — Manufactures — Financial Condition — 
Education, 323 

WASHINGTON. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features— Indian Occupation — Discovery 
and Exploration by White Men — First Permanent Settlement — Organization of the 
Territory — Islands in Washington Sound — Agriculture — Manufactures — Mining — 
Lumber — The Fishing Interests — Education — Admission as a State, . . . . 326 

DAKOTA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Surface — The Indian Inhabitants-- 
Cession of Land to the United States — War — First Permanent Settlement by Whites 
— Territorial Organization — Changes of Boundaries— Increase of Population — Agricul- 
ture — Manufactures — Mining — Education — Division of the Territory — Admission to 
the Union as Two States, '........ 329 

ARIZONA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Indian Inhabitants — Natural Featr.res 
— Spanish Exploration and Settlement — Purchase by the United States — Organized 
as a Territory — Change of Area — Indian Tradition — Mineral Wealth — Agriculture — 
Education, 333 

IDAHO. 

Position — Boundaries — Area — Population— Natural Features — Early Explorers — 
Settlement — Formation of a Territory — Original Area — Mineral Wealth — Agriculture 
— Education^Pronunciation of the Name, 335 

MONTANA 
Location — Area — Boundaries — Surface — Climate — Settlement — Organization as a 



CONTENTS. xix 

Territory — Rich Gold Mine — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures — Education 
— Derivation of the Name — Admission as a State, 337 

WYOMING. 

Location— Area— Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park— First White Visitors — Scientific Exploration — First White Settlement — 
Territorial Organization— .Right of Suffrage — Agricultural Resources — Mineral Wealth 
— Education, 339 

ALASKA. 

Location — Islands— Area — Shore Line — Mountains — Yukon River— Climate — Dis- 
covery and Exploration — The Russian Fur Company — Scientific Exploration — Pur- 
chase by the United States— Government and Laws — Minerals — Agricultural Produc- 
tions — Fisheries — Population, 342 

OKLAHOMA. 

Creation of the Territory— Opened for Settlement— Great Excitement— The 
Capital — Form and Area — Surface — Climate, . . - 344 



XX CONTENTS. 



Our Nation: The Story of Its Progress and Growth. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Our Position — The Past and the Present — An Unending Conflict — Self-Govern- 
ment by the People an Experiment — Opposing Forces — A Wonderful History — The 
Formative Period — George Washington — Remarkable Development — Second War with 
England — Indians Subdued — Jealous of Foreign Powers — Slavery Overthrown — A Free 
Land — ^The Mission of the Country — The only Source of Danger, . . . 347-356 

EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 

Progress and Growth of the Nation — Settlement at Jamestown — Experiences 
of the Colonists — Establishment of Representative Government — New England — 
Arrival of the Pilgrims — The Civil Compact in the Mayflower — Great Difficulties — 
Manner of Life — Massasoit — Education — Increase of Population — Union of the 
Colonies — John Eliot — King Philip's V¥ar — Triumph of the Whites — New York — 
Discovery of the Hudson River — Settlement on Manhattan Island — War with Indians 
— Surrender to the English — William Penn — Establishment of the Colony on the 
Delaware — Prosperity of the New Settlement — Other Colonies, .... 357-367 

THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

General Condition — Belief in Witchcraft — Religious Intolerance — Excuse — Growth 
of the Colonies — Forms of Government — French and Indian Aggression — George Wash- 
ington — War with the French and Indians — Defeat of General Braddock — The Siege 
of Quebec — Rapid Immigration — The Gathering Cloud — Changed Relations — English 
Tyranny — Commercial Restrictions— The Stamp Act — Declaration of Rights —The Tax 
on Tea — British Troops— Opposition to English Interference — A Cargo of Tea De- 
stroyed — RetaUation — Preparations for War— First Colonial Congress, . . 367-379 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 

Opening of the War for Independence — The Attack at Lexington— The Battle of 
Concord — George Washington — John Hancock— Benjamin Franklin — Israel Putnam — 
Patrick Henry — Samuel Adams — Gathering of Troops — Aggressive Movements— Ticon- 
deroga — Crown Point— Second Continental Congress — Arrival of British Troops — Bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill— Washington Appointed Commander-in-Chief — British Evacuation 
of Boston— Protection of New York— The British Attack Charleston, . . 379-396 



CONTENTS. xxi 

INDEPENDENCE DECLARED. 

The Formal Declaration of Independence — iLs Reception by the People — 
Hessian Troops — General Howe's Commission — Overtures of the British Rejected^ 
Americans Retreat from Brooklyn — Battle of White Plains — A Dark Period — The 
Battles of Trenton and Princeton — French Aid to the Patriots — The Marquis de . 
Lafayette — Various Encounters — Philadelphia Captured by the British — In the 
Northern Department — Indians Assist the British— Surrender of General Bnrgoyne — 
Renewed Overtures of Peace from England — Alliance of France and Spain with the 
Colonies — Valley Forge — Appearance of a French Fleet — Battle of Monmouth — Bat- 
tle at Quaker Hill — The Wyoming Massacre — Cherry Valley — New Plan of Action — 
Along the Sea-coast — Various Battles — In the Western Wilderness — Punishment of 
the Six Nations — The Campaign at the South — On the High Seas — Disasters to the 
Patriots — Francis Marion — South Carolina Organized as a Royal Province — Progress 
of the Campaign in the South and the North — The Treachery of Arnold — Failure of 
his Treasonable Bargain — Sufferings of the Soldiers — Relief Granted by Congress — 
Robert Morris — Depredations by Arnold — Battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse 
— Various Engagements — Massacre at Fort Griswold — The Battle of Yorktown — Sur- 
render of the British, 396-417 

AFTER THE CONFLICT. 

The Close of the .War — Treaties of Peace — Impoverished Condition of the 
Colonies — Commissioners — Proposition to Establish a Monarchy — Domestic Discon- 
tent — Retirement of Washington — Alexander Hamilton — Formation of the Constitu- 
tion — Dissolution of the Continental Congress — The Territorial Government — Election 
of a President 417-423 

A REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 

Administration of George Washington — Organization of the Government — 
Public Debt — Returning Prosperity — Indian Hostilities — Political Parties — The 
Whiskey Rebellion — -Treaties with England and Spain — Establishment of a Navy — 
Administration of John Adams — Threatened War with France Averted — The 
Death of Washington — The Second Census — Election of President by the House of 
Representatives — Administration of Thomas Jefferson — Conciliatory Measures — 
Additions to the Union — Expeditions against Algerine Pirates — Exploration of the 
Rocky Mountain Region— Aaron Butr — Difficulties with Foreign Nations — Successful 
Steam Navigation — Impressment of Seamen — Embargo upon Shipping — Administra- 
tion OF James Madison — The Rights of Citizenship — Continued Aggressions by Eng- 
land — Indian Outbreak — Strength of English and American Navies, . . . 423-432 



xxii CONTENTS. 

THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 

Opening of the War — Disasters on Land — Successes on the Sea — Re-Election 
OF President Madison — American Victories in Canada and on Lake Erie — Varying 
Fortunes of War — British Depredations — The City of Washington Plundered — Nego- 
tiations for Peace — The Battle of New Orleans — Peace Restored, .... 432-436 

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 

Algerine Pirates — Admission of Indiana — The United States Bank Chartered — 
Administration of James Monroe — Emigration to the West — New States and 
Territories — The Missouri Compromise — Re-election of President Monroe — 
Visit of Lafayette — Sketch of his Life — Election of John Quincy Adams as Presi- 
dent — His Administration — The Erie Canal — Death of John Adams and Thomas 
Jefferson — The Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence — Administration of Andrew 
Jackson — Removal of the Cherokee Indians — Veto of the Charter of the National 
Bank — The Black Hawk War — Secession Threatened by South Carohna — Business 
Panic — War with Indians in Florida— Order to collect Revenues in Coin — Admission 
of New States — Administration of Martin Van Buren — Commercial Disaster — 
Violation of Neutrality Laws — Administration of Presidents Harrison and Tyler 
— Call for an Extra Session of Congress— Death of President Harrison — Succession of 
Vice-President Tyler — Legislation Relating to Commercial Affairs — Modification of 
the Tariff — Adoption of a State Constitution by Rhode Island — Texas Applies for 
Admission to the Union — Florida and Iowa become States — Administration of 
James K. Polk — Annexation of Texas — Settlement of the Northwestern Boundaries 
Dispute, 436-446 

THE MEXICAN WAR. 

Causes of the War — The Conquest of California — The Navajo Indians Subdued — 
Close of the Mexican War — Discovery of Gold in California — Election of General 
Taylor to the Presidency — Important Measures during the Administration of Presi- 
dent Polk — Wisconsin Admitted to the Union, 446-450 

THE PERIOD OF AGITATION. 

Rapid National Progress — The Slavery Question— Growth of the Slave Power — 
General Sentiment of the Country at the Time of the Revolution — Compromise Mea- 
svtres — The Cotton Gin—Increasing Demand for Slaves— Great Change in Public 
Sentiment — The Missouri Compromise — Northern Opposition to Slavery — The 
"Emancipator "—Conflict Regarding the Admission of Texas as a State — California a 
Free State — Administration of Zacharv Taylor — The "Omnibus Bill" — Death 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

of General Taylor and Succession of Millard Fillmore to the Presidency — Important 
Events of President Taylor's Administration — Administration of Millard Fillmore 
— The Fugitive Slave Law Supported — Reduction of Postage — Introduction of the 
Telegraph — Invasion of Cuba — Organization of Minnesota as a Territory — Enlarge- 
ment of the National Capitol Building — Arctic Expedition — Visit of Kossuth — The 
Newfoundland Fisheries — Treaty with Japan — Trouble with Spain — Organization of 
Washington Territory, 451-464 

THE COMING STORM. 

Administration of Franklin Pierce — Difficulties — Dispute with Mexico — 
EstabUshment of Steamship Lines to Asia— Explorations of the Northwest — World's 
Fair in New York— Relations with Mexico — Central America and the Sandwich 
Islands — Renewed Discussion of the Slavery Question — More Trouble with Spain — 
Effort to Obtain Cuba— " The Golden Circle "—Treaties with Mexico and Great 
Britain — Invasion of Nicaragua — Indian Troubles — Difficulties with Great Britain — 
Formation of the Republican Party — The Know-Nothing Party — Exciting Political 
Canvass — Election of the Democratic Candidates, 464-469 

THE CONTEST BEGUN. 

Administration of James Buchanan — Conflict in Kansas— Reign of Terror — • 
The Dred Scott Decision — Continued Troubles in Kansas — The "Southern Com- 
mercial Convention " — Increase of the Slave Trade— Efforts to Restrict Slavery — The 
" Mormon War " — Raid of John Brown — Scheme for Di^union^Democratic Conven- 
tion at Charleston — Various Political Nominations — Exciting Contest — Election of 
Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency — Continued Plottings of Treason— Efforts to 
Cripple the Government— Secession of South Carolina— The Example Followed by 
other States — Organization of the Confederate Government — A Peace Conven- 
tion — Loyalty of General Scott, 469-477 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

Administration of Abraham Lincoln — Surrounded by Difficulties —Condition 
of the Army and Navy— Attack upon Fort Sumter— The Civil War Inaugurated — 
A Great Uprising — Bloodshed in Baltimore— Condition of the Opposing Forces— The 
Battle of Bull Run — The North Aroused — General McClellan— The Confederate Capi- 
tal Changed from Montgomery to Richmond — General Lee — " Stonewall " Jackson — 
Review of the Events of 1861 — The Campaign of 1862 — The Merrimac and Monitor 
— Extreme Caution of General McClellan — In the Valley of the Mississippi — In other 
Sections— Battle of Antietam— General McClellan Superseded— Battles, . 478-494 



xxiv CONTENTS. 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

Emancipation a Necessity — Confederate Privateers — The Course of Great Britain 
— Military Operations of 1863 — In the Mississippi Valley — The Capture of Vicks- 
burg — In the East — The Battle of Gettysburg — The Draft Riots — Military Movements 
in Virginia — In Tennessee — In other Sections — Financial Condition of the Union and 
of the Confederacy — Military Operations of 1864 — Commission of General Grant as 
Commander-in-Chief of the Union Forces — Reverses at the South — Heavy Fighting in 
Virginia — In the Shenandoah Valley — Sherman's March to the Sea — In other States — 
Privateers — The Port of Mobile closed — Re-nomination of President Lincoln — Nomi- 
nation of General McClellan for President. — Re-election of President Lincoln — 
Closing Events of the War — The Capture of Richmond — Surrender of General Lee — 
Assassination of President Lincoln — Succession of Andrew Johnson to the Pres- 
idency — Surrender of General Johnston — General Grant's Farewell Address — Review of 
the Union Army — The Army Disbanded, 494-5 1 7 

REORGANIZATION AND PROGRESS. 

Amendments to the Constitution — Removal of Commercial Restrictions — State 
Conventions — Conflict between the President and Congress — The French in Mex- 
ico — Effort to Impeach President Johnson — Admission of Nebraska to the Union 
—Result of the Trial of the President — Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution — Treaty with China — Election of General Grant as President — Adminis- 
tration of President Grant — Completion of the Work of Re-construction — Passage 
of a General Amnesty Bill by Congress — Completion of a Railroad across the Continent 
— Insurrection in Cuba — Fenian Invasion of Canada— Effort to Annex Hayti to the 
United States — Survey for an Inter-oceanic Canal at Isthmus of Darien — Destructive 
Fires in Chicago and Boston — The Alabama Claims — Establishment of the National 
Signal Service — Abolition of the Franking Privilege — Presidential Nominations — Re- 
election OF General Grant — Mormon Troubles — Difficulties with the Indians — 
Admission of Colorado as i State — Political Events, 517-525 

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 

A Great Success — The Presidential Election — Appointment of the Electoral 
Commission — R. B. Hayes Declared the President Elect. — Administration of 
President Hayes — Political Measures — Exodus of Negroes from Southern States 
— Resumption of Specie Payments — War with the Ute Indians— The Inter-oceanic 
Canal Scheme Revived — Presidential Nominations— Election of James A. Garfield — 
Administration of President Garfield — Deadlock in the Senate — Resignation of 
the Senators from New York — Relations with Foreign Countries — Assassination of 



CONTENTS. XXV 

President Garfield — Succession of Chester A. Arthur to the Presidency — Adminis- 
tration OF President Arthur — Special Session of the Senate — Appointiiient of 
Cabinet Officers — Centennial Celebration of the Surrender of Cornwallis — Trial and 
Execution of Guiteau, the Assassin of President Garfield, 5^5~534- 

THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. 

The " Star Route " Trials — Recommendations of the President — The Chinese Ex- 
clusion Bill — Commercial Treaty with Mexico — Democratic Majority in the House of 
Representatives — Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Landing of 
William Penn — Civil Service Reform Bill — Reduction of Letter Postage — Termination 
of Fisheries Treaty with Great Britain — Labor Commission — New York and Brooklyn 
Bridge — Opening of the Northern Pacific Railroad — Centennial Celebrations^The 
Forty-eighth Congress — Recommendations of the President — The Treasury Surplus — 
The Mormon Problem — The Liquor Traffic — An Educational Measure Proposed — 
Repeal of the Test Oath, 534-537 

IMPORTANT EVENTS. 

National Conventions — Presidential Campaign and Election — Relief of Lieutenant 
Greely's Exploring Party in Arctic Regions — Wreck of the Steamship Jeanette — The 
Bartholdi Statue — The Tehuantepec Canal Project — Fail*ure of a Treaty with Spain — 
The President's Message — World's Fair at New Orleans — Completion of the Washing- 
ton Monument — Reduction of the National Debt — General Grant placed on the Re- 
tired list of the Army — Succession of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency — 
Events of his Administration — Rebellion at Panama — Trouble with Indian Tribes — 
Death of General Grant — Great Strike of the Knights of Labor on the Southwestern 
Railroads — Death of Archbishop McCloskey, General McClellan, and Vice President 
Hendricks — The Forty-ninth Congress — Conspiracy in San Francisco — The Cherokee 
Indians — The Anti-Polygamy Bill — Land Claims of the Northern Pacific Railroad 
Company — Presidential Succession Act — Opposition to the Chinese in California — 
Riot at East St. Louis — Anarchist Riot in Chicago — Marriage of President Cleveland 
— Veto of Pension Bills — Fisheries Dispute with Canada — Destructive Earthquake at 
Charleston, 538-544 

THE PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS. 

The Republican Anti-Saloon League Formed — Unveiling of the Bartholdi Statue 
in New York Harbor — Death of ex-President Arthur — The Maritime Canal Company 
— Department of Agriculture and Labor — The Inter State Commerce Act — Centen- 
nial Celebration of Adoption of the National Constitution at Philadelphia — The 



xxvi CONTENTS. 

Fiftieth Congress — The President's Message — Nomination of L. Q. C. Lamar as Justice 
of the Supreme Court — Strike of Miners in Schuylkill Coal Regions — The " Mills Bill" 
— Death of the Emperor of Germany — The Great " Blizzard " — Death of Chief-Justice 
Waite and Appointment of M. W. Fuller as his Successor — Relations with China — 
Death of General Sheridan — The Political Conventions — Re-union of Northern and 
Southern Soldiers at Gettysburg — Yellow-Fever at Jacksonville — Dismission of the 
British Minister — Presidential Election — The President's Message— New States 
Created, 545-549 

OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS. 

At the Close of the War — Condition of the South — Industries Paralyzed — Cotton 
Grown by Free Labor — Industries of the North — Depreciation of Values — Return 
of Confidence — Effect of the Centennial Exposition^ Reduction of the Public Deot — 
The Feeling of the South — Cotton Exposition at Atlanta — Immigration — Wonderful 
Inventions— The Demands of the Hour, 550-553 

GREAT STATE PAPERS. 

Declaration of Independence, 555 

Constitution of the United States, 559 

Emancipation Proclamation, 571 



CONTENTS. 



Great Cities of the United States, 



ALBANY, NEW YORK, . 
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 
BUFFALO, NEW YORK, . 



CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 
CINCINNATI, OHIO, . 
CLEVELAND, OHIO, . 
COLUMBUS, OHIO, . 

DAVENPORT, IOWA, 
DAYTON. OHIO, . 
DENVER, COLORADO, 
DES MOINES, IOWA, 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA, 

GALVESTON, TEXAS, 

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA, 
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, 
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, . 

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, . 
JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, . 
KEOKUK, IOWA. 



702 
736 

660 
628 
611 
706 

634 
721 
647 
668 
665 
715 

713 
742 
719 
761 
652 

712 

740 

757 
710 
696 

667 

728 
614 

711 
751 



xxviii CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



LOUISVILLE. KENTUCKY, 664 

LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS 704 

LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS 700 

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 690 

MEMPHIS. TENNESSEE 717 

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, 673 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 683 

MOBILE, ALABAMA '. . 731 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, 732 

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY . 615 

NEW HAVEN. CONNECTICUT, . 694 

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, 637 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, •..•.... 596 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA, . 714 

PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA .718 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 617 

PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. 675 

PORTLAND, MAINE, 691 

PORTLAND, OREGON 758 

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, 763 

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND 687 

READING, PENNSYLVANIA 744 

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 749 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 739 

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, 753 

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 655 

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 679 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 744 

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 723 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 643 

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 734 

SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA, 705 



CONTENTS. xxix 

A PACE 

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ......... 699 

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 699 

TOLEDO, OHIO 716 

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY 709 

TROY, NEW YORK, 701 

UTICA, NEW YORK, 740 

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 575 

WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA 743 

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, 730 

WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, 709 

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 690 



XXX CONTENTS. 



The Great Wonderlands of Our Repit lie: 
NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 

NEW ENGLAND COAST SCENES— The Coast Line— The Proposed Tour- 
Route Selected — Long Island Sound — Newport — Location — Former Naval Station — 
The Round Tower — Various Attractions — Open to All— Population — Nantasket Beach 
— Plymouth — Miles Standish — The " Mayflower " — Early Settlement of Plymouth — 
Natural Features — Pilgrim Rock — Plymouth Hall — Cape Cod — Form — Area — Deriva- 
tion of its Name — Sand — Cranberry Marshes — Villages — Provincetown — Fisheries — 
Whales — Characteristic Scenes — New Bedford — Decline of the Whale Fisheries — 
Manufactures — Buzzard's Bay and Vicinity — Wood's HoU — Martha's Vineyard — Dis- 
covery — Attractions — Cottage City — Gay Head — Nantucket — Geological Formation — 
Discovery — Settlement by Thomas Macey — Fisheries — Population — "The Garden of 
Eden " — Climate — Sanitary Condition — Return to Boston — Lowell — John Eliot — 
Cotton Mills — Lake Winnipiseogee — Early Notices — Later Descriptions — Portland — 
Mount Desert Island — Area — Natural Features — Growing Importance — As a Pleasure 
Resort — Prosperity, 767 

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS— Location— First Visit by White Men— Increasing 
Popularity — Various Attractions — Ascent of Mount Washington — Magnificent Scenery 
— The Notch and Vicinity — Franconia Mountains — Other Attractions, ... 811 

THE RANGELEY LAKES— Location— Number— Names— Attractions of the 
Region — Routes — The Dixville Notch, 818 

ALONG THE HUDSON— The Hudson River— Navigation— Scenery— Pali- 
sades — The Tappan Zee — " Sunnyside "— " Sleepy Hollow " — Nyack — Sing Sing — The 
Croton Aqueduct — " Treason Hill " — Peekskill — The Highland Region — West Point 
—Constitution Island — Cornwall — Newburg — Poughkeepsie — Other Cities — Claverack 
Valley — Albany — The Capitol Building — Feudal System — Troy, 820 

THE ADIRONDACS— Location— Elevation— A Wild Region— Mountains- 
Lakes and Ponds — Travelling — Routes — General Aspect, 833 

THE REGION OF THE CATSKILLS— Location— Routes Thereto— Catskill 
— Kingston — Fame of the Catskills — Attractions — Mountain Views — Railroads and 



CONTENTS. xxxi 

Stage Lines — Sunset Rock — Overlook Mountain — The Wallkill Valley — New Paltz — 
Sky Top — Lake Mohonk — Lake Minnewaska, 834 

SARATOGA SPRINGS— A Famous Resort— Hotels— Historic Events— Mineral 
Springs — Attractions — Saratoga Lake — Mt. McGregor — Population, .... 842 

LAKE GEORGE — A Democratic Resort — Location and History — Attractions of 
the Region — Summer Population, 846 

CHAUTAUQUA — Location — Elevation — Resorts^ — Educational Centre — Build- 
ings — Schools — Recreations, 850 

AUSABLE CHASM— Location— Falls— The Chasm— A Pleasant Boat-ride, 852 

CH ATE AUG AY CHASM— Location— Lakes in the Vicinity— Description of the 
Chasm — Effects of the Luagination — Rainbow Basin — Giant Gorge —Vulcan's Cave — 
Other Attractions — Increasing Popularity, 854 

WATKINS GLEN — Situation — Scenery — Cascades — The Iron Bridge — Hotel — 
Art Gallery — The Cathedral — Various Attractions, 858 

NIAGARA FALLS — Volume of Water — Adequate Description Impossible — 
Niagara River — Earliest Mention of Falls — How the Falls were Formed — Rate of 
Retrocession — Goat Island — Width and Form of the Falls — Cave of the Wmds — 
The New York State Park — The Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park — Bridges Across 
the River — Below the Falls — The Whirlpool — Villages, 863 

THE THOUSAND ISLANDS— The St. Lawrence River— The Rapids- 
Steamers — The Morning Hours — Various Islands — Alexandria Bay — Round Island 
Park — Thousand Island Park — Evening Scenes — Cottages — Westminster Park — On 
the River Banks — The Long Sault — Lake St. Francis — Through the Rapids — Victoria 
Bridge — Montreal, 874 

CRESSON — Location — Elevation — Hotels and Cottages — Forests — Roads — Me- 
dicinal Springs, 886 

LEWISTOWN NARROWS— The Home of Logan— Natural Curiosities— Indus- 
tries — Institutions and Buildings — Formation of the Narrows, 886 



xxxii CONTENTS. 

THE HORSESHOE CURVE— Up Grade— A Peculiar Curve— Across the 
Chasm — A Curious Delusion, 888 

GREENWOOD LAKE — Location — Area — Numerous Attractions — Camping Out 
— Scenery, 890 

CONEY ISLAND — Area and Location — Discovery — Early History — As a Plea- 
sure Resort — New Attractions — Elements of Popularity — Iron Piers — Hotels — Four 
Divisions, 891 

LONG BRANCH — Location — Attractions — Original Settlement — The Beach — 
Hotels — Various Sections, 894 

ASBURY PARK AND OCEAN GROVE— Location of Asbury Park— Purchase 
of the Land — Incorporation — Beach — Hotels — Lakes — Ocean Grove — Management 
— Attractions — Population, 895 

ATLANTIC CITY — Climatic Advantages — Location — Railroad Connections — 
Churches and Newspapers — Various Attractions, 899 

CAPE MAY CITY — Location — Early Settlement— Attractions— Cape May Point 
— Bathing Facihties — City Avenues — Hotels and Cottages, 900 

OLD POINT COMFORT— Climate— Location— Fortress Monroe— Hampton- 
Neighboring Localities — Social Enjoyments, 902 

THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS— Location— How reached— Mountain 
Peaks — Medicinal Spring — Popularity — Chmate — Hotels and Cottages — Hot Springs 
^Healing Springs — Sweet Springs — Red Sulphur Springs — Scenery, .... 905 

JEKYL ISLAND — Location — Former Popularity — Recent PuFchase — Improve- 
ments — Management — Attractions— Climate, 907 

ST. JOHN'S RIVER— Rise and Course— Steamboat Trip— Orange Groves — 
Lake George — Luxuriant Vegetation — Stopping Places — The Everglades — Florida 
as a Winter Resort, 9°9 

TEXAS AND THE GREAT SOUTHWEST — Scenery — The St. Louis 
Bridge — The Meramec River — The Iron Mountain — Pilot Knob Mountain — The 



CONTENTS. xxxiii 

Ozark Mountain Section — Beautiful Scenes — The Black River — Little Rock — Hot 
Springs — Medicinal Character of the Waters — Scenic Beauty — Increasing Popularity 
— Texas — Area — Elevation — Soil — Attractions for the Sportsman — Agricultural Pro- 
ductions — Austin — The Capitol Building — San Marcos — San Antonio — Rapid Devel- 
opment — Historical Associations — Natural Bridge — Fort Worth — Court House — The 
Brazos River — Big Springs — ^Approaching the Rocky Mountains — The Sierra Blanca 
Mountains — El Paso — Attractions — El Paso del Norte — Fort Bliss — Ysleta, . 914, 

SCENES IN NEW MEXICO— Characteristics of the Region— An Ancient 
Country — A Trip from Embudo — Fernandez de Taos — Indian Festival — The Pueblo 
de Taos — The Future of the Section, 940 

HERE AND THERE IN THE GREAT WEST— Starting Point— Warrens- 
burg — Agricultural Operations — Great American Desert — Oklahoma — Scenes in Illinois 
— In the Vicinity of Ottawa — Deer Park Glen — Bailey's Falls — Iowa — Spirit Lake — • 
Little Spirit Lake — West Okoboji Lake — Minnesota — Lake Minnetonka — Detroit 
Lake — Dakota — Lake Minnewakan, or Devil's Lake, 943 

THE ROCKIES AND BEYOND— Nature of the Scenery— The Pioneer— 
Leadville — Methods of Travel — Mountain of the Holy Cross — Georgetown — Green 
Lake — Bow Knot Loop — Gray's Peak — The Caiions of Colorado — Che3'enne 
Canons — Manitou Springs — Pike's Peak — Rainbow Falls — Garden of the Gods — 
Toltec Gorge — Garfield Memorial — Grand Canon of the Arkansas — The Royal Gorge 
— A Steep Grade — ^Gunnison — Crested Butte — Grotesque Figures — Idaho Springs — 
Location — Attractions — Medicinal Springs — The Chicago Lakes — Echo Lake — Hunt- 
ing Grounds— The North Park— The Middle Park— The South Park— The San Luis 
Park — Elevation and Attractions — A Wild Region — The Green River and Vicinity 
— Evanston — Echo Canon — Tunnel and Bridges — Pillars of Rock— Castle Rock — • 
Fossil Remains— Rugged Cliffs—Pulpit Rock— The Old Wagon Road— The Weber 
Valley— Weber Canon— The Devil's Slide— A Famous Tree— The Salt Lake Valley 
— A Magnificent Region — Should be Visited by Americans, 961 

UTAH AND THE GREAT SALT LAKE— An Interesting Section— Moun- 
tain Ranges — Elevations — Sharp Contrasts — Salt Lake City — Evidences of Prosperity 
— The Great Salt Lake — Chemical Constituents of the Water — Density — Area of the 
Lake — Islands — Steamers — Canons, ion 

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK— Early Visitors— Scientific Exploration 
— Reservation by Congress — Form and Area — Elevation — Rivers — Railroads — Mam- 



xxxiv CONTENTS. 

moth Hot Springs — Dead Springs — The Geysers— Great Geyser Basin — Giant 
Geyser — Other Important Geysers — Mud Volcano — Yellowstone River — Falls of the 
Yellowstone — Yellowstone Lake — The Grand Caiion — Massive Pillars — Gorgeous 
Colors — Falls of Tower Creek — Other Attractions — Governmental Supervision — A 
Trip to the Park, , 1017 

THE YOSEMITE VALLEY— Location— Discovery by White Men— Reserved 
"by the Government — Roads — Area — Height of the Walls — El Capitan — Other Attrac- 
tions — The Yosemite Falls — Falls of the Merced River — Wonders of the Tenaya 
Canon — Points of View — The Mariposa Grove — Discovery of the "Big Trees" — 
Wliere They Grow, 1032 

THE COLUMBIA RIVER REGION— Course of the River— Magnificent 
Scenery — Rapids — The Great Dalles — Mount Hood — The Cascades — Multnomah 
Falls — Pillars of Hercules — Cape Horn — The Grande Ronde Valley — The Willamette 
Falls — Canal and Locks — Portland — Astoria — Fisheries — A Trip to Puget Sound — 
Mount Tacoma, 1036 

ALASKA — Largely an Unknown Land — Location — Area — Shore Line — Trip by 
Steamer — Mountains — Glaciers — Mineral Springs — Rivers — The Yukon River — For- 
ests — Climate — Hunting and Fishing — The Mines — Sitka — Population — Indians — 
Totem Poles — The Cathedral— Government Buildings — A Sad Story — The Return 
Trip — An Interesting Region, 1049 



CONTENTS. XXXV 



Beyond the States. 

THE DOMINION OF CANADA — Location — Area— Population— Provinces 
— Government and Constitution — Religion — Public Works — Finances — Exports and 
Imports — Discovery — First Permanent Settlement — Progress — Ceded to Great Britain 
— Political Difficulties— The Northwest Territories Purchased — Confederation, 1059 

City of Ottawa — Location — Incorporation — Scenery — Water Power — Imports 
and Exports — Government Buildings — Railroad and Steamboat Connections — Popu- 
lation, 1063 

PROVINCE OF ONTARIO — Location — Area — Population — Cultivation- 
Natural Features — Resources — Industries — Productions — Government — Education — 
Churches — Charitable Institutions — Railroads, " . . 1065 

City of Toronto — Location — Industries — Area — Harbor — Appearance — Princi- 
pal Buildings — Institutions — Exports — History — Population, 1068 

City of Hamilton — Location — Important Commercial Centre — Rapid Growth — 
Manufactures — Institutions — Population, 1070 

City of Kingston — Location — History — Harbor — Public Buildings — Surround- 
ings — Ship-building — Manufactures — Important Military Position — Institutions — Popu- 
lation, 1071 

City of London — Location — English Names — Commercial Centre — Manufactures 
— Education — Population, 1072 

PROVINCE OF QUEBEC— Location— Area— Population— Cultivation— Nat- 
ural Features — Lakes — Mineral Wealth — Climate — Soil — Lumber — Wild Animals — 
Productions — Government — Principal Cities — Education — Religion — Institutions — 
Railroads, 1073 

City of Quebec — Importance — Location — Railroad Connections — Discovery and 
Settlement — Early Histor}' — Peculiarities and Attractions — Commerce — Manufactures 
— Steamboats — Scenery — Institutions — Population, 1075 

City of Montreal — Rank — Location — Harbor — Steamboat and Railroad Com- 
munication — Public Buildings — Institutions — Water Supply — Rapid Progress — Imports 



xxxvi CONTENTS. 

and- Exports — Manufactures — The French Quarter and Enghsh Quarter — Railroad 
Depots — Festivities — Population, 1078 

PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA— Location— History— Area— Natural Fea- 
tures — Mineral Deposits — Climate — Population — Industries — Statistics— Government 
— Education — Religion, 1083 

City of Halifax — Location — Harbor — Extent — Armament — Public Buildings — 
Industries — Railroad Communication — Parks and Gardens, 1085 

PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK— Early History— Location— Area— Pop- 
ulation — Natural Divisions — General Appearance — Islands — Rivers- — Natural Re- 
sources — Climate — Forests — Agricultural Productions — Animals — Government — Edu- 
cation — Railroads and Telegraphs, 1086 

City of Fredericton — Location — Appearance — Public Buildings — Educational 
Institutions — Trade — Population, 1088 

City of St. John — Importance — Location — Harbor — Bridges — Streets — Principal 
Buildings — Institutions — Government — Railroad Connections — Industries — Manufac- 
tures — Exports — Imports — Population, 1089 

PROVINCE OF MANITOBA— Location— Purchase by Dominion Government 
— Political Troubles — Area — Population — Soil — Extent of Agricultural Operations — 
Animals — Climate — Government — Churches — Educational Institutions — Canadian 
Pacific Railroad, logo 

City of Winnipeg — Location — Marvellous Growth — Climate — Vegetation — Ma- 
terial Prosperity — Religion and Education — Population, 1092 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND— Location— Area— Population— Early History- 
Natural Resources — Climate — Productions — Government — Land Tenure — Education 
— Religion — Railroads, 1093 

City of Charlottetown — Location — Harbor — Appearance — Public Buildings — 
Educational Institutions — Churches — Trade — Population, 1094 

PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA— Incorporation— Boundaries— Area- 
Population — Natural Features — Agricultural Capacities— Mineral Wealth — Game — 
Fisheries — Climate — Vancouvers Island — Statistics, 1095 

City of Victoria — Location — Extent — Streets — Harbor — Fortifications — Build- 
ings — Institutions — Climate — Exports — Population, 1097 



CONTENTS. xxxvii 

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES — Area — Population— Soil— Timber- 
Fur Trade — Purchased by Dominion Government — Officials — Political Divisions — 
Churches and Schools, 1098 

ISLAND OF NEWFOUNDLAND— Political Status — Location — Area — Pop- 
ulation — Coast Line — Interior — Bays and Inlets — Rivers — Lakes — Soil — Fisheries — 
Minerals — Climate — The Grand Banks — Government — Public Debt — Revenue — 
Imports and Exports — Religion — Education — Population, 1099 

City of St. John's — Location — Harbor — Importance — Disastrous Fires — Natural 
Features — Business — Institutions — Public Buildings — Population. . ... iioi 

MEXICO — An interesting Country — Boundaries — Area— Population — Political 
Divisions — Chief Cities — Statistics — Government — Education — Religion — Natural Re- 
sources — Minerals — Agricultural Productions — History of the Country, . . . 1103 

City of Mexico — Location — Elevation — Streets — Principal Buildings — Public 
Squares — Houses — Business Interests — Education — Railroads— Antiquity — Early His- 
tory- -Population, . . 1108 

City of Vera Cruz — Location — Population — Shore — Harbor — Streets — Buildings 
— Water Supply — Railroad Connections — Fever — Winds — Imports and Exports — 
Island of San Juan de Ulloa, mS 

OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST— Monterey— Location— Importance— Cli- 
mate — Public Buildings — Manufactures — Trade — An Ancient City — Captured by Gen- 
eral Taylor — The Valley of Mexico — Lakes — A Famous Railroad — State of Duran- 
GO — Boundaries — Area — Population — Divisions — Climate — Soil — The Capital City — 
State of Chihuahua — Boundaries — Area — Population — Political Divisions — Natural 
Features — The Capital City — Silver Mines — Mint — Manufactures — Agriculture — 
Points of Interest — Water Supply — Trade — Population, 1117 

CUBA — Importance — Location — Area — Ports — Soil — Agricultural Productions — 
Minerals — Forests — Indigenous Products of Value — Animal Life — Surface — Reb'gion 
— Government — Population — Large Cities — Manufactures — Exports and Imports — 
History, 1125 

City of Havana — Importance — Location — Population — Defences — Attractions 
— Principal Buildings — Contrasts — Architecture — Houses — Railroads — Telegraphs — 
Steamers, 1128 



xxxviii CONTENTS. 

THE BAHAMA ISLANDS— Location — Area — Natural Features — Principal 
Islands — Salt Production — Climate — Rainfall — Products — Exports — Imports — Finan- 
ces — Government — Religion — Education — Submarine Gardens — Harbor Island — 
Spanish Wells — Eleuthera Island — Guanahani Island — History, 1130 

City of Nassau — Location — Extent — Appearance- Institutions — Principal Events 
— Foreign Trade — Winter Resort — Climate — Tropical Vegetation — Attractions, . 1133 

COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA— Brazil— Area— Location— Popula- 
tion — The Amazon — Surface — Forests — Soil — Climate — Religion — Education — 
Railroads and Telegraphs — Imports — Exports — Revenue — Manufactures — Govern- 
ment — Principal Cities — History, 1135 

City of Rio dE Janeiro — Importance — Location — Harbor — Streets — Residences 
— Churches — Principal Buildings — Education — Water Supply — Shipping — Imports — - 
Exports — Population — History — Pernambuco- — Population — General Appearance — 
Para — Population — Location — Public Buildings — Commerce, 1138 

THE REPUBLIC OF CHILI— Location— Area— Population— Natural Features 
— Agriculture — Minerals — Climate — Political Divisions — Harbors — Government — Re- 
ligion — Education — Railroads — Telegraph — Finances — History, 11 40 

City of Santiago — Location — Appearance — Principal Buildings — Attractions — 
Public Works — Disastrous Fire — Population, 11 43 

City of Valparaiso — Location — Appearance — Harbor — Public Buildings — Pop- 
ulation — Disasters — Improvements, 1144 

THE REPUBLIC OF PERU — Boundaries — Extent— Population- Surface- 
Climate— Minerals — Soil — Forests — Animals — Guano — Nitrate of Soda — Finances 
— Government — Religion — Education — History, 1145 

City of Lima— Former Glory — Location — Population — Appearance — Attractions 
— Education — Earthquakes, 1147 

City of Callao — Location — Harbor — Defences — Exports — ^Population — Disas- 
ters — Blockade, 11 48 

THE UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA— Area— Population — Boundaries 
— Political Divisions — Elevation — Climate — Natural Resources — Minerals — Agricul- 
tural Productions — Army — Finances — Commerce — Ship Canals — History, . . ri49 

City of Bogota — Location — Climate — Streets — Residences — Principal Buildings 



CONTENTS. xxxix 

— Cataract of Tequendama — Religion — Education — Earthquakes — Exports — Popula- 
tion, 1151 

THE REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA— Situation— Boundaries— Area— Popula- 
tion — Political Divisions — Natural Features^Soil — Climate — Minerals — Live Stock- — 
Agricultural Productions — Exports — Imports — Government — Religion — Education — 
Chief Cities — History, 1152 

City of Caracas — Location — Arrangement of Streets — Parishes — Principal Build- 
ings — Earthquakes — Population — La Guayra — Location — Defences — Climate — 
Trade — Population, 1154 

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC— Location— Boundaries— Area— Population- 
Soil — Climate — Natural Resources — Animals — Industries — Exports — Imports — Tele- 
graphs — Railroads — Provinces — Government — Religion — Education — History, 1155 

City of Buenos Ayres — Importance — Location — Streets — Buildings — Parks — In- 
stitutions — Population, 115S 

THE REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA— Boundaries— Area and Population— Moun- 
tains — Rivers — Climate — Natural Resources — Animals — Agricultural Productions — 
Trade — Exports — Imports — Railroads — Finances — Religion- — Education — Chief Cities 
— Government — Revolutions — History, 1158 

City of Sucre — Location — Elevation — Principal Buildings — Population, . 1161 

THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR — Location— Area— Population— Divisions 
— Cocoa — Mountains — Minerafs — Forests — Railroad Communication — Religion — 
Education — Government — Exports — Finances — Disadvantages — History, . . 1161 

The City of Quito — Location — Climate — Buildings — Ruins — Population — 
Guayaquil — Location — Population — Manufactures, 1163 

THE REPUBLIC OF PARAGUAY— Losses by War— Present Boundaries- 
Area — Population — Rivers — Lakes — Soil — Animals — Forests — Government — Religion 
— Education — Exports — Imports — Army — Public Debt — History, 1164 

City of Assumption — Location — Houses — Importance — Population, . . ri66 

THE REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY — Boundaries— Area— Population— Coast 
Line — Natural Features — Climate — Soil — Agriculture — Live Stock — Political Divi- 
sions — Government — Finances — Railroads — Telegraphs — Religion — Education — 
History. 1166 



xl CONTENTS. 

City of Montevideo— Location — Harbor — Streets and Houses — Principal Build- 
ings — Commerce — Population, 1168 

GUIANA — Political Divisions — Location — Area — History — Rivers — Soil — Cli- 
mate — Productions — Forests, 1169 

BRITISH GUIANA — Location — Area — Population — Departments — Exports — 
Imports — Churches — Education, 11 70 

DUTCH GUIANA — Location — Area — Population — Government — Imports — Ex- 
ports, 1 1 70 

FRENCH GUIANA — Location — Area — Population — Climate — Earthquakes — 
Gold — Exports — Government — Religion — Settlement — Invasion — Convict Establish- 
ment, 1171 

COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA— Boundaries— C nquered by Spain 
— Organization of States — Political Changes — Natural Features — Soil — Minerals — 
Productions — Religion — Finances — Area, . . 1173 

THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA— Location— Political Changes— Area- 
Population — Government — Education — Institutions — Railroads and Telegraphs — 
Mines — Finances, 1174 

City of New Guatemala — Early History — Present Location — General Appear- 
ance — Principal Buildings — Population, ii75 

THE REPUBLIC OF SAN SALVADOR — Rank— Boundaries— Area— Pop- 
ulation — Mountains — Soil — Forests — Government — Industries — Religion — Education 
— Finances, 11 76 

City of Nueva San Salvador — Location — Destructive Earthquake — Buildings — 
Population, ii77 

THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS— Rank— Boundaries- Coast Line— Area 
— Population^ — Mountains and Table-lands — Rivers — Yojoa Lake — Political Divisions 
— Seaports — Government — Exports — Imports — Finances — Railroads and Telegraphs 
— Trade — Political History, : 1177 

City of Tegucigalpa — Importance — Location — Mineral Wealth of the Depart- 
ment — The Capital City — Business — Population, 1178 



CONTENTS. xH 

THE REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA— Rank— Boundaries- Area— Public In- 
terest — Proposed Canal — Principal Rivers — Lake Nicaragua — Rainfall and Climate 
— Forests — Minerals — Soil— Live Stock — Manufactures — Political Divisions — Princi- 
pal Cities and Towns — Government — Finances — History, . 1179 

THE REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA— Location— Boundaries— Area— Popu- 
lation — Surface — Climate — Soil — Forests — Products — Live Stock — Mineral Wealth — 
Political Divisions — Government — Finances — Religion — Inhabitants — History — Rail- 
roads and Telegraphs, 1182 

City of San Jose — Elevation — Situation — Public Buildings — Population — Ala- 
juela — Former Importance — Cartage — Location — Destructive Earthquake, . . 1184 



LIST OF ILLaStRATieNS. 



Arms of the States and Territories. 



Virginia, . 








PAGE 

47 


New York, 








59 


Massachusetts, 








69 


New Hampshire, 








78 


Connecticut, 








84 


Maryland, 








94 


Rhode Island, 








lOI 


Delaware, . 








107 


North Carolina, 








112 


New Jersey, 








120 


South Carolina, 








126 


Pennsylvania, 








^11 


Vermont, . 








142 


Georgia, 








149 


Kentucky, . 








158 


Tennessee, 








166 


Ohio, . 








174 


Louisiana, . 








181 


Indiana, 








190 


Mississippi, 








197 


Illinois, 








205 


Alabama, . 








212 


Maine, 








220 


Missouri, . 








226 



Arkansas, , 








233 


Michigan, . 








238 


Florida, 








245 


Texas, 








253 


Iowa, 








260 


Wisconsin, 








265 


California, . 








271 


Minnesota, 








279 


Oregon, 








286 


Kansas, 








293 


West Virginia, 








300 


Nevada, 








304 


Nebraska, . 








308 


Colorado, . 








311 


District of Columbia, 






314 


Indian Territory, 






317 


New Mexico, 






320 


Utah, 








323 


Washington, 








326 


Dakota, 








329 


Arizona, 








ZZli 


Idaho, 








335 


Montana, . 








337 


Wyoming, . 








339 



xli 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portraits, 



Patrick Henry, . , , . 


PAGE 
48 


Thomas H. Benton, . . 


PAGE 
227 


George Clinton, 


60 


John Law, 


234 


John Hancock, , . . . 


70 


Stevens Thompson Mason, 


239 


Josiah Bartlett, . 


79 


M. D. Mosley, . 


246 


Jonathan TrurnbuU, . 


85 


J. Pinkney Henderson, 


254 


Thomas Johnston, 


95 


Ansell Briggs, 


261 


Roger WilHams, 


102 


Nelson Dewey, . 


266 


Thomas M'Kean, 


108 


Peter G. Burnett, 


272 


William R. Davie, 


1^3 


Henry H. Sibley, 


280 


AVilliam Livingston, . 


121 


Sir Francis Drake, 


287 


William Moultrie, 


127 


Charles Robinson, 


294 


Thomas Mifflin, 


134 


Arthur J. Boreman, . 


301 


Thomas Chittenden, . 


143 


Henry G. Blaisdell, . 


305 


George Walton, 


150 


David Butler, 


309 


Isaac Shelby, 


159 


John L. Routt, . 


312 


John Sevier, 


167 


James S. Calhoun, 


321 


Edward Tiffin, ... 


175 


Brigham Young, 


324 


William C. C. Claiborne, . 


182 


Isaac I. Stevens, 


327 


Jonathan Jennings, 


191 


William Jayne, . 


330 


Bienville, .... 


198 


Sidney Edgerton, 


■ 338 


Shadrach Bond, 


206 


John A. Campbell, 


340 


De Soto, .... 


213 


Lovell Harrison Rousseau, 


343 


William King, . 


221 


Benjamin Franklin, . 


616-17 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



xb 



Other Engravings. 



The First Cabinet, . 

Birthplace of Thomas Jefferson, 

Signatures to the Declaration of Independence, 

The White House, Washington, 

National Capitol, ..... 

The Senate Chamber, .... 

Treasury Department, .... 

East Room of the White House, 

The Interior Department, 

The Bureau of Agriculture, . . 

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 

The Smithsonian Institute, 

National Museum Building, . 

The War, State, and Navy Departments, 

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, . 

Arhngton, Home of R. E. Lee, 

The Soldier's Home, 

Mount Vernon, 

Willard's Hotel, . 

Statues and Monuments, 

Bartholdi Statue— N. Y. Harbor 

Scene in New York Bay, 

Grand Central Depot and Elevated Railroad, New 

Broadway and Trinity Church, 

Fifth Avenue Hotel, 

View in Central Park, . 

The Custom House, 

The Grand Central Depot, . 

Ship-Building, 

New York and Brooklyn Bridge, 

Autograph Letter of Franklin, 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania Railroad, Broad Street Station, 

Centennial Exposition, Main Building, . 



York, 



Frontispiece 

554 
554 
577 
577 
578 

579 

580 

581 
582 

583 

585 
586 

587 
589 
590 
591 
592 
593 
594 
597 
598 
600 
602 
603 
604 
606 
608 
609 
610 
616-17 
617 
618 
620 



xlvi 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Centennial Exposition, Machinery Hall, 

Carpenters' Hall, ..... 

Park Street, Boston, .... 

Custom House, ..... 

The Hancock House, .... 

Passenger Station, Old Colony Railroad, 

Longfellow's Residence, Cambridge, 

Gore Hall, 

New Orleans Scenery, . 

Lafayette Square, . 

Cotton Exchange, . 

Boat Club House, . 

Main Building, World's Exposition, 

United States and States' Exhibits Building, 

Comforts of Modern Travel, . 

The Baldwin House, San Francisco, 

War Vessel in the Dry Dock, 

Pullman Building, Chicago, . 

County Court House and City Hall, 

New Board of Trade Building, 

Post- Office and Custom House, 

Union Stock Yards, .... 

The Old Palmer House, 

The New Palmer House, 

Passenger Depot, Chicago and Northwestern 

Main Passenger Depot, .... 

Creve Coeur Lake, .... 

The Court House, St. Louis, . 

The Mercantile Library, 

The New Post Office, .... 

Chamber of Commerce, 

Southern Hotel, ..... 

Battle Monument, Baltimore, 

Scene on the River Front, Louisville, . 

Street Scene Before the War, Cleveland, 

Third Street, Cincinnati, 

Fourth Street, ..... 

Milwaukee in i860, .... 



Railroad, 



PAGE 
621 

623 

628 

629 

630 

(^33 
634 

635 
636 

637 
638-9 

639 
640 

641 

642 

643 

645 
646-7 
647-8 
647-8 
647-8 
647-8 

648 
649-50 
649-50 

650 

654 

655 
656 

657 
658 
658 
660 
664 
665 
669 
671 
673 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xlvii 

PAGE 

Horseshoe Curve and Pittsburg, 675 

Depot, .............. 676 

The Court House, 677 

A View of St. Paul, 679 

Conveniences of Modern Travel, ......... 681 

Minneapolis, ............. 682 

A Glimpse of Minneapolis, .......... 683 

Falls of Minnehaha and Cape Disappointment, ...... 684 

Providence, from Prospect Terrace, ........ 686 

First Baptist Church, 687 

Exchange Place, Providence, ......... 688 

Portland, Me., Harbor, ........... 692 

City Hall and Court House, .......... 693 

Albany, N. Y., 703 

A View in Buffalo Park, .......... 706 

View of Davenport in its Early Days, ........ 713 

Omaha as it Was in 1870, . . . . . . . . . . 714 

Ohio State Capitol, . . . . . . . . . . . 715 

City of Denver, ............ 720 

Charleston, . . . . . . 721 

Views in and around the City of Charleston, . . . . . . 722 

Mexican Antiquities in San Antonio, Texas, . , . . . . . . 724 

Picturesque Features of San Antonio, Texas, . . . . . . 725 

Garden Street, ............ 726 

View at San Pedro Springs, .......... 726 

Opera House, . . . . . . . . . . . . 727 

Mexican Jacal, . . . . . .. . . . . . 727 

Bay Street, Jacksonville, .......... 729 

A Scene in Mobile, . . . . . . ' . . . . . 731 

A View of Savannah in Former Days, ........ 735 

City of Atlanta, ............. 737 

Galveston, ............. 741 

A View of Salt Lake City, . 745 

Mormon Temple, Tabernacle, and Assembly Hall, ..... 747 

Main Street, Salt Lake City, 748 

State Capitol, Richmond, Va., ......... 749 

United States Lock and Canal, Keokuk, Iowa, . . . . . . 752 

The Old Gate, St. Augustine, Fla,, 754 



xlviii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Hampton, Va., with Old Point Comfort, National Soldiers' Home, and Nor- 
mal and Agricultural Institute, . 
The City of Portland, Oregon, 
The College of New Jersey at Princeton,, 
The Chapel and Murray Hall at Princeton, 
Boat-House Landing, Newport, R. I., 
The Round Tower, 
Clifif Walk, . 
Scenes at Newport, 
O d Fort, 
Plymouth Bay, 

The Home of Daniel Webster, 
Where Miles Standish Lived, 
The Mayflower Nearing Land, 
Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Mass., 
A Piece of the Pilgrim Rock, 
Scenes along Cape Cod, 
Provincetown, on Cape Cod, 
Black Fish, .... 
Views on Cape Cod, 
Buzzard's Bay and Vicinity, . 
Views on Sea and Shore, 
Martha's Vineyard, Mass., . 
Gay Head Light, . 
Views at Nantucket, 
Nantucket, .... 
Bar Harbor and Mount Desert, 
Moat Mountain, . 
Through the Franconia Notch, 
The Old Man of the Mountain, 
The Franconia Mountains, . 
The Palisades, 

Fac-Simile of Pass from Arnold to Andre, 
Northern Entrance to the Hudson Highlands 
Newburgh, N. Y., Scenes, . 
View of the Turk's Face on the Hudson, 
A View in the Catskills, 
Kaaterskill Falls, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



xlix 



View on Lake Minnewaska, 

The Awosting Falls, 

Camping on the Lake, . 

View on Lake George, .- 

Tail Piece, .... 

A Sharp Turn, 

A Lateral Ravine, 

Long Gallery, 

Point Lookout, 

Cascade and Buttress, . 

Rainbow Falls — Spartan Pass. 

Pulpit Rock — Giant Gorge, . 

The Gorge, Watkins Glen, 

Glen Mountain House, . 

The Horseshoe Fall, 

Niagara Falls, 

Bridge Leading to Bath and Goat Island, 

View of Niagara Falls, . 

The Terrapin Tower, 

The Old Table Rock, . 

Niagara River Below the Falls, 

Niagara from near Queenstown Heights 

Suspension Bridge, 

Niagara River — The Whirlpool 

On the Islands, 

Round Island Park, 

Between the Islands, 

" Bonnie Castle," . 

Alexandria Bay, . 

Down the Rapids, . 

Cresson, on the Alleghenies, 

Lewistown Narrows, 

Horseshoe Curve, . 

Scene on the Beach, Atlantic City 

On the Beach, Cape May, 

Old Point Comfort, 

In the Heart of the Orange Region, 

The Lovers' Walk, 



839 
843 
847 
849 

851 
852 

852 

853 
854 

855 
856 

857 

859 
861 

863 
865 
866 
867 
868 
868 
869 
870 
871 
873 

875 
877 

878 

879 

881 

883 

885 

887 



901 

903 
909 
910 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



St. David's Path, . 

On the Ocklawaha, 

A Live-Oak Observatoi 

An Everglade, 

Scene on the Mississippi River, 

On the Meramec, . 

The Meramec, 

Cathedral Spires, . 

Balance Rock, 

Valley Home, 

The Black River, , 

In the Ozark Mountain 

Ribbon Falls, 

Hot Springs Valley, 

View of the Hot Sjjring 

Hot Springs, . 

Rancher's Cabin, , 

On Line of I. and G. T. Railway, 

Hunter's Paradise, 

Sheep Pasture, 

Cotton Field, 

Colorado River, near AufImi, 

San Marcos, . 

Colorado River, 

San Pedro River, 

Natural Bridge, 

Cotton Platform, 

Scene on the Brazos, 

Trestles, near Canyon, 

Big Springs, . 

Sheep Ranch, 

Sierra Blanca Mountains, 

Road at El Paso and View of Fort 

Pueblo De Taos, New Mexico 

Pertle Springs, 

Stage Route, .... 

Wheat Field, .... 

A Scene in Southwestern Missouri, 



Bliss 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Scene near Atoka, Indian Territory, 

The Horseshoe, or Twin Canon, 

Bridal Veil Falls, . 

Bailey's Falls, 

Spirit Lake, Iowa, . 

View on Little Spirit Lake, 

Lake Minnetonka, . 

Hunting Scene, 

Detroit Lake and Hotel Minnesota, 

Scenery on Devil's Lake, Dakota, 

A Western Contrast, 

A Scene on the Leadville Route, 

Mouftt of the Holy Cross, 

Georgetown, Colorado, 

Devil's Gate, .... 

Gray's Peak, . . 

Cheyenne Falls, 

In North Cheyenne Canon, 

A Glimpse of Manitou and Pike's Peak, 

The Mineral Springs, 

Pike's Peak Trail, 

Rainbow Falls, 

Garfield Memorial, 

Grand Canon of the Arkansas, 

The Royal Gorge, 

Gunnison's Butte, 

Sphinx Rock, . 

Mother Grundy, 

Finger Rock, . 

Giant's Tea Kettle, 

Chicago Lake, 

Feeding Ground of the Antelope, 

Snow Range, . 

Giant's Club, . 

Tower Rock, . 

Castle Rock, . 

The Devil's Slide, 

Approaching the Sierras, 



947 
948 

949 
951 
953 
954 
955 
956 
957 

959 
961 

963 

965 
966 
967 
968 
969 
970 
971 
972 
973 
974 

975 
976 

977 
978 

979 
980 



983 
985 
986 
988 
989 
990 
991 
992 



lii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Nevada Falls, .... 

Marshall Pass, 

Approach of the Black Canon, 

Maxwell's Point, 

Following a Caiion, 

Devil's Gate, .... 

Currecanti Needle, . 

Marble Pinnacle, 

Pulpit Rock, .... 

Toltec Gorge, 

Black Canon of the Gunnison, 

The Palisades, 

Palace Butte, 

Veta Pass, .... 

Green River City and Buttes, . 

Great Shoshone Falls, 

Entering Boulder Caiion, 

Grand Cafion, 

Dead Man's Falls, . 

Salt Lake City, 

Where Brigham Young Lived, 

Near High Bridge, . 

Great Salt Lake, 

Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park, 

The " Giant " Geyser, 

Mammoth Hot Springs, . 

Pulpit Terrace, 

Crater of Extinct Geyser, 

Upper Yellowstone Falls, 

Views of " Old Faithful " Geyser, 

Yellowstone River, 

Ferry on the Yellowstone River, 

Falls of the Yellowstone, 

Cliff in Grand Cafion of the Yellowstone 

Falls of the Gibbon River, 

Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley, 

Hallet's Hades, Columbia River, 

Mount Hood, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



iiii 



Gibraltar, Columbia River, 

Steamer Rounding Cajje Horn, 

Cape Horn, 

Multnomah Falls, . 

Floating Fish Wheel, 

Pillars of Hercules, 

Sitka, Alaska, ' . 

Alaska's Thousand Islands, 

Devil's Thumb, Alaska, . 

An Alaska House with Totem Poles, 

Historical Spots in the City of Quebec, 

Chaudiere Falls, 

Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, 

Great South Falls, Muskoka River, 

South Falls, 

High Falls, 

Bridal Veil Falls, . 

Toronto University, 

Kingston, from Fort William Henry, 

London, Ontario, 

Wolfe's Monument, Quebec, 

View from the Citadel, . 

Wolfe's Cove, 

Montreal, from the Mountain, 

Victoria Square, Montreal, 

Victoria Bridge, 

St. John, New Brunswick, 

Mexican Adobe House, . 

Mexican Ox Cart, . 

City of Mexico, 

Church of San Domingo, 

Castle of Chapultepec, 

Merchants' Bazaar, . . . 

Entrance to Palace, 

Palace, City of Mexico, . 

Scene in the Bay of Vera Cruz, 

The Old Wall and City of Vera Cruz, 

Portal of the Cathedral, Monterey, . 



1'Ai;e 
1040 

IO4I 
1043 
1045 
1046 
1047 
1050 
IO5I 
1053 

1055 
,1058 
1064 
1064 
1065 
1066 
1067 
1068 
1069 
107 I 
1073 
1076 
1077 
1077 
1079 

io8o 
1082 
1089 
1 104 
I IC7 

1 109 

1 1 10 
IIII 

1 1 12 

1 1 13 
1114 

1116 
1118 



liv 



LIST OF ILLUS'IKATIONS. 



A Glimpse of Monterey, . 
Scene in the Valley of Mexico, 
View of the City of Durango, 
The Cathedral in Chihuahua, 
The Plaza in Chihuahua, 
A Public Fountain in Chihuahua, 
A Creole Beauty, 



PAGB 
III9 

I 120 

I 122 
II23 
I 124 
II24 
I 172 



OUR GRRAT CONTINENT. VOLUME ONE. 
THE 

GRKAT RKPUBLIC 

OF 

THB WEST: 

ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES, 

EMBRACING 

GRAPHIC HISTORICAL SKETCHES 

OF 

ALL THE STATES AND TERRITORIES FROM THEIR EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE 

PRESENT TIME, IN THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, TRACING EACH STEP 

IN THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLIC, AND EXHIBITING THE 

CHARACTER, VARIETY AND STRENGTH OF THE ELEMENTS 

COMBINED IN THE FORMATION 

OF 

The Greatest Nation Ever Founded On Popular Rights. 

BY 

BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH THE ARMS OF THE SEVERAL STATES AND TERRITORIES 

AND NUMEROUS PORTRAJTS INCLUDING NEARLY ALL 

THE FIRST GOVERNORS. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 
THE STOI^-Z" OIF 

OUR MARVELOUS PROGRESS AND GROWTH AS A NATION. 

Edited by Benson J. Lossing, LL.D. 



Copyrighted 1889 by John E. Kead. 



INTR0DaGri0N. 



The Great Republic of the IVesf. 

By BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D. 

EXTENDING in a broad, irregular belt across the continent of 
North America between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is a 
Republic composed of a group of Forty-Two independent but never 
sovereign States : Six organized Territories : a District which is the 
Seat of the National Government, and an Indian Territory. In the 
far northwestern part of the Continent, and separated from these 
States and Territories by British possessions, is Alaska, a vast region 
which also forms a part of the Great Republic of the United States of 
America. 

This Republic lies between latitude 24° 20' and 49° north, and 
longitude 10° 14' east and 47° 30' west of the meridian of Washington, 
the political capital of the Nation. It is between longitude 66° 48' 
and 124° 32' west from Greenwich, England. It comprehends an area, 
including Alaska (577,390 square miles), of three million, six hundred 
and ninety square miles, and had, in 1888, a population of fully 66,000- 
000 human beings. It is favored by almost every variety of climate, 
soil, and productions, and is charmingly diversified by immense and 
beautiful lakes, rivers, mountains, and plains. 

The Government of the United States is Republican, and em- 
braces three great branches, namely : the Legislative, the Judicial and 



46 INTRODUCTION. 

the Executive. The first makes the laws, the second construes them, 
and the third enforces them. 

The National Government is alone sovereisfn. All the States are 
subject to it, through the operation of the National Constitution, which 
is the fundamental law of the Republic. It alone has the power to 
coin money ; create and control an army and navy ; declare war and 
conclude peace ; negotiate, conclude, and enforce treaties, and perform 
all other functions of absolute sovereignty. To it the several States 
owe perpetual allegiance. 

I present, in "The Great Republic of the West" a compendious 
and separate history of the several States and Territories of this 
Republic, as concisely as lucidity will allow, arranged in the chrono- 
logical order in which they were first permanently settled and or- 
ganized into provinces, territories, and states. In this order the com- 
monwealth of Virginia leads the grand procession. 

By a careful perusal of these Sketches the reader may acquire a 
clear conception of the character, variety, and combined strength of 
the materials used in the building of our Great Republic. Following 
these sketches is a rapid general view of the structure, as a whole, 
under the title of '' Otir Nation: The Story of its Progress and 
Growth^ Prepared by another hand for this work, it has been care- 
fully examined by the present writer, and its historical statements 
verified by him. This brief general view embraces the period of the 
marvellous career of our Nation, until the present time. 

The publishers intended to insert in the foregoing narrative the por- 
trait of the first governor of each State and Territory. They have 
succeeded in obtaining the likenesses of nearly all of them. When, 
after diligent and persistent efforts they failed to obtain them, the 
portrait of some person distinguished in the history of the State or 
Territory which suffers such omission, has been inserted. If hereafter 
such portraits shall be obtained, they will be inserted in their proper 
places. 

" The Ridge," 
Dover Plains, N. Y., Oct. ist, 1889. 





(1607.) 

This, the oldest of the commonwealths that formed the 
original thirteen States of our Republic, is one of the 
Middle Atlantic States. It lies between latitude 36° 31' 
and 39° 27' north, and longitude 75° 13' and 83° 37' west, 
from Greenwich. On its borders are Maryland, West 
Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and the 
Atlantic Ocean. The area of the State is 42,450 square miles. In popu- 
lation, according to the census of 1880, Virginia ranks fourteen among the 
States and twenty in the value of both agricultural products and its manu- 
factures. The population was then 1,512,565, of whom 631,707 were colored. 
No State in the Union presents a greater variety of surface and climate 
than Virginia. Its mountain regions are exceedingly picturesque, and its soil 
in its valleys, and in its plains near the sea, is very fertile ; while its mineral 
treasures of various kinds are abundant. The State is topographically 
divided into five regions, namely: the Lower or Tide-water, the Piedmont, 
the Valley, the Alleghanies and Trans-Alleghanies. 

The Tide-water District comprises about thirty-seven counties bordering 
on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. 

The Piedmont region is at the foot of the mountains, and embraces 
about thirty-two counties. It is more elevated than the Lowland district, 
with a diversified surface and genial, healthful climate ; and is one of the 
most attractive regions in the Union. 

The Valley District lies between the Blue Ridge on the East and the 
Alleghany Mountains on the West, and traverses the entire length of Virginia 
for about three hundred miles. It comprises the Shenandoah Valley and 
South Branch, made famous by stirring events during the late Civil War. 
This Valley region is renowned for its fertility. It was originally settled by 
English, German, Scotch and Irish, who by intermarriage produced a hardy 
race. The Valley District embraces about eight thousand square miles. 



48 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



The history of Virginia is exceedingly interesting from the beginning. 
From some shipwrecked Huguenots making their way from their asylum from 
persecution, in (present) South Carolina, to their homes in Europe, the 
British Queen Elizabeth heard of the beautiful land on the Southern coasts 
of the Atlantic toward the region of Florida, which the Spaniards had dis- 
covered ; and British navigators and adventurers were stirred with strong 
desires to visit that region. Among the skillful navigators of England was 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who obtained a patent for establishing a plantation in 
America. His rich young kinsman, Walter Raleigh, who at seventeen years 
of age had fought for the Huguenots, in France, and afterwards in the 




PATRICK HENRY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 

Netherlands, joined him in the enterprise. They sailed for America in 1579, 
but were turned back by a heavy storm and an encounter with Spanish 
cruisers. 

Raleigh became a gay favorite at the court of Elizabeth, who lavished 
favors upon him ; and he obtained another patent for Gilbert. Raleigh fur- 
nished means for fitting out five ships, with which Gilbert sailed, first to 
Newfoundland and then for the Southern coasts. Off the shores of Maine 
the little squadron was dispersed and lost in a storm. Gilbert perished and 
only one vessel returned to tell the dreadful tale. 

Raleigh was not disheartened. In 1584, he sent two ships which entered 
an inlet on the coast of (present) North Carolina. The men explored Pamlico 
and Albermarle Sounds, discovered Roanoke Island, and took possession of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 49 

the whole region in the name of their Virgin Queen. As a memorial of her 
unmarried state, Raleigh gave the name of Virginia to the region. He at- 
tempted to colonize the country, but failed. His money became exhausted, 
having spent fully $200,000 in these schemes, and he abandoned the enter- 
prise. 

Other English adventurers were stimulated to efforts to plant colonies 
in the warmer coast-region of North America. Soon after the accession of 
James I., King of England, war between that country and France ceased, and 
there were many restless soldiers out of employment. They endangered 
social order. There was also a class of ruined and desperate spendthrifts 
ready to do anything to retrieve their fortunes. 

Among adventurous men of character in England at, that time were Fer- 
dinando Gorges, Bartholomew Gosnold, Chief Justice Popham, Captain John 
Smith, Richard Hakluyt, and others. Gorges and Gosnold were friends of 
Raleigh, and all were imbued with his spirit in the cause of American coloni- 
zation. They were not deterred by his failures. 

Richard Hakluyt, a skillful cosmographer whom Raleigh had appointed 
one of the company of adventurers for colonizing Virginia in 1589, and who 
had published narratives of voyages in French and English, incited several 
friends of Raleigh and others to petition King James to grant them a patent 
for planting colonies in North America. At that time there was not an 
Englishman to be found in America, and only one permanent settlement 
north of Mexico, that of St. Augustine, in Florida. The petition was gladly 
received by the King, and he granted letters patent (April 10, 1606) to Sir 
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Edward Maria Wingfield 
and others, of a territory extending from latitude 35° to 45° N., together with 
all the islands in the ocean within one hundred miles of the coast. The object 
was declared to be to " make habitations and plantations " and to form colo- 
nies by sending English people into that portion of America commonly called 
Virginia, with a hope of Christianizing and civilizing the pagans there. 
This was called the London Co7)ipany. 

The Territory was divided into North and South Virginia. A similar 
charter was -granted to another company for the purpose of colonizing the 
northern portion of the Territory. It was called the Plymouth Company. In 
1602 Bartholomew Gosnold was sent with a few colonists to the coasts of 
Maine and Massachusetts, but failed to plant a permanent colony. Gosnold 
soon afterward organized a company for colonizing the Southern district 



50 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

of Virginia, the boundaries of which were fixed between latitude 34° and 38° 
north, A charter was granted him and his associates, April lO, 1606, the 
first under which the English ever settled in America. Gosnold sailed, 
December 19, 1606, with one hundred and five adventurers, in three small 
vessels, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport. 

Gosnold intended to plant his colony on Roanoke Island, but a tempest 
drove the little squadron into Chesapeake Bay, where they found good anchor- 
age. The capes at the entrance to the bay Newport named Charles and Henry, 
in compliment to the sons of James I. The company landed, and rested after 
their perilous voyage on a point of land at the mouth of (present) York and 
James rivers, which Newport named Point Comfort. They sailed up the 
larger stream, called" by the natives the " river of Powhatan," named it James 
River, and landed on its left bank about fifty miles from Point Comfort, and 
there planted the seed of the colony of Virginia. It was not very produc- 
tive, for among the adventurers were only twelve laborers, and the remaindef 
were mostly gold seekers. 

The most notable man among the adventurers was Captain John Smith, 
who, by his arrogance, had excited the jealousy and suspicions of his fellow 
passengers, and, charged with conspiring to usurp the government of the 
colony and make himself King, was placed in confinement. It was not 
known who had been appointed rulers of the colony, for the silly monarch 
had placed the names of the colonial council in a sealed box to be opened on 
their arrival. It was found that Smith was one of the council, when he 
was released. 

The place where the adventurers landed was a pleasant spot, heavily 
timbered. It was really an island, for there was an oozy marsh betAveen it 
and the mainland. They hung an awning made of an old sail between three 
or four trees, to shelter them from the sun. Under that shelter the Rev. 
Robert Hunt, the pastor of the colony, preached a sermon and invoked the 
blessings of God upon the undertaking. Then, in the warm sunshine and 
among the shadowy woods and delicious odors of wild flowers, the sound of 
the metal axe was first heard in Virginia. This first Christian Church in the 
wilds of America was walled by wooden rails ; the pulpit was a bar of wood 
nailed to two neighboring trees, and the seats were unhewed trees. 

"This," wrote Captain Smith, "was our church till we built a homely 
thing, like a barn set upon crotches, covered with rafters, sedge and earth. 
The best of our houses were of little curiosity, but, for the most part, of far 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 51 

worse workmanship, that could neither well defend wind or rain. Yet we 
had daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, 
and every three months communion, until our minister died." They built 
log-houses ; and so was constructed the first capital of the colony of Virginia, 
which they named Jamestown. 

The colonists chose Wingfield president of the council, who proved un- 
faithful. The King had prepared a code of laws for them, in which kindness 
to the Indians, regular preaching of the Gospel, and teaching the Christian 
religion to the pagans were enjoined ; also providing for the well-ordering of 
the community. 

The restless Smith, with others, ascended the James River to the Falls, 
at the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of Powhatan, the Em- 
peror of several tribes of Indians. Newport returned to England early in 
June for supplies and more emigrants. The supplies which they had brought 
were spoiled by the long voyage, and the barbarians around them appeared 
hostile. The marshes near them sent up poisonous vapors; and before the 
end of the summer after their arrival Gosnold and fully one half of the 
adventurers died of fever and famine. 

Wingfield lived on the choicest stores, and was preparing to sail to the 
West Indies in a pinnace left by Newport, when his treachery was discov- 
ered, and Ratcliffe, a man equally unworthy, was put in his place. He, too, 
was soon dismissed, when Captain Smith, the ablest man among them, was 
happily chosen president. 

Captain Smith began his rule with great energy. He won the respect of 
the Indians by his prowess and justice, and they brought food to the colony, 
consisting of maize or Indian corn and wild fowl. He and a few others ex- 
plored the Chickahominy River, where he was captured by the barbarians and 
narrowly escaped with his life. When Smith returned all was confusion at 
Jamestown; only forty men of the colony were living. These were abrut to 
sail for the West Indies, when Newport returned (1608) with supplies and one 
hundred and twenty emigrants. They were merely adventurers — gold seek- 
ers. Smith implored them to cultivate the soil, but in vain. They were idle 
and dissolute. Smith left the colony in disgust, and in the course of three 
months he explored Chesapeake Bay, and its tributary streams in an open 
boat, travelling a thousand miles. 

Soon after Smith's return to Jamestown, Newport again arrived with 
seventy more undesirable emigrants, among them two women, the first 



52 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Europeans of their sex who had appeared on the soil of Virginia proper (see 
North Carolhia), Smith entreated the company to send over farmers and 
mechanics. He was little heeded. At the end of two years, when the set- 
tlement numbered two hundred strong men, only forty acres of land were 
under cultivation. 

The Company obtained a new charter in 1609. Lord De la Warr 
(Delaware) was appointed Governor; Sir Thomas Gates, lieutenant-governor; 
Sir George Somers, admiral; Christopher Newport, vice-admiral, and Sir 
Thomas Dale, high marshal. In June, 1609, nine vessels, with five hundred 
emigrants, among them twenty women and children, sailed for Virginia. 
Gates and Somers embarked with Newport, and the three were to govern the 
colony until the arrival of Lord De la Warr. The fleet was dispersed by a 
hurricane, and Newport's ship was wrecked on one of the Bermuda islands. 
Several of the vessels reached Jamestown, and added to the colony persons 
more profligate than the first — dissolute scions of wealthy families. Vir- 
ginia seemed a paradise for libertines. 

In the absence of the appointed rulers Smith continued to administer 
government until the autumn, when an accident compelled him to go to 
England for surgical treatment. Then the colonists gave themselves up to 
every irregularity. The Indians withheld supplies, and the winter and spring 
of 1610 was long remembered as the " starving time." The barbarians re- 
solved to exterminate the pale-faces, but they were spared by a timely warn- 
ing given them by Pocahontas, a young daughter of the Emperor Powhatan, 
who had saved the life of Captain Smith. Within six months after Captain 
Smith left, the nearly four hundred colonists were reduced to sixty. 

Gates arrived at Jamestown in June, 1610, when he resolved to abandon 
the wretched settlement, and go to Newfoundland with the famished survivors. 
They embarked in four pinnaces. They were met at Point Comfort by 
Lord De la Warr with supplies and emigrants, and all returned to the deserted 
village, and there, in the twilight, sang hymns of thanksgiving. In the course 
of two or three years, a much better class of emigrants arrived and general 
prosperity and hopefulness prevailed. 

In 161 7 George Yeardly was appointed Governor. At that time seven 
separate boroughs had been formed in the colony. From each of these 
Yeardly summoned two representatives to assemble at Jamestown, on July 30. 
These delegates formed a Representative Assembly, the first ever held by 
Europeans within the bounds of our Republic. Then a seal for the colony was 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 53 

adopted. The same year twelve hundred colonists arrived in Virginia, among 
whom were ninety " respectable young women " sent over to become wives 
for the planters. Within two years one hundred and fifty young women 
were sent to Virginia for the same purpose. Thus homes were established, 
the sure foundations of a prosperous State. 

The barbarians had already been made friendly by the marriage of Poca- 
hontas to a young Englishman of good family; but the King injured the 
colony by sending felons from English prisons to become servants to the 
planters. This policy was pursued for fully one hundred years in defiance 
of the protests of settlers. 

In 1619, a Dutch vessel took twenty Africans to Jamestown, sold them 
as slaves, and so the institution of negro slavery was introduced into the 
Republic. 

In 162 1, the London Company gave to the colonists a written constitu- 
tion of government. It provided for the appointment of a Governor and 
Council by the Company, and a Representative Assembly, to consist of two 
burgesses or representatives from each borough, to be chosen by the people 
and clothed with full legislative power in connection with the Council. This 
body formed the General Assembly ; and this was the general form of govern- 
ment in Virginia until it became an independent commonwealth in 1776. 

New settlements were now made on the James, York, and Potomac 
rivers, and on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. Powhatan, the fast friend of 
the English, was now dead, and his brother and successor was hostile to them. 
Massacres by the barbarians ensued. The remote plantations were deso- 
lated, and the terrified survivors fled to Jamestown for protection. The 
number of eighty plantations was reduced to eight. A furious war of retal- 
iation ensued and the Indians were beaten back into the wilderness. (Similar 
troubles were experienced ten years later). Sickness and famine ravaged the 
land; many families left Virginia, and in 1624, of the nine thousand persons 
who had been sent to Virginia, only about two thousand remained. The 
same year Virginia became a royal province. 

Charles I. appointed Sir William Berkeley Governor of Virginia in 1641, 
at the beginning of the Civil War in England. Berkeley was a bigoted royalist, 
and the colonists remained loyal. Cromwell deposed Berkeley and put an- 
other in his place; but when monarchy was restored in England, Charles II. 
reinstated Berkeley, who played the tyrant so effectually that the suffering 
people rose in rebellion under the lead of Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy and 



54 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

enterprising young lawyer, bold in spirit, and eloquent in speech. Repub- 
licanism took possession of the public mind. Bacon and his followers marched 
on Jamestown from Williamsburg, when the frightened Governor complied 
with the popular leader's demand for a commission as general of one thousand 
men to defend the colony against the Indians who threatened it with destruc- 
tion. When Bacon had marched against the barbarians gathering in the North, 
the faithless Governor crossed the York River, summoned a convention of 
Loyalists, and proclaimed the leader of the people a traitor. The indignant 
Bacon returned, and a fierce Civil War was kindled. Loyalists suffered ia 
persons and estates. The Governor fled in alarm to the Eastern shore of 
Chesapeake Bay. Bacon proclaimed his abdication. Joined by some imperial 
troops and sailors, Berkeley returned to Jamestown. Bacon laid the villagfc- 
in ashes, and while pressing toward the York River, with his little army, he 
was slain by malarial fever. 

Dreadful persecutions of the republicans in Virginia now ensued. The 
King, disgusted with his cruel acts, recalled Berkeley (1677). After that the 
people were long oppressed by petty rulers, who were profligate and rapa- 
cious. When, at length, a revolution in England (1688) placed William of 
Orange and his wife Mary on the British throne, a real change for the better- 
took place in Virginia. 

In 1699 Williamsburg was founded and made the capital of Virginia. 
There the General Assembly met in the year 1700. A revision of the code 
was made in 1705, when it declared that negro slaves were real property. 
Such was the law until 1776. 

Hostilities with the French broke out in 1754, they having built a line of 
military posts along the western slope of the Alleghany Mountains, in the 
rear of Virginia, at the head waters of the Ohio River. Governor Dinwiddle 
sent young George Washington on a diplomatic mission in 1753 to one of 
these posts. He discovered the intentions of the French, and the next year 
he led Virginia troops to confront this enemy. Virginia bore her share in 
the burdens imposed by the French and Indian war that ensued. When, 
soon after the close of that struggle. Great Britain began to oppress her colo- 
nies in America with her schemes of taxation, the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses, under the lead of Patrick Henry, took a decided and patriotic stand 
in opposition. From that time until the breaking out of the old war for 
independence in 1775, the Virginians were conspicuous in maintaining the 
rights of the colonists. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 55 

Virginia was ably represented in the Continental Congress, which first 
assembled at Philadelphia in September. 1774. In the Congress of 1776, 
Richard Henry Lee, under instructions from the Legislature of Virginia, moved 
resolutions for the absolute independence of the English-American colonies; 
and another \'irginian delegate in that body (Thomas Jefferson), wrote the 
famous Declaration of Independence. Already the ro}-al Governor (Lord 
Dunmore) had begun a civil war within her borders, ravaging her coasts and 
burning Norfolk. 

On the 29th of Juh-, 1776, the colonial existence of Virginia was ended 
by the adoption of a State Constitution by a popular convention, when a 
State government was organized, with Patrick Henry as Chief Magistrate. 
Virginia has the honor of being the first of the English-American colonies to 
adopt a State Constitution with a view to a perpetual separation from Great 
Britain. On her soil, the fatal blow that dismembered the British Empire and 
made her colonies in America " free and independent States," was struck at 
Yorktown, when Cornwallis and his army surrendered to Washington. In 
1779, Richmond, at the Falls of the James River, became the capital of the 
State, and so it remains. 

In 1784, Virginia generously ceded to the L'nited States its territory 
north-west of the Ohio River, which has since been organized into the States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The present State of 
Kentucky was a part of Virginia, and was erected into a separate Territory 
in 1789. 

At the beginning of the war for independence, Virginia was the first to 
propose a Confederation of the States ; and when, at the close of thfe war, it 
was perceived that the form of national government which had been 
adopted was inadequate, citizens of that State were among the first to pro- 
pose a federal convention to remedy its defects. It was held at Philadelphia 
in 1787. Washington presided, and a National Constitution was formed, 
which was adopted by the people of the Union in 1788. But from the 
beginning the representatives of Virginia, in its State Legislature, were stren- 
uous advocates of " State Sovereignty," and opposed measures which would 
make the States one L^nion. In June, 1779, her Legislature separately rati- 
fied the Treaty with France, and asserted in the fullest degree the absolute 
sovereignty of the separate States. And Patrick Henry vehemently con- 
demned the phraseology of the preamble to the National Constitution, " We 



56 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the People,'' arguing that it should have been " We the States'' So, also did 
George Mason, one of her wisest statesmen. 

For many years the State of Virginia maintained a predominating influ- 
ence in national affairs. During the second war for independence (i 8 12-15) 
its coasts were ravaged by amphibious British marauders, especially the 
shores of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In 18 14, the British captured 
Alexandria, and burned portions of the City of Washington, on its borders. 
One of the most conspicuous military leaders in that war. General Winfield 
Scott, was a native of Virginia. Her statesmen have ever been conspicuous 
in the national councils; and because seven of its citizens have held the 
high position of Chief Magistrate of the Republic, it has been called " The 
Mother of Presidents." 

In May, 1857, a zealous philanthropist named John Brown made an un- 
wise and unlawful attempt to liberate the slaves of Virginia. His zeal had 
been intensified by sufferings in Kansas, where he had been an active anti- 
slavery champion during the 'Civil War there in 1855. With seventeen white 
men and five negroes he entered the village of Harper's Ferry, at the mouth 
of the Shenandoah River, on a very dark night, put out the street lights, 
seized the government armory and the railway bridge, and quietly arrested 
and imprisoned in the government buildings every citizen found in the streets 
at the early hours the next morning. He felt assured that when the first 
blow should be struck, the negroes of the surrounding country would join in 
the movement, and a general uprising of the slaves would occur. He was 
grievously mistaken. News of the affair went swiftly abroad by telegraph. 
Soon a large number of Virginia militia were flocking to Harper's Ferry, and 
a detachment of United States troops was sent there under Col. Robert E. Lee. 
After a brief conflict. Brown and his followers were captured. The leader 
was hanged. This mad movement was one of the important events, under 
Providence, which caused the final emancipation of all the slaves in the 
Republic. 

Early in 1861, the question of Secession from the Union agitated the 
people. Virginia ranked among the " border States." The secessionists 
within its boundaries were very active, and labored for its cooperation with 
the Southern Confederacy of insurgents. The Legislature made an appro- 
priation of $100,000,000 for the " defense of the State." It recommended a 
Peace Congress, at the National Capital, of delegates from the several States 
to effect a compromise, after the insurgents had begun open war. It assem- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 57 

bled in February ; Ex-President John Tyler presided. It was fruitless of 
good. 

A State convention was assembled at Richmond on February 13th, 1861, 
and on April 17 passed an ordinance of Secession. Immediately afterwards 
the State authorities took possession of national property within the limits 
of the commonwealth. On the 25th of the same month action was taken for 
the annexation of the State to the Southern Confederacy and surrendering 
the control of its military forces to the latter power. It was done, and on 
the 4th of May its representatives were admitted to seats in the " Confeder- 
erate States " Congress at Montgomery, Alabama. Confederate troops were 
now thrown into the State for the purpose of seizing the National Capital, its 
archives and its treasury — a prime object of the insurgents. 

From that time until the close of the Civil War Virginia was dreadfully 
scourged by armies contending on its soil. Western Virginia had remained 
loyal to the Union, and its inhabitants organized a new State there. (See 
Wester?i Virginia.) 

Like other States of the Union, paralyzed by the operations of the insur- 
gents, Virginia went through a process of resuscitation after the war. The 
State was placed under military control by the National Government. A 
new constitution was prepared by a State convention, which was ratified on 
July 6, 1869, by a majority of 197,044 votes out of a total of 215,422. It 
being in consonance with the Fourteenth Amendment of the National Con- 
stitution, State officers and representatives in Congress were elected, and in 
January, 1870, Virginia, reorganized, was allowed representation in Congress. 
On the 26th of that month, Gen. Canby, in command of the military depart- 
ment, formally transferred the government of the State to the civil 
authorities. 

Virginia was greatly impoverished by the war. Her manufactories were 
destroyed and her agricultural operations were seriously crippled. The 
seat of the Confederate government had been transferred from Montgomery 
to Richmond. During the later period of the war. General Robert E. Lee, 
one of her sons, was Commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies; and on 
her soil, near Appomatox Court House, he surrendered the great army under 
his immediate command (April 9, 1865) to General Ulysses S. Grant. Already 
the Confederate civil government had fled from its capital (Richmond), which 
had been set on fire by order of the President of the Confederacy (Jefferson 
Davis) on his departure. 



58 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



The State of Virginia, possessed of abundant natural resources and re- 
lieved from the burden of the slave-labor system, is rapidly recovering from 
the sad effects of its calamities. 

Virginia is sometimes called " The Old Dominion." Queen Elizabeth 
regarded the vast and undefined domain in America, known as Virginia, as a 
fourth kingdom of her realm. Spencer, the friend of Raleigh, dedicated his 
poem the Faery Queen to " Elizabeth, Queen of England, France, Ireland 
and Virginia." When James I. succeeded Elizabeth, in 1603, Scotland was 
added, and Virginia was called, in compliment, the fifth kingdom. When 
Prince Charles, son of the beheaded King, was in exile, he was invited to 
come over and be King of Virginia. When he was on the throne as Charles 
II. the grateful monarch caused the arms of Virginia to be quartered with 
those of England, Scotland and Ireland as an independent member of the 
Empire. Coins with such quarterings were struck as late as 1773. These 
circumstances caused Virginia to receive the title of " The Old Dominion." 




(1614.) 




New York is called "The Empire State." It is fairly 
entitled to the dignity by the number of its people, its 
wealth, its populous cities, its canals and railways, the 
extent of its agricultural and manufactured productions, 
its public institutions for the benefit of society, and its 
political and social influence in the nation, as compared 
with the other States. 
New York is one of the Middle Atlantic States, and one of the original 
thirteen. On its borders are the Dominion of Canada and the States of 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the 
Atlantic Ocean. It lies between latitude 40° 29' 40", and 45° N., and 71° 51' 
and 79° 45' W. longitude from Greenwich. The area of the State is 49,170 
square miles; and the population in 1880 was 5,082,871, of whom 66,849 were 
colored, including 909 Chinese and 819 Indians. The population is now 
(1888) probably 6,000,000. 

The natural scenery of New York is greatly diversified. It abounds in 
charming lakes, lofty mountains, beautiful rivers, fertile valleys and uplands, 
and in its western portion, in rich plains. On its north-eastern border is Lake 
Champlain, one hundred and forty miles in length; and on its western fron- 
tier is the magnificent cataract of Niagara, its immediate surroundings in 
New York now being a delightful public park for the free use of the people. 
In the Adirondack region, where Ta-ha-was, "the sky-piercer" (Mount 
Marcy), rises between five and six thousand feet above the sea level, is also 
a large reservation for a public park. In the extreme northern portion of 
the State the mountains slope down to the St. Lawrence level, and terminate 
on the western shores of Lake Champlain. 

The climate of New York is salubrious and varied. The death-rate, even 
in its cities, is below the average of the country; and on its sea-shores and 
among its hills and mountains, it presents some of the most charming and 



6o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

salutary health resorts in the world. It abounds in mineral springs, the 
healing properties of which are most remarkable. 

In the middle portion of the State, not many miles from Lake Ontario, 
are apparently inexhaustible salt springs. 

The history of the commonwealth of New York presents to the student 
a most attractive tale of romance. Undoubtedly the first European who 
trod its soil was Samuel Champlain, a famous French navigator, who, in the 
summer of 1609, came up the Sorel River in an Indian canoe, in company 
with Frenchmen and barbarians, into the Lake that now bears his name, and 
landed on its shores. At about the same time Henry Hudson, an English 




GEORGE CLINTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 

navigator, employed by the Dutch East India Company, was approaching 
the Bay of New York, and entered it and the river that now bears his name, 
early in September. He sailed up that river in his little vessel {Half Moon) 
of ninety tons burthen, nearly to the site of Troy, one hundred and sixty 
miles. 

Hudson discovered Man-na-hat-ta Island, on which the city of New York 
now stands, and the shores of the Ma-hic-can-nic, or River of the Mountains, 
abounding with human beings and fur-bearing animals. He hastened to 
Europe with the tidings of his great discovery, and very soon ships left the 
Texel with adventurers to open traffic with the barbarians of the newly-found 
regions in North America. The Dutch claimed that region as their own, by 
right of discovery, Hudson being in their employ. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 6i 

Dutch adventurers established a trading-post at the southern end of 
Mannahatta or Manhattan Island in 1610, where they trafficked with the 
barbarians in the interior, who brought furs and peltries to them. A Dutch 
vessel laden with skins was about to depart for Holland when it took fire, 
and was burned, late in 161 3. The crew built some log huts, felled timber, 
and constructing a rude vessel which they called T/ie Restless, sailed for 
Europe with the cargo, in the spring of 1614. So began ship-building on the 
site of the great commercial city of New York. 

Adventurers returning to Holland gave such glowing accounts of the newly 
discovered country that the States-General or National Congress of the 
Netherlands granted special privileges for traffic with the natives by Hol- 
landers. A trading company was formed, and on October 11, 1614, they 
obtained a " charter of privileges " covering the region on the Atlantic coast 
between latitudes 40° and 45°, N., and indefinitely westward. The tract lay 
between Virginia and New France, as the St. Lawrence region was called. 
The country was named New Nether land. 

The renewal of this charter being denied at its expiration, Dutch mer- 
chants revised a scheme formed in 1607 for the establishment of a Dutch 
West India Company. They succeeded in obtaining from the States-Gen- 
eral a charter for such a company on June 3, 1620. It was made not only a 
great commercial monopoly, but it was invested with almost regal power to 
colonize, govern and defend the domain. 

Meanwhile the traders at Manhattan, had ascended the River of the 
Mountains (now the Hudson) to the site of Albany and into the Mohawk 
Valley, and had made a most remarkable discovery. They found in the vast 
forests in the interior a well-organized barbarian Republic, conposed of five 
confederated tribes of Indians, well governed by efficient laws and possessing 
vast offensive and defensive strength. This Republic, known as the " Iroquois 
Confederacy," afterwards played an important part in the history of New 
York, particularly in the colonial period. The Dutch early made treaties 
with these barbarians. 

The " Dutch West India Company" was organized in 1622. King James 
of England reminded the States-General that Hollanders were intruding on 
English soil. It was claimed that the grant to the.Plymouth and London 
Companies (see Virginia) covered the land westward to the Pacific Ocean. 
But the Hollanders paid no attention to the growl of the British lion. 

At that time there was in Holland a class of refugees from persecution, 



62 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

called Walloons — natives of the present region of Southern Belgium. They 
were Protestants, who had made their abode in Holland, then an as}lum for 
the oppressed. They were a hardy people and had desired to settle in Vir- 
ginia. They accepted proposals from the Dutch West India Company to 
go to New Netherland ; and early in March, 1623, thirty families of the Wal- 
loons, comprising one hundred and ten men, women and children, sailed 
from the Texel in the New Netherland, a ship of two hundred tons burthen, 
with agricultural implements, live stock of every kind, and a suf^cient quan- 
tity of household furniture. They reached Manhattan at the beginning of 
May. Some seated themselves on that island ; some went to the banks of 
the Delaware across New Jersey; others up the Hudson River; some to the 
Valley of the Connecticut, and others to Long Island. Thus was planted 
4:he fruitful seed of the State of New York. 

The Company nurtured the colony. In 1624, a shadow of civil govern- 
ment appeared in the installation of Captain May, of the New Netherlands 
as Director of the colony. In 1626, the Company sent over Peter Minuit as 
Governor, who bought the whole of Manhattan Island — about twenty thou- 
sand acres — from the natives, for twenty-four dollars. He built a quadrangu- 
lar fortification at its southern extremity, which he named Fort Amsterdam,, 
and the rude village that was growing near it was afterwards called New 
Amsterdam. 

In 1629, the Company gave to the settlers a charter of "privileges and 
exemptions," which encouraged the emigration of thrifty farmers from the 
fatherland. As much land was offered to the emigrants as they could culti- 
vate, with free " liberty of hunting and fowling." At the same time grants 
of extensive domains, with manorial privileges, were offered to wealthy 
persons who should induce a sufificient number of settlers to people and cul- 
tivate these lands. These persons were called Patroons. By this operation 
much of the most valuable lands in the country went into the possession of 
wealthy men. Among the more extensive owners of these patroon lands 
was Killian Van Rensselaer, an opulent pearl merchant of Amsterdam, and 
member of the Company, who bought of the Indians a vast domain on both 
sides of the Hudson, near Albany. 

New Netherland had now been constituted a county of Holland. It 
flourished in spite of the maladministration of two of its governors, the 
absurd Walter Van Twiller and the fiery and unscrupulous William Keift. 
The former was stupid ; the latter was shrewd, grasping and tyrannical when 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 65 

he dared to be. He involved the colony in quarrels and wars with the 
neighboring Indians which brought it to the verge of ruin at times. At 
length Peter Stuyvesant, a bold, strong and honest Friedlander, a soldier who 
had lost a leg in battle, and had been Governor of Cura^oa, came to New 
Netherland as Director-general of the province. He ruled with justice but 
with an iron hand. A Swedish colony had settled on the Delaware River 
within the claimed domain of New Netherland in spite of Keift's bluster. 
Stuyvesant soon subdued them, extinguished " New Sweden," annexed it to 
New Netherland, and made peace with the Indians. He had much trouble 
with democracy among the people and vainly tried to crush it; and he was 
annoyed by the claims of the English to the Connecticut Valley and west- 
ward of it. 

But a greater trouble vexed the soul of Peter Stuyvesant when, in 
August, 1664, a British land and naval force appeared before New Amster- 
dam, and its commander demanded the surrender of the whole province into 
the hands of the intruder. New Amsterdam was then an incorporated city 
with a burgher government. The English had never relinquished their claim 
that New Netherland was a part of Virginia, and it was forcibly asserted by 
Charles II., in the Spring of 1664, when he granted the whole domain, including 
all (present) New Jersey, to his brother, the Duke of York. Colonel Richard 
Nicolls commanded the invading forces. Stuyvesant, though too weak to 
successfully resist, sturdily refused to surrender, until he was compelled to- 
by the public voice. The city and colony passed into the possession of the 
English on September 8, 1664, and were named " New York " in compliment 
to the Duke. Colonel Nicolls was made the first English Governor. 

In August, 1673, New York was taken by a Dutch force, while war was 
raging between England and Holland, but it was returned to the English, by 
treaty, in 1674, and remained a British province until 1776. 

The Dutch, who had felt the " tyranny " of Stuyvesant 's rule, and longed 
for the " freedom of New England," anticipated much happiness from the 
change, but were sorely mistaken. The Duke's governing magistrates were 
quite as despotic, and were less acceptable than Dutch rulers to Dutch sub- 
jects. 

In 1683, Thomas Dongan, an enlightened Roman Catholic, was made Gov- 
ernor of New York. He called a representative assembly chosen by the 
people, and a " Charter of Liberties " was given to the colonists by consent 
of the Duke. This was the germ of representative government in New York. 



64 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

When the Duke became King James H., he did not fulfill his promises made 
through Dongan, and the privileges of the charter were denied. He sent 
another Governor (Andros) who oppressed the people. 

When James was driven from the throne of England in 1688, and 
William of Orange and his wife Mary ascended it, the chief magistrate at 
New York (Nicholson) abandoned his post. At the request of the people, 
Jacob Leisler, a merchant of republican tendencies, administered the govern- 
ment until a royal Governor was sent over. Leisler had bitter enemies among 
the aristocracy; and when the Governor came they procured the arrest of the 
popular leader, and his son-in-law, Millborne, on a charge of treason. Hav- 
ing intoxicated the Governor with strong liquor they procured his signature 
to death warrants and Leisler and Millborne were executed. This event 
caused a wonderful stimulus to the growth of democracy in New York. 

During this political trouble western and northern New York was the 
scene of fierce hostilities between the French and Indians of Canada and the 
Five Nations of the Great Confederacy. The Confederacy was friendly with 
the English, and the French turned upon the former. A party of French 
and Indians burned Schenectady in February, 1690, and murdered many of 
the inhabitants. The colony now made common cause with the Confederacy, 
and from 1702 until 171 3 hostilities between them and the French prevailed. 
Lake Champlain became a theatre of war. The French built a fort at 
Crown Point; and in 1745 a party of French and Indians penetrated the 
upper valley of the Hudson and laid waste Saratoga. 

Meanwhile the colony had become the theatre of warm political strife 
between the adherents of democracy and royalty during the administration 
of several governors. There was a notable struggle for the freedom of the 
press in the trial of John Peter Zenger, publisher of a newspaper, for libel, in 
criticising the ofificial acts of the public officers. The decision of the jury in 
July, 1735, was in Zenger's favor. That decision " was the germ of American 
freedom — the morning-star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized 
America." 

The relation between the English and the Iroquois confederacy re- 
mained generally friendly down to the Revolution in 1775. In 1754, an im- 
portant convention of representatives of the English-American colonies was 
held at Albany chiefly for the purpose of strengthening the bond with these 
barbarians. At that convention, a political union of the colonies was pro- 
posed and discussed. A plan, drawn by Dr. Franklin, was adopted. Its 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 65 

features were similar to that of the National Constitution, adopted more 
than thirty years afterwards. 

In the struggle for supremacy in America known as the French and 
Indian war, New York bore its full share of the burdens impjosed by it ; and 
it took a conspicuous part in the ten years' quarrel which ensued between the 
English-American colonies and the mother country, before the kindling of 
the old war for independence. From the time of the trial of Zenger, until 
1775, the history of the State was largely the history of opposing political 
parties — a struggle for self-government on the part of the people. 

During the Stamp Act and other excitements, New York tried to be 
loyal and yet be faithful to the interests for freedom of the people. It often 
appeared less zealous for liberty than Massachusetts and Virginia; but 
when the blow was struck at Lexington and Bunker Hill, no Province or 
State became more earnest for liberty than New York. Fort Ticonderoga 
on Lake Champlain was captured in May, 1775, and very soon the sons of 
New York, under the leadership of Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, 
joined with others, pressed toward Canada, seizing Montreal, and besieging 
Quebec amid the snows of winter. This invasion was a failure. 

In the Fall of 1777, New Yorkers swarmed around the invading army 
under Burgoyne and compelled him to surrender. They drove St. Leger and 
his Canadians, Tories and Indians, from the Mohawk Valley back to Lake 
Ontario, and saved the whole country from the consummation of one of the 
most dangerous schemes of conquest concocted by the British authorities. 
When the armed struggle ceased, the city of New York became the theatre of 
the last act in the great drama — the departure, in November, 1783, of the 
last hostile British soldier from the shores of America, and the flight of 
crowds of Loyalists to distant British provinces. 

Meanwhile the people of New York, in a representative convention, as- 
sembled at Kingston in Ulster County in the spring of 1777, formed a State 
constitution, and during the succeeding summer, organized a State govern- 
ment with General George Clinton, Governor. In October following a British 
marauding force broke through the barriers at the Highlands, where they 
had captured Forts Clinton and Montgomery, and went up the Hudson, and 
burned Kingston. The new State legislature fled to Poughkeepsie, in Duch- 
ess county, where frequent sessions were afterwards held until Albany 
became the permanent seat of government in 1797. 

Before and after the Revolution the authorities of New York had bitter 



66 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

controversies with those of (present) Vermont concerning territorial and 
political jurisdiction over what was termed the " New Hampshire Grants." 
Open hostilities were sometimes threatened, but the matter was finally set- 
tled by compromise. (See Vermo?ti.) 

At the close of the war, attention was wisely directed to the development 
of the resources of the State. A campaign against the Indians in the Gen- 
essee country under General Sullivan, in 1779, ^^^ revealed the natural rich- 
ness and beauty of the interior of the State, and a tide of emigration thither 
speedily set in from New England and elsewhere. Population rapidly 
increased. New counties were organized and great internal improvements 
were begun. 

During the closing decade of the last century, the practical development 
of the canal systems of the State was initiated. Two " Inland Lock Navi- 
gation " companies were formed, of which General Philip Schuyler was Presi- 
dent. The Northern or Champlain Canal, which connects the Hudson River 
with Lake Champlain, was constructed, and the Western Canal was com- 
pleted to Oneida Lake in 1796. This was the germ of the great Erie Canal, 
which was actually begun in 18 17, and completed in 1825, at a cost of over 
$9,000,000. Its subsequent enlargement cost $25,000,000. 

The form of national government adopted at near the close of the war 
for independence, proved to be untrustworthy as a bond of union for the 
States. A convention held at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, framed a 
new constitution of government, which was submitted to the people of the 
several States. Those of New York, in representative convention, assembled 
at Poughkeepsie in the summer of 1788, ratified the great instrument, and 
ever afterwards the Commonwealth was ably represented in both Houses of 
the National Congress. 

It was on the Hudson River, in New York, that successful navigation by 
steam power was first accomplished, in 1807; and the first passenger railway 
operated in America w^as constructed between the Hudson and Mohawk 
rivers, connecting Albany and Schenectady by an iron bond. 

During the second war for independence (1812-15), the northern frontier 
of New York bordering on Canada became the scene of many stirring mili- 
tary events, from Buffalo to Ogdensburgh and below. The contests on the 
Niagara frontier were specially notable. They were chiefly on the Canada 
side of the rapid strait between Lakes Erie and Ontario. There were severe 
struggles at Queenstown, N'agara Falls or Lundy's Lane, Chippewa, Fort 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. (Sf 

Erie and Black Rock. Also at Forts George and Niagara at the mouth of 
the river. On Lake Ontario were stirring naval operations. At Sacketts 
Harbor was a notable struggle, and on the St. Lawrence borders were sharp 
conflicts. Lake Champlain was witness to a momentous strife between the 
military and naval forces of America and Great Britain in September, 1814. 
From New York harbor, the great seaport of the State, went out many- 
privateers that achieved conquests which gave renown to the American navy. 

The first public proposition to abolish negro slavery in New York was 
made by Governor Jay in 1794. It was repeated by Governor Tompkins in 
1817; and this measure was finally accomplished in full in 1827. There had 
been in colonial times two alarming events connected with slavery in the 
city of New York, known as " Negro Plots; " one in 1712, the other in 1741. 
There appears to have been no reasonable foundation for suspicion of a con- 
spiracy of the negroes in either case. 

The constitution of the State has been revised several times — in 1801, 
1 82 1, 1846 and in i867-'8. Each revision was marked by a notable advance 
in giving freedom to the people from oligarchic power. In the last revision 
several important amendments were proposed. The instrument was sub- 
mitted to the people at the general fall election in 1869, when it was rejected, 
excepting a section providing for the election of the higher court judges by 
the people for a term of fourteen years, or until they should reach the age 
of seventy years. In November, 1874, several amendments proposed by the 
Legislature were ratified by a vote of the people. These abolished the prop- 
erty qualifications of colored voters; restricted the power of the Legislature 
to pass private or local bills; made changes in the executive departments; 
prescribed an oath of office in relation to bribery; established safeguards 
against official corruption, and removed restrictions imposed on the Legisla- 
ture in regard to selling or leasing certain of the State canals. 

The Commonwealth was in a state of great prosperity, when the tempest 
of civil war burst upon the nation. When the overt act of war was performed 
in Charleston harbor, at the beginning of 1861, the Legislature of New York 
and the people generally took a bold stand in support of the Union. When, 
at near the middle of April, the insurgents attacked Fort Sumter, and the 
President called upon the nation for means to quell the hostile movements 
in the slave-labor States, New York was foremost in furnishing men and 
money for the salvation of the Republic. The great metropolis and the rural 
districts were alike animated by the most intense patriotism and enthusiasm. 



68 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Capitalists, with the most sublime faith in the cause, poured millions of money 
into the treasury of the Republic. Before the close of 1861, the loyal people 
of the State had loaned to the National Government $210,000,000, and at the 
close of the war the Commonwealth had furnished 473,443 soldiers for the 
conflict, and disbursed among them for bounties alone, $35,000,000, in addi- 
tion to other enormous expenses. 

In 1867 the Legislature adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the Na- 
tional Constitution, which guaranteed the rights of every citizen of whatevef 
hue and social condition; defined the status in regard to public ofifice of men 
who had engaged in the rebellion, and forbade the payment of any part of 
the Confederate debt by the Nation or by a State. Since that time New York 
has gone on steadily on its bounding career. Although its territory includes 
less than one sixty-third of the whole country, its inhabitants form one-tenth 
of the entire population. Its twenty-five cities contain, in the aggregate, be- 
tween one-fifth and one-fourth of the entire urban population of the United 
States. 

New York is the foremost manufacturing State in the Union, and largely 
so of the products of almost every industry. The assessed valuation of its 
real and personal property in 1880 was equal in amount to one-seventh of 
the valuation of the entire real and personal property of the whole Republic. 
It was the same in amount as that of the whole of New England. 

But the highest glory of New York consists in its magnificent provision 
for public instruction, and its munificent and varied charities. While it 
has only one-tenth of the population of the Republic, its expenditures for 
popular education in all its phases is more than one-eighth of that of the 
whole Union. It has nine normal schools for the instruction of teachers, for 
which it expended almost $300,000 in 1886, and $14,000,000 the same year 
for the support of public schools. 

The intelligence of a large community, like a State, may be fairly meas- 
ured by the activity of its printing presses, especially of those which distri- 
bute intelligence through newspapers and magazines. In 1880, New York 
produced nearly one-third, in value, of the books published in the United 
States. It also issued nearly one-eighth of all the magazines or " periodicals,"^ 
and nearly one-eighth of all the newspapers issued in the Republic. Of the 
aggregate circulation of the daily newspapers in the Union, New York fur- 
nished between one-fourth and one-third. In the same proportion were its 
issues of weeklies and all other periodicals in the United States. 






mvw 



^^Q> 




(1620.) 

The earliest settled of the Eastern or New England States, 
was Massachusetts. It was one of the original thirteen 
States of the Union, lying between 41° 14' and 42° 53' north 
latitude, and 69° 53' and 73 32' west longitude. On its 
eastern and south-eastern border is the Atlantic Ocean. 
Along its southern border stretches Connecticut; on its 
western, New York, and on its northern, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

The Commonwealth comprises in its total area, including islands, 8,315 
square miles of territory. Its coast line is deeply indented with bays, harbors 
and sounds, and its islands are numerous. The name of the State signifies 
" The Blue Hills," in the Indian tongue. The first settlement was made on 
Cape Cod Bay, the southern portion of a great gulf, of which Massachusetts 
Bay forms the northern part. 

The topography of Massachusetts is exceedingly picturesque, especially 
in the western part, where .the Green Mountain range crosses the State in' 
broken ridges of moderate elevation. Its climate is quite severe in winter, 
but very salubrious. Its soil is not generally very fertile, but is rendered 
productive by the skill and industry of the people. The principal river in 
the State is the Connecticut, which flows in from Vermont, intersects the 
State, and traverses Connecticut to Long Island Sound. 

There appears to be conclusive evidence that navigators from Iceland 
visited the shores of south-eastern Massachusetts at the beginning of the 
nth century, and called the country " Vineland," because of the abundance 
of grapes which they found there. It is conjectured that Sebastian Cabot, 
who discovered the coasts of Labrador and Maine in 1498, sailed along those 
of Massachusetts, and that Verazzani, an Italian in the French service, visited 
that region in 1524. 

The shores of Massachusetts were explored by Bartholomew Gosnold in- 
1602, by Samuel Champlain in 1604.. and by John Smith in 1614. Gosnold! 



70 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



made an attempt to found a settlement on one of the Elizabeth Islands, 
which he had discovered. Captain Smith made a map of much of the coast 
of New England, which name was given to the region at that time. 

An association called the Plymouth Company obtained from King James 
I. a charter for a domain situated between latitude 41° and 45° north. They 
made various attempts at colonization, but failed. The first permanent set- 
tlement effected under the auspices of the Company was on the shores of 
Cape Cod Bay, late in 1620, by a company of English Puritans, who had 
.taken refuge in Holland from persecution in their own country a few years 




JOHN HANCOCK, FIRST GOVERNOR OF xMASSACHUSETTS. 



'before. They had formed a Church at Leyden, with John Robinson as pas- 
tor, and called themselves " Pilgrims," 

These Puritans made arrangements with the Plymouth Company and 
•some London merchants for planting a settlement in America. One hun- 
dred and one men, women, and children, embarked in the Mayflower, a little 
vessel of 180 tons burthen, at the middle of September (N. S.), 1620, and left 
the vessel on the snow-clad shores of Cape Cod Bay on December 22 (N. S.), 
where they constructed some log huts and called the place New Plymouth. 
In the cabin of the Mayflower the men had signed a form of government by 
which they were to be ruled, and chose John Carver Governor of the Colony 
■for one year. 

It was the first instrument of civil ijovernment ever subscribed as the act 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 71 

of a whole people, and may be regarded as the foundation of civil and religious 
liberty in the Western World. It read as follows : 

" In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the 
Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign King James, by the Grace of God, of 
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., Having 
undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith, 
and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in 
the Northern parts of Virginia; Do, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, 
in the Presence of God, and of one another. Consent and Combine ourselves 
together into a Civil body Politic, for our Ordering and Preservation, and 
Furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by Virtue hereof, to enact, constitute 
and frame just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices 
from Time to Time as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
General Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and 
Obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Names at 
' Cape Cod the eleventh of November [O. S.], in the year of the Reign of our 
Sovereign Lord, King James, Of England, France and Ireland, the Eighteenth 
and of Scotland the Fifty-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620." 

Cold, unwholesome food and privations produced sickness that destroyed 
nearly one-half their number in four months. Among the victims was the 
Governor, who was succeeded by William Bradford. Elder William Brevvster 
was their spiritual gu\de and wise counsellor. They made a treaty of friend- 
ship with the sachems of the surrounding Indian tribes, and in petty hostili- 
ties with other barbarians, Captain Miles Standish, a valiant little soldier, was 
very useful. 

Other Puritan^ joined the Pilgrims, and other settlements were soon 
attempted. The colony at Plymouth suffered much until the autumn of 1623, 
when bountiful harvests rewarded their industry and food was made plentiful. 
Then the community system of labor was abandoned, the partnership with 
the London merchants was dissolved, and the colonists became sole proprietors 
in 1627. 

This desirable arrangement was made by a contract on the part of the 
Colonists, to pay to the Company of Adventurers the sum of $9,000 in nine 
equal instalments, beginning with the following year. The Adventurers agreed 
to convey to the Planters " Every their stocks, shares, lands, merchandise, and 
chattels," and discharge the latter from their contract of " service and partner- 
ship." It was a hazardous speculation for the Planters, for they " knew not 



72 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

well how to raise the money, and discharge their other engagements, and 
supply their yearly wants, seeing they were forced for their necessities to take 
up moneys or goods at a very high rate of interest." Eight of the chief men 
became jointly bound as sureties for the payment of the whole sum. 

A new organization and distribution were now adopted. A partnership 
was formed of all the men on the spot, of " suitable age and prudence " under 
an agreement that the trade should be managed by them as a joint-stock com- 
pany, and that " every free man should have a single share and every father 
of a family also be allowed to purchase a share for his wife, and a share for 
every child he had living with him." One cow and two goats were assigned, 
by lot, to every six persons as shares, and swine in proportion. To every 
person or share was assigned twenty acres of land. The houses became 
private property. 

An English company obtained a grant of territory on Massachusetts 
Bay, the northern part of the gulf, and in 1628 sent 100 settlers, with John 
Endicott as Governor, who planted a colony on the site of (present) Salem. 
Others soon joined them, when, in 1629, a royal charter was obtained for 
the *' Massachusetts Bay Company." The country was ever afterwards called 
" The Bay State." 

Large reinforcements now came. New settlements were planted, and 
farming implements and live stock were furnished to the settlers. In 1630, 
when the colony numbered one thousand souls, John Winthrop, who had 
come with many new settlers, was elected Governor. The charter and the 
corporate powers of the company had been transferred from England to 
Massachusetts, and so the foundations of the Commonwealth were firmly- 
laid. Winthrop and many others had founded a settlement which they 
named Boston, and it became the capital of the colony. 

For a while religious intolerance marked the rulers in Church and 
State in Massachusetts. These refugees from intolerance, zealous of their 
liberties, became more Intolerant themselves, and Churchman and Quaker 
were persecuted. Roger Williams, an eccentric Puritan preacher at Salem, 
was banished from the colony because of his earnest championship of " Soul 
liberty." (See Rhode Island.) 

In 1637 the colony was disturbed by war with the Pequods of Connecticut, 
but danger was soon overpast. Greater danger to their liberties appeared in 
the action of King Charles I., who demanded the surrender of their charter 
to the Crown. The colonists prepared to resist the unrighteous demand. 

< 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 73 

During the civil war in England, which soon ensued, they were unmolested ; 
but on the restoration of monarchy, in 1660, their political troubles were 
revived, for Charles II, claimed supreme jurisdiction in Massachusetts. ' 

The colonists sent a commission to England in 1662, who obtained a 
confirmation of their charter and a conditional amnesty for offenders during 
the troubles between royalty and the people. At the same time the monarch 
demanded the repeal of all laws contrary to his sovereign authority; also an 
oath of allegiance to the Crown; the administration of justice in his name; 
the complete toleration of the Church of England in Massachusetts, and a 
concession of the elective franchise to every man having a competent estate. 
Hitherto only Church members were allowed to vote. 

In 1664 royal commissioners arrived at Boston to investigate and regulate 
the affairs of the colony. The people would have nothing to do with them, 
and they returned home. The King reproved the authorities of Massachu- 
setts, and ordered the Governor to his presence. The Governor refused to 
go, and there the matter rested, 

A conflict with the neighboring Indians, known as " King Philip's War," 
broke out in 1675, and severely scourged the colonists. A dozen towns, 
6,000 houses, and over 600 men, women and children of the colonists perished 
during the struggle. One in twenty of the men had fallen, and one in twenty 
families were made homeless. The cost of the war was half a million dollars. 
The royal pretensions to rule the colony were renewed after the war, 
and in 1684 the High Court of Chancery declared the charter of Massachu- 
setts forfeited to the Crown. Joseph Dudley was appointed royal Governor; 
the General Assembly chosen by the people was dissolved; and a royal com- 
mission superseded the charter government. Sir Edmund Andros succeeded 
.Dudley and ruled tyrannically. The people submitted most impatiently. 
They were finally relieved when the last Stuart King was driven from the 
throne in 1688. Then the men of Boston seized and imprisoned Andros, and 
sent him, a fugitive, to' England. 

Massachusetts received a new charter in 1692, by which New Plymouth 
was united with it. The Commonwealth then included 40,000 inhabitants. 
It was divided into several counties. Its Governor and Secretary were ap- 
pointed by the King, and its laws were invalid until approved by thfe mon- 
arch. It was at about this time that the fearful delusion known as "Salem 
witchcraft " disturbed the colony for six months. 

In 1692 the General Assembly of Massachusetts, after the receipt of the 



74 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

new charter, passed a declaration of the rights of the colony, which em- 
bodied the grand postulate enunciated seventy years afterwards by the 
English-American colonies — "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny." 

At various times the colony was smitten by invading French and Indian 
bands, who first broke over the border in 1703 and 1704; and from that time 
until the close of the Seven Years, or French and Indian war, in 1763, the 
province was compelled to participate in the intercolonial wars for its own 
defense. In the war that broke out in 1745, Massachusetts contributed 
largely of men and money in the capture of Louisburg and in attempts to in- 
jure Canada. It also bore its full share of the burden imposed by the French 
and Indian war, and in the ten years' quarrel between the English-American 
Colonies and Great Britain, which preceded the old war for independence, it 
took a foremost position. 

General Gage, the royal Governor of Massachusetts, had summoned a 
meeting of the General Assembly at Salem in October, 1774; but, perceiv- 
ing the increasing boldness of the people under the influence of the proceed- 
ings of the Continental Congress, he countermanded the summons. The 
members denied his right to do so, and met at Salem on the appointed day 
(October 5), ninety in number. After waiting two days for the Governor, 
who did not appear, they organized themselves into a Provincial Congress, 
with John Hancock, a wealthy merchant and ardent patriot of Boston, as 
President. Benjamin Lincoln, afterwards a general in the Continental army, 
was appointed Secretary. 

The Congress adjourned to Concord, where, on the nth, 260 members 
took their seats. They adjourned to Cambridge, and sent word to the Gov- 
ernor that for want of a legal Assembly they had formed a Provisional Con- 
vention. They freely censured the late unlawful acts of Parliament ; pro- 
tested against the casting up fortifications on Boston Neck by the Governor, 
as a menace to the liberties of the people, and expressed their loyalty to the 
King. Gage denounced them as fomenters of sedition. This measure 
stimulated their zeal. * 

The Congress appointed a Committee of Safety, to whom they delegated 
large powers, authorizing them to call out the militia of the province, and to 
perform other functions of sovereignty. Another Committee was appointed, 
with authority to procure ammunition and military stores, for which purpose 
more than $60,000 were appropriated. They appointed a Receiver-general, 
into whose hands the constables and tax-collectors were directed to pay all 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 75 

moneys received by them. They also made provisions for arming the prov- 
ince, and appointed three general officers to command the militia — Jeremiah, 
Preble, Artemus Ward and Seth Pomeroy. The enrolment of 12,000 min- 
ute-men was authorized. The Congress having assumed both legislative and' 
executive powers, it received the willing allegiance of the people generally. 
Gage issued a proclamation denouncing these proceedings, to which nO) 
attention was paid. 

So ended, royal authority in Massachusetts, and the beginning of inde- 
pendent self-government in that province. This was perfected by the choice- 
of representatives for a new Assembly, who were elected at town meetings,, 
in accordance with the directions of the Continental Congress. The citizens 
of Boston, who were scattered, met at Concord and chose their representa- 
tives. These and others met at Cambridge on July 19, 1775, when the Provin- 
cial Congress was dissolved and the new Assembly began the restoration of 
regular civil government in the colony. They chose James Warren, of 
Plymouth, as their Speaker. 

Upon the soil of Massachusetts the first Continental army was organized 
and there the first clash of arms resounded. All through the war she was 
among the foremost in the council and in the field. On March 2, 1780, a 
State constitution was adopted, and a State government was organized under 
it, with John Hancock as its first Governor. The General Assembly had 
virtually declared the province independent of the British Crown (May 2,, 
1776), two months before the great Declaration was adopted. 

The Constitution adopted in 1780, and amended several times since, stilll 
remains the fundamental law of the Commonwealth. It was even decided' 
that by a clause in its Bill of Rights African slavery was abolished. The 
people of the State ratified the National Constitution in January, 1788. 

The poverty and distress of the people caused some of them in the- 
interior of the State to resist taxation. The taxes of the State amounted 
annually to the then enormous sum of $1,000,000. Artful demagogues stirred 
up the people to rebellion. The working men were arrayed by them against 
the capitalists. The government of Massachusetts was held responsible for 
every evil suffered by the people. Finally, an armed insurrection, led by 
Daniel Shays, a captain in the Continental army, broke out. He led 1,000 
men in arms. The movement soon became formidable, and General Benjamin 
Lincoln, in command of several thousand militia, suppressed it. That was in 



76 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

1786. In Januar}', 1788, the people of the State ratified the National Consti- 
tution. 

In the division of parties at the beginning of the present century, a 
majority of the citizens of Massachusetts were of the Federal party, and, as 
a body, they opposed the war with England, which began in 1812. That war 
was disastrous to the commerce of that section of the Union. During the 
war New England furnished great numbers of seamen for the National navy, 
and swarms of privateers went out from the ports of Massachusetts. 

At a convention of delegates assembled at Hartford late in 18 14 to con- 
sider the state of the country, Massachusetts was fully represented, and one 
•of its citizens (George Cabot) presided over its deliberations. Massachusetts 
.and other New England States were charged with disloyalty because of their 
continued opposition to the war, but unquestionable patriotism dominated the 
intense conservatism of the people. 

In the year 1820 the district of Maine was separated from Massachu- 
setts, and made an independent commonwealth. (See Maine}) The State 
from the beginning was one of the most prosperous in the Union; and when, 
in 1861, civil war began, no State was more loyal and active in support of the 
Republic than Massachusetts. During the war it furnished 159,165 men to 
■the National army and navy, of whom 3749 were killed in battle; 9086 died 
from wounds and disease; 15,645 discharged for disability contracted in the 
service, and 5866 not accounted for. The State expended on account of the 
war over $30,000,000. 

Massachusetts is one of the heaviest manufacturing States in the Union, 
especially of textile fabrics. The cotton manufactures of the " Bay State " 
■employed 62,903 operatives, running 4,465,290 spindles in 1880. Its fisheries 
are very extensive and productive, aggregating more than half the product 
of all New England. The State contains about 2,200 miles of railroad in 
-operation, which cost almost $153,000,000. They are all prosperous, and 
form a complete network, crossing each other in all directions. 

From the beginning the education of the young was made a prime ob- 
ject in the affairs of State. In 1649 provision was made for the establish- 
ment of common schools in the province. Every township was required to 
maintain a school for instruction in reading and writing, and every town of 
one hundred families was required to have a grammar school, with a teacher 
qualified to "fit youths for the University." That University was Harvard 
College, the first of the higher seminaries of learning established in America. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. -jy 

It was liberally endowed by the Rev. John Harvard. The college was 
founded in 1637, with Henry Dunster, a Hebrew scholar, as its first president. 
There are now in the State seven universities and colleges. In 1880 there 
were 306,777 children enrolled in public schools, with an average attendance 
of 235,664. The public school expenditures in 1880 were $4,720,951. 

The population of Massachusetts in 1885 was 1,941,465, including over 
19,000 colored persons, which embrace Indians and Chinese. Boston, its 
capital, contained in 1885, 390,406. 

Immense numbers of the inhabitants of Massachusetts have emigrated 
to other portions of the Union. It is estimated that the number of persons 
who, born in that Commonwealth, have emigrated to other States, is equal, 
at least, to its present resident population. These emigrants have exercised 
a " marked influence in moulding the social and political institutions of their 
adopted States." 







(1623.) 




New Hampshire, one of the New England States and ani 
original member of the Union, Hes between latitude 40° 
42' 30" and 45° 18' north, and 70° 43' 40" and 72° 33' 
west longitude. On its narrow northern and north- 
eastern border is the province of Quebec, in the Do- 
minion of Canada. On the east is Maine and a smalL 
portion of the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south is Massachusetts, and on the 
west is Vermont, over which it originally claimed territorial jurisdiction.. 
The Commonwealth embraces an area of 9,305 square miles, and a population' 
in 1880 of 346,991, including 762 colored persons. It has only eighteen miles 
of sea-coast, and its only good harbor for large vessels is at Portsmouth. 
The surface of New Hampshire is broken and mountainous. The small 
strip of sea-coast is low and level, and a part of it is marshy for several miles 
inland. The country rises rapidly as it recedes from the coast. The group, 
of lofty hills known as the "White Mountains" occupy a space of about 
twenty miles in length, chiefly in Coos County, near the north-eastern border 
of the State. The highest peak is Mount Washington, rising to the height of 
6226 feet above the sea level. There are five other peaks ranging in height, 
from 4000 to 5759 feet. The region is styled " The Switzerland of America.'" 
The short line of sea-coast of New Hampshire was probably discovered 
by Martin Pring or Prynne, who, in April, 1603, sailed from Bristol, England, 
with two vessels, to complete discoveries begun by Gosnold. They entered 
Penobscot Bay early in June, and afterwards sailed along the coast to Mar- 
tin's (corrupted to Martha's) Vineyard, an island so called in honor of Pring, 
and because of the abundance of grapes found there. Other voyagers, 
traversed the same New England coasts in a short space of time afterwards. 
Captain John Smith visited the coast of New Hampshire and the Piscataqua 
River in 1614. 

Sir Ferdinand© Gorges, an active member of the Plymouth. Company, set: 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 79 

sail from England for America in 161 5, after the return of Captain Smith, but 
was driven back by a storm. The company acquired a new charter undef 
the title of the Council of Plymouth, from whence Gorges and Captain John 
Mason, both zealous churchmen and royalists, obtained a grant (1622) of all 
the territory between the Merrimack and the Kennebec rivers and the sea- 
coast, sixty miles inland (to the St. Lawrence River), which they designed to 
call the Province of Maine. They named the great domain " Laconia," and, 
to forestall the French settlements in the east, and to secure the country to 
Protestants, Gorges procured a grant from Sir William Alexander of the 
whole mainland eastward of the St. Croix River, excepting a small part of 
Acadia, now Nova Scotia. 




JOSIAH KARTLETT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Mason (a merchant, and afterwards a naval commander and secretarj^ of 
the Council of Plymouth — " a man of action ") had already obtained a gi'ant 
of land (1621) extending from Salem to the mouth of the Merrimack, which 
he called " Mariana " ; and the same year a colony of fishermen seated them- 
selves at Little Harbor on the Piscataqua, just below the site of (present) 
Portsmouth. Other fishermen settled on the site of Dover in 1623, and very 
soon other fishing stations were planted ; but there was no permanent set- 
tlement until 1629, when Mason built a house near the mouth of the Piscata- 
qua and called the place Portsmouth. 

In the same year Mason and Gorges agreed to divide their domain in 
New England at the Piscataqua, when the former obtained a patent for the 
western portion. He had been Governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire,. 



8o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

England, and he gave to his province the name of New Hampshire, and to 
the permanent settlement, Portsmouth, in commemoration of the place with 
which he had been associated. His domain included all islands within five 
leagues of his coast-front. He sent over other colonists, with cattle, mills, 
etc., in contemplation of a great plantation. The little settlements flour- 
ished, Dover soon taking the precedence in prosperity. The Rev. Mr. Wheel- 
wright, a brother of the notable Ann Hutchinson of Boston, had purchased 
from the Indians a tract of the wilderness, and founded Exeter. 

The progress of settlement was retarded by the death of Mason just as 
he was about to embark from England for America in 1635, bearing the 
commission of Vice-Admiral of New England. He was buried in Westmin- 
ster Abbey. His domain passed into possession of his retainers in payment 
for past services. These settlers were nearly all Churchmen. 

Very soon the intrigues, the vigor and the enterprise of the authorities 
of Massachusetts introduced among the settlers in New Hampshire an active 
Puritan element, which soon obtained control of public affairs, and in 1641 
all the settlements were annexed to Massachusetts. New Hamsphire re- 
mained a dependent of the Bay State until 1680, when the annex became a 
separate royal province. Mason's heirs in England prosecuted claims to his 
proprietary interest, which resulted in the emancipation of New Hampshire 
and the establishment there of a government in which the President and 
Council were appointed by the King, and the people elected a Legislative 
Assembly. In 1692 a royal commission established a new government, which 
continued until the old war for independence. 

The settlements in New Hampshire gradually extended westward, and, 
until 1764, it was supposed that the territory, now Vermont, was included in 
that of New Hampshire, and grants of land were made by the authorities of 
the latter province. The commission of Penning Wentworth, its first royal 
Governor (1741-1767), included all the territory " to the boundaries of his 
Majesty's other provinces." This was quite indefinite. The Governor so 
construed it that he issued grants of land to settlers between the Connecticut 
River and Lake Champlain. The Duke of York's patent in 1664 (see New 
York) caused the authorities of the latter to claim the Connecticut River as 
its eastern boundary. A violent dispute finally arose whi<:h, at one time, 
threatened a serious civil war. (See Vermont^ 

For about three-fourths of a century (1675-1750) the inhabitants suffered 
dreadfully from the Indians, who frequently made marauding and scalping 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. gi 

incursions among the settlements. These incursions were often incited and 
sometimes led by the French in Canada. 

One of the most notable tragedies of the time occurred at Dover in the 
summer of 1689. There resided Richard Waldron, a native of England, who 
had lived there since 1645. He was a leading man in the province in civil 
and military affairs — a councillor, chief justice, and governor or president. 
He had taken an active part in King Philip's war, and had greatly enraged 
the barbarians by a treacherous act at one time. He invited Indians to a 
treaty at Dover, when he seized several hundred of them, and hung or sold 
into slavery two hundred. 

For thirteen years Waldron's cruel act filled the minds and hearts of the 
barbarians with a burning desire for revenge. At length an opportunity oc- 
curred. In June, 1689, when Indians were continually visiting and passing 
through Dover on peaceful errands, a fearful plot was sudd&nly evolved. 
More than the usual number of Indians were in the town on a pleasant June 
day. Some of the people felt uneasy, but Major Waldron, who knew them 
well, did not suspect them of mischievous intentions. 

At that time there were five garrisoned houses at Dover. It had been 
arranged by the barbarians that on an appointed night two squads should 
go to each of the garrisoned houses in the evening and ask leave to lodge ; 
then, when the people were asleep, they should open the portals of the 
houses and give a whistle, when the strange Indians should rush in and take 
their long-meditated revenge. 

Two squaws and a chief were kindly entertained by Major Waldron, and 
when all in the house had retired to sleep, the squaws opened the doors and 
gave the signal, when Indians rushed into the Major's apartment. Although 
almost fourscore years of age, the Major leaped from his bed, seized his 
sword, and applied it with so much vigor that he drove his assailants through 
two or three doors. As he was returning for other arms he was stunned by 
a blow from a hatchet, when he was seized, dragged into his hall, and, seat- 
ing him in an armchair on a long table, they scornfully asked him, " Who 
shall judge Indian now?" Then they demanded food of the inmates of the 
house, and when they had feasted they tortured the veteran soldier to 
death. 

New Hampshire engaged earnestly in the disputes with the British min- 
istry before the kindling of the war for independence, and the people of that 
Province were the first to form an independent State government. A Pro- 



82 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

vincial Congress had assembled at Exeter on May 7, 1775, when ninety-eight 
counties, towns, parishes and boroughs were represented by deputies. Mat- 
thew Thornton was chosen its President, and Eleazer Thompson, Secretary. 
They estabHshed a post-office at Portsmouth, provided for procuring arms, 
recommended the estabhshment of home manufactures, commissioned Briga- 
dier-General Nathaniel Folsom first commander of the military of the Pro- 
vince, and provided for the issue of bills of credit, or paper money. They 
voted to raise three regiments, their troops then in camp before Boston to 
constitute two of them. 

In accordance with the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the 
people of New Hampshire organized a State government on January 5, 1776. 
It was intended to be temporary — to last only through the war. A perma- 
nent State government was not established until June 4, 1784. Josiah Bart- 
lett, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, after President 
Hancock, was chosen the first Governor of the State under the National 
Constitution, 1792-1794. 

The people of New Hampshire took an active part in the war for inde- 
pendence. They captured the fort at New Castle in December, 1774. 
Their men were engaged in many battles, from that on Bunker's Hill to that 
at Yorktown. Generals Stark, Poor and Sullivan were particularly distin- 
guished military leaders. Their prowess was attested at Bennington, Bemis 
Heights, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Yorktown. 

Preliminary movements toward the formation of a permanent State 
government were made in 1781, when, in June, a popular convention framed 
a State Constitution for the Commonwealth, which, after undergoing many 
alterations, became the fundamental law of the State, as we have observed, 
in June, 1784. The Constitution provided that once in seven years it should 
be presented to a vote of the people on proposed amendments. This was 
done in September, 1791, and the Constitution then adopted continues to be 
the supreme law of New Hampshire. A convention sitting in Concord, from 
November 6, 1850, to April 17, 185 1, considered numerous amendments, but 
only one was adopted — removing the property qualifications of representa- 
tives. 

After the National Constitution was framed at Philadelphia, in 1787, the 
Continental Congress provided by resolution that when nine of the thirteen 
States should ratify the great instrument, it should become the fundamental 
law of the Republic. New Hampshire has the honor of giving the vote that 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 83 

►decided the fate of that instrument. Everywhere there was vehement op- 
position to it, because it would Hmit " State supremacy," and merge the 
States into one consolidated sovereignty. • New Hampshire was the nintJi 
State that ratified the Constitution. It was done by a small majority on 
June 21, 1788. 

Portsmouth was the seat of government while provincial authority ruled. 
The seat of the provincial government was at Exeter during the Revolution, 
and in 1805 Concord was made the State capital. New Hampshire is 
known by the sobriquet of " The Granite State." 

In the four wars in which the Republic has been engaged — namely, the 
Revolutionary, the second war for independence (1812-1815), the war with 
Mexico, and the civil war — the Commonwealth of New Hampshire contrib- 
uted freely in men and money. In its infancy it furnished 12,497 "i^n to 
the Continental army; in its maturity, when the life of the Republic was in 
peril, it contributed for the national army 34,605 men, of whom 5508 per- 
ished in battle, and 11,039 were disabled by sickness and wounds. 

The sterility of much of the soil of New Hampshire renders agriculture 
a rather unremunerative pursuit ; but its grand and abundant water-power 
and other resources, have caused it to be a very heavy manufacturing State. 
Cotton, woollen and paper mills abound. In 1880 it employed 1,108,521 
spindles and 25,487 looms in the manufacture of cotton fabrics. In this indus- 
try it ranks second among the States in the value of its products. Its iron 
and steel manufactures are of great value. In 1882 it had 1000 miles of rail- 
ways, which cost $25,370,787. The assessed valuation of real and personal 
property in the State was nearly $201,000,000. 

New Hampshire has a well-organized system of public instruction. In 
1880 there were 64,670 children, from five to twenty-one years of age, en- 
rolled in public schools, with an average daily attendance of 48,943. The 
expenditures for public schools that year were $568,103. The State has one 
University — Dartmouth College, at Hanover. There are many normal 
schools and higher seminaries of learning for both sexes, among which Phil- 
lips' Academy, at Exeter, holds a front rank. The State has no large cities. 
Manchester, the largest, has a population of about 33,500. Concord, its cap- 
ital, has over 14,000. 




(1633.) 

Bounded on three sides by the States of Massachusetts, 
New York and Rhode Island, and on the fourth by Long 
Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, lies the Common- 
wealth of Connecticut, between 41 °and 42° 3' north lati- 
tude, and 7i°55' and 73° 50' west longitude. It was one 
of the original thirteen States of the Union. Its domain embraces an area 
of 4,845 square miles. The population of Connecticut in 1880 was 622,700, of 
whom there were 11,931 colored persons, including 255 Indians. 

A large portion of the State of Connecticut is rugged and mountainous. 
An extension of the Green Mountains of Vermont crosses the western part 
of the State, and stretches almost to Long Island Sound. In the eastern 
part there is a ridge supposed to be a prolongation of the White Mountain 
range in New Hampshire. 

The principal river of the State is the Connecticut, which flows from the 
border of Canada, forms the dividing line between Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire, intersects Massachusetts and the Commonwealth to which it has given 
its name, into Long Island Sound. It is navigable to Hartford, the capital 
of the State. It flows through one of the most beautiful and picturesque 
regions of the earth. 

When Adrian Block, a skillful Dutch navigator, left Manhattan in his 
new ship Unrest, which had been built to take the place of the burnt vessel 
Tigress, in the spring of 16 14 (see Nczv York), he sailed up the East river into 
Long Island Sound and out on the Atlantic. On his way he discovered the 
Connecticut river, which he called the Versche (or fresh) Water. He sailed 
up the stream to the site of Hartford for observation, and then pursued his 
voyage. The Indian name of the river in English orthography was Quon-eh- 
tah-cut, signifying " the long river." 

The discovery of the Connecticut River by Block gave the Dutch a claim 
to the adjoining territory by the right of discovery, and so early as 1623 the 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



."^^ 



agent of the Dutch West India Company took formal possession of, the Con- 
necticut Valley, by proclamation, in the name of the States-general of Hol- 
land. The English made a counter-claim soon afterwards,, based upon a 
patent issued by King James to English subjects. 

The Dutch, with a keen eye to profit and to security against the barbar- 
ians on the eastern border of New Netherland, sent an embassy to New 
Plymouth (see Massachusetts) to persuade the Pilgrims to abandon Cape Cod 
Bay, and seat themselves, under jurisdiction of the Dutch, (whose language 
they had learned in Holland,) in the fertile Connecticut Valley. A Mohegan 
chief, with similar motives, joined in the request. The Pilgrims, jealous of 




JONATHAN TRUMBULL, FIRST GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT. 

their independence, declined; but, in 1632, Governor Edward Winslovv visited', 
the Connecticut Valley. His observation confirmed all the good things which 
had been said about the region, and he resolved to promote emigration thither. 

The fame of the fertile valley had already reached Old England. Two 
years before Winslow's visit, Charles I. had granted a patent to the soil of 
that region to some English noblemen, and defined the territory as extending 
westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean — the latter then known as. 
"the South Sea." 

The Dutch now possessed a more rightful title to the country than that; 
of discovery. They had purchased the valley from the Indians, built a re- 
doubt just below the site of Hartford, called Fort Good Hope, in 1633, took 



'86 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

possession of it, and " set up a home with intent to plant." This was the 
first seed that germinated in the colony of Connecticut. 

The Plymouth people, though aware of the preparations made by the 
Dutch for defence, did not hesitate. In October, 1633, Captain William 
Holmes and a small company arrived in the Connecticut River in a sloop 
bearing the frame of a house. He had a commission from Governor Winslow 
to make a settlement. Though warned by the commander of the fort to 
desist, Holmes sailed by unmolested, landed at the site of Windsor, and there 
erected his house. The Dutch sent a force the next year to drive the English 
from the valley. A parley ensued, which resulted in peaceful relations, when 
the Dutch withdrew from that region. In 1635-36 the first permanent set- 
tlement in the Connecticut Valley was made at Hartford, by emigrants from 
Massachusetts. 

In the autumn of 1635 a company of men, women and children from 
Massachusetts, with oxen and cows, traversed the rugged wilderness for fully 
•one hundred miles, until they reached the valley of the Connecticut, then 
white with snow. Ice prevented a vessel, laden with supplies for them, as- 
cending the stream. They built log huts on the sites of Weathersfield and 
Hartford, and a little church at the latter place. Starvation soon menaced 
them, and some of the colony made their way to the shore ot the Sound, and 
•sailed thence to Boston in a passing vessel. Those who remained suffered 
'dreadfully, living for a while upon acorns. Many of the cattle died for want 
■of food. 

In 1636 the Rev. Thomas Hooker, who came to Boston from Holland, 
led a company of men, women and children into the beautiful valley. He 
wisely chose the Summer time for the migration. They had 160 head of 
■cattle. The cows pastured on grassy savannas, and furnished much whole- 
•some food for the wanderers. The company stood on the banks of the beau- 
tiful Connecticut on the 4th of July, and there, under the shadow of great 
trees, they sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and on the following 
Sabbath, Mr. Hooker preached a sermon and administered the Communion 
in the little church built the previous winter. 

In 1636 John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, came from 
England as Governor of the Connecticut colony. He built a fort and planted 
a settlement at the mouth of the river. The colony grew and flourished. A 
constitution for its government was framed, and was approved by a vote of 
'.the people on January 14, 1639. It was the first example in history of a 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 87 

written constitution organizing a government and defining its powers. Its 
leading features have been incorporated into the constitutions of all the 
States of the Republic. 

Meanwhile the existence of the colony had been menaced by the power- 
ful Pequod Indians, whose territory extended from Narragansett Bay to the 
Hudson River and over Long Island. Sassacus, then Emperor, ruled over 
twenty-six native princes. Fearing increase in the number and power of 
the English, he resolved to exterminate them. Massachusetts sent troops 
to assist their brethren. They were joined by the Mohegans, attacked 
the Pequods in their rear, and defeated and dispersed them. Sassacus and 
his followers fled westward, dreadfully smitten by their pursuers, and that 
powerful nation was almost annihilated in a day, as it were. This blow gave 
peace to New England for more than forty years. The last of the pure- 
blooded Pequods — Eunice Maurvee — died at Kent, Connecticut, in i860, at 
the age of 100 years. 

After the destruction of the Pequods there was a strong desire among 
the people of Massachusetts to settle in Connecticut. They had heard from 
the pursuers of the fugitive Indians of the beauty and fertility of the country 
stretching along Long Island Sound ; and in the autumn of 1637 a small party 
of observation encamped on the site of New Haven, where they built a hut 
and wintered. In the spring of 1638 the Rev. John Davenport and others 
went by water to the spot where the exploring party had wintered, at the 
mouth of a small stream that entered a beautiful bay. They were charmed 
with the locality and named it New Haven. On the Sabbath Mr. Davenport 
preached a sermon under a wide-spreading oak. They purchased lands of the 
Indians ; framed articles of association, which they called a " Plantation Cove- 
nant," formed in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, and began an indepen- 
dent settlement without reference to any government or country on the earth. 

The little community at New Haven meditated and prayed for light 
concerning the best political organization for the government of the colony, 
which was growing by accretion. ' At length, in the summer of 1639, when it 
was found that they were " nearly of one mind," they assembled in a barn to 
frame a constitution of government " according to the word of God." After 
Mr. Davenport had prayed and preached, he proposed for their adoption four 
fundamental articles, namely — (i.) That the Scriptures contain a perfect rule 
for the government of men, in the family, in the church, and in the common- 
wealth ; (2.) That they would be ordered by the rules which the Scriptures 



88 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

hold forth ; (3. ) That their purpose was to be admitted into church-fellowship 
according to Christ, as soon as God should fit them thereto; and (4.) That 
they hold themselves bound to establish such civil order, according to God, as 
would be likely to secure the greatest good to themselves and their posterity. 

By unanimous vote these articles were adopted, when they proceeded 
to form a plan of government. It was arranged that church membership 
and freemanship should qualify a man to exercise the political franchise, to 
choose magistrates, and transact civil business of every kind; that twelve fit 
men should be chosen from the company, who should choose seven of their 
number as the seven pillars of the Church. This was done, and the seven 
" pillars " organized a Church. Their assistants, nine in number, were re- 
garded as " free burgesses," and the sixteen chose Theophilus Eaton, one of 
the explorers in 1687, magistrate for one year. Four other persons were 
chosen deputies, and these constituted the Executive and Legislative depart- 
ments of the government. It was a sort of theocracy. They built a meeting- 
house, ordained that no person should settle among them without the consent 
of the community, and in 1640 they called the settlement New Haven. The 
colony flourished alone until 1662, when it was annexed by royal charter to 
the colony in the valley. 

When monarchy was restored in England, in 1660, in the person of 
Charles IL, son of the decapitated King, the people of the Connecticut 
Valley hastened to avow their allegiance and to secure a new charter. One 
was secured in 1662, which embraced both the Connecticut and New Haven 
colonies, but the union was not perfected until 1665. It gave to the people 
jurisdiction over the whole land within its limits; provided for the election 
of a Governor, deputy-governor, twelve assistants or magistrates, and ten 
deputies from each town. This constitution was so acceptable to the people 
of Connecticut that it remained their fundamental law until 18 18, when the 
present Constitution was framed. 

The union of the two colonies in Connecticut, as we have observed, was 
perfected in 1665. Prominent citizens of the New Haven colony were much 
disturbed by this summary blotting out of their Commonwealth. It had been 
foredoomed. Its intense Puritanism, and its dilatoriness in recognizing the 
authority of Charles II., had made it obnoxious to the Crown. That it had 
given shelter to the regicides was a serious count against it. Mr. Davenport, 
its real founder, was specially grieved at the unexpected turn of affairs. He 
accepted an invitation to return to Boston, and died there two years after- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 89 

ward. The government of the united colonies was, at first, a pure democracy 
but in 1670 it became a representative one. 

After the Duke of York took possession of New Netherlands (see New 
York), in 1664, commissioners were sent to look after afTairs there and in 
New England. They came to secure allegiance to the Crown. The charter 
of Connecticut secured it, and there was no trouble in that colony; but Sir 
Edmund Andros, who had been appointed Governor-General of New England 
in 1686, demanded the surrender of all the colonial charters under his juris- 
diction. Connecticut, alone, resisted. The Viceroy proceeded to Hartford 
in the autumn of 1687, with an armed force, to seize the charter and extin- 
guish the government. The people had long expected this movement, and 
leading men had made preparations to meet it. So early as the middle of 
June preceding, the Assembly directed the charter to be brought into the 
Chamber in the mahogany box in which it had been sent from England. It 
was laid on the table, and the secretary was directed to leave it there, with 
the key in it. This order was intended to give an opportunity for somebody 
to make a copy of the charter, which was done neatly on parchment — of 
course without the official sanction of the Assembly. 

Andros arrived at Hartford, with sixty soldiers, late in October. The 
Assembly was in session in the meeting-house, where he was courteously re- 
ceived at about sunset. He demanded the surrender of the charter. A 
debate in progress was intentionally prolonged until the candles were lighted, 
when the box containing the charter was brought in and placed on the table. 
When Andros put forth his hand to take the instrument the lights were ex- 
tinguished and the box was carried away by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, 
commander of train-bands who were near. It did not contain the original 
charter. That, Wadsworth had made a duplicate of, and concealed the 
original in a hollow oak tree. That duplicate was in the box. After the 
accession of William and Mary, in 1689, and Andros had been expelled from 
America, the original was taken from the oak and the colonial government 
resumed its functions under it. The '' Charter Oak " survived until August, 
1856, when it was prostrated by a gale. 

In 1676 the General Court, or Legislature, of Connecticut was first di- 
vided into two Houses. The Governor and assistants composed the upper 
House, and the deputies regularly returned from the towns were called the 
lower House. The Governor presided in the upper House. All laws became 
so only by the mutual consent of the two Houses. 



90 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

There were two sessions of the General Court of Connecticut each year; 
and from i/Oi until 1875, these, and the annual sessions which succeeded 
them, were held alternately at Hartford and New Haven. Since the latter 
year Hartford has been the sole capital of the State 

In the earlier colonial times many of the laws enacted by the authorities 
of Connecticut were very rigid. They contained enactments against every 
great vice, as well as for social regulations, and revealed the sternness of 
Puritan character and morals. They were first published in collected form 
in 1650, and were issued in blue paper covers. Copies found their way to 
England, when, on account of the color of the covers, they were first called 
" Blue Laws." After the restoration the word " blue " was applied to rigid 
moralists of every kind, especially to the Presbyterians. Hudibras says — 

" For his religion it was writ 
To match his learning and his wit — 
'Twas Presbyterian true billed 

To ridicule the Puritans of New England, a series of pretended enactments,, 
very ridiculous, purporting to be extracts from the Blue Laws, were promuL. 
gated and gained general belief. 

During the colonial wars Connecticut furnished its full share of men 
and money in support of the cause of the English-American colonists; and 
in the bitter disputation between the colonists and the British ministry, in the 
years preceding the old war for independence, her leading men and women 
took a very active part. Opposition to the Stamp Act ran high in that prov- 
ince; and so menacing were the actions of the people that the appointed 
stamp-distributor relinquished the office, saying "the cause is not worth 
dying for." 

The Connecticut charter made its western boundary nominally the Pacific 
Ocean. Prior occupancy by the Dutch had made an exception in favor of 
New York and New Jersey; but all territory west of the Delaware River within 
the parallels of Connecticut was claimed by that colony. An association 
called the "Susquehanna Company" was formed, with the sanction of the 
Legislature, in 1753, for the purpose of planting a settlement beyond the 
Delaware. It included the beautiful Valley of Wyoming, into which many 
families from Connecticut emigrated. In 1763 the settlement was broken up 
by hostile Indians, and the settlers made their way back to Connecticut. 
Pennsylvania took possession of the Wyoming Valley, and built a fortified 
trading house there. In 1769 forty members of the Susquehanna Company 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. gr 

went there to assert their rights. Civil war ensued. The Connecticut As- 
sembly submitted the case to the ablest lawyers in England, and a decision 
was made in favor of the company. It was unheeded by the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, and civil war again began. It was soon ended by the more: 
important events of the war for independence. 

The people of Connecticut were active participants in the war for inde- 
pendence from the beginning. Their Governor, Jonathan Trumbull, was the: 
only colonial Governor who espoused their cause. He was- considered the- 
Whig leader in New England in the absence, in Congress, of the Adamses and. 
Hancock. The Assembly instructed its delegates in the Continental Con- 
gress to vote for independence, a permanent union of the colonies and a. 
foreign alliance. Jonathan Trumbull was the first Governor of the State of 
Connecticut. 

During the war of the Revolution the towns of Connecticut suffered! 
dreadfully from marauding parties. Danbury, in the interior, was burnt and' 
plundered in 1777; and in 1779, 2000 British and German marauders scourged 
its coast towns. On the 5th of July they plundered New Haven* and East 
Haven in ashes on the 6th ; destroyed Fairfield on the 8th, and plundered and 
burnt Norwalk on the 12th. In 1781 Arnold, the traitor, in the employ of 
his British master, at the head of Tories and Hessians, destroyed New London,. 
on the Thames. 

Like those of the other New England States, the people of Connecticut 
were opposed to the war of 181 2, and lent its aid rather unwillingly in support 
of the government against the British. Its coasts suffered from the opera- 
tions of blockading squadrons and amphibious depredators. On April 8„ 
1814, six boats with 200 men from the British blockading squadron entered 
the Connecticut River, ascended it several miles, and destroyed full twenty- 
vessels which had collected there as a place of supposed safety. Because of 
the lukewarmness of the people, the National Government neglected to give 
them proper protection on the coast. This neglect formed one of the grounds, 
for serious complaint by the Hartford Convention. 

The Hartford Convention in 18 14 holds a conspicuous place in the history 
of our country. The Legislature of Massachusetts addressed a circular letter 
to the governors of the New England States, inviting the appointment of 
delegates to meet in convention at an early day to deliberate upon " means 
of security and defense " against dangers to which these States were exposed 
by the course of the war. It was also proposed to consider amendments to. 



g2 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the National Constitution on the subject of slave representation. The 
proposition was acceded to, and Hartford, in Connecticut, was the place 
chosen for holding the convention, 

December 15, 1814, was the time appointed for the assembling of the 
convention. On that day twenty-six delegates, representing the five New 
England States, met, and appointed George Cabot, of Boston, President, and 
Theodore Dwight, secretary. They were all notable men. The sessions were 
held with closed doors and continued three weeks. The government at 
Washington was alarmed by this secret gathering of representative New 
England men, and especially by the appropriation at about that time by the 
"Massachusetts Legislature of $1,000,000 for the support of 10,000 men to re- 
lieve the militia in service, and to be, like them, under the State's control. 
-All sorts of wild rumors suggesting treason were set afloat ; and the govern- 
ment sent Major Jesup and a regiment of soldiers to Hartford at the time of 
"the opening of the convention, ostensibly to recruit for the regular army, but 
ireally to watch the supposed unpatriotic movement. 

The attention of the convention was called to a wide range of topics — 
'the powers of the National Executive in calling out the militia; the dividing 
of the United States into military districts, with an ofificer of the army in 
^each with discretionary power to call out the militia; the refusal of the Ex- 
•ecutive to pay the militia of certain of the States called on for their own 
defense; the failure of the government to pay the militia admitted to the 
TJnited States service; the proposition for a conscription; a bill then before 
'Congress for classifying and drafting the militia; the invasion of neighboring 
territory, and the failure of the National Government to provide for the com- 
mon defense. 

It was agreed that it was expedient for the convention to prepare a gen- 
'cral statement of the unconstitutional attempt of the United States govern- 
ment to infringe upon the rights of individual States in regard to the military; 
:also a statement concerning the general subject of state defenses, etc. They 
.also proposed amendments to the Constitution to accomplish the restriction 
•of the power of Congress to declare and make war, lay embargoes, admit new 
States, and alterations concerning slave representation and taxation. 

These were all legitimate subjects for discussion by patriotic men. The 
labors of the convention ended on January 4, 181 5, and on the next day it 
adjourned, but with an impression that circumstances might call for a re- 
. assembling of that body. For that reason the seal of secresy on their pro- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 93 

ceedings was not removed. This gave wide scope for conjecture, suspicion 
and misrepresentations; and for many years, in the realm of poHtics, the 
term " Hartford Convention Federalist " conveyed much reproach. 

Connecticut took an active and patriotic part in the late Civil War. Her 
chief magistrate, William A. Buckingham, was one of the most energetic 
"war governors" of the time. It furnished the National army with 54,882 
thoroughly equipped men, of whom 1094 men and ninety-seven officers were 
killed in action : 666 men and forty-eight officers died from wounds, and 3246 
men and sixty-three officers died from disease. 

Connecticut is essentially a manufacturing State, and exceeds any other 
in the variety of its industries. It has about 1000 miles of railways in opera- 
tion. The State is thoroughly equipped for dispensing the blessings of edu- 
cation to all classes of its population. It has nearly 1700 district schools, 
with a school population of 139,000, of whom nearly 120,000 are enrolled in 
the public schools. It has high schools in all its cities; and its expenditure 
for public schools in 1885 was $1,376,000. There is a State normal school, 
many collegiate schools, and seminaries for both sexes, and three universities 
or colleges, all well endowed. Yale College, at New Haven, is one of the 
oldest of the higher institutions of learning in the Republic. 

Several nicknames have been applied to Connecticut — the " Free-stone 
State," the " Nutmeg State," the " Land of Steady Habits." Morality, 
shrewdness, patriotism, independence, and self-reliance are characteristics 
which have been attributed to the people of Connecticut. Halleck, one of 
its sons, wrote more than half a century ago: 

" They love their land because it is their own, 
And scorn to give aught other reason why; 
Would shake hands with a king upon his throne. 
And think it kindness to his majesty — 
A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none. 
Such are they nurtured, such they Hve and die : 
All — but a few apostates, who are meddling 
With merchandize, pounds, shillings, pence and peddling-, 

*' Or wandering through the southern countries teaching 
The A, B, C from Webster's spelling-book ; 
Gallant and godly, making love and preaching, 
And gaining, by what they call ' hook and crook. 
And what the moralists call ' overreaching,' 
A decent living. The Virginians look 
Upon them with as favorable eyes 
As Gabriel on the devil in Paradise." 



Mm 



™ i/iMil 




(1634.) 

Maryland is one of the Central Atlantic States, and an 
original member of the Union. Pennsylvania on the 
north, the State of Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean 
on the east, on the south, south-west and west, Virginia 
and West Virginia, and on the north-west West Virginia 
form its boundaries. It lies between 37° 53' and 39° 44' 
north latitude, and 75° 2' and 79° 30' west longitude, and embraces 12,210 
square miles of territory. In the census of 1880, Maryland ranked twenty- 
three among the States iu population, the number being 934,943, of whom 
210,250 were colored. 

Maryland is unequally divided by Chesapeake Bay. Its eastern portion,. 
lying between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays and the Atlantic, is mostly 
level, and portions of it swampy. The western portion, lying between the 
Chesapeake and the Potomac River, which separates it from the Virginias, is 
for the most part level as far north as Washington City. Above that point the 
country rises in terraces, and soon assumes the form of rugged hills and quite 
lofty mountains with fertile vallies. The Blue Ridge, and other ranges of 
the Alleghanies, pass through the north-west portion of the State. One 
mountain peak rises to an altitude of 2500 feet above tide-water. 

The first European dweller in Maryland was William Clayborne, who 
was one of the early settlers in Virginia, The Governor of Virginia gave 
him authority, in 1627, to explore the head of Chesapeake Bay; and in 163 1 
King Charles granted him a license to make discoveries and to trade with the 
Indians in that region. Under this authority he established a trading post 
on Kent Island, in Chesapeake Bay, not far from the site of (present) An- 
napolis. That was in 163 1. 

Earlier than this, George Calvert, an English Roman Catholic, knighted 
by James I. in 1617, and made an Irish peer, in 1624, with the title of Baron 
of Baltimore, had obtained from his sovereign (1622) a patent to plant a. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 95, 

Roman Catholic colony in America. Failing in some of his projects, he 
applied for a charter for the domain between North and South Virginia. 
(See Virginia.) Before it was completed Lord Baltimore died. The King,, 
also, was dead, but his son, Charles, granted to Calvert's son and successor,. 
Cecil (June 20, 1632), a patent for that region. In honor of Henrietta Maria, 
or Mary, the queen of Charles I., the name of Mary's Land was given to the 
domain. 

The Government of the province was made independent of the Crown — 
strictly proprietary; and equality in civil and religious freedom was secured 
to every Christian sect except Unitarians. 

Lord Baltimore appointed his half-brother, Leonard Calvert, Governor 




THOMAS JOHNSTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND. 

of his American domain. That kinsman, with another brother, sailed from 
Cowes, Isle of Wight, on November 22, 1633, with "very near twenty other 
gentlemen of very good fashion," wrote Lord Baltimore to a friend, and 
"three hundred laboring men," accompanied by two Jesuit priests. The 
Calverts and the other " gentlemen," and some of the laboring men, were 
Roman Catholics, but a greater portion of the latter were Protestants. They 
encountered a terrific storm. The two vessels — the Ark and the Dove — were 
separated by the tempest, but met at Barbadoes, and finally entered the 
mouth of the Potomac River together in February, 1634. 

The emigrants sailed up the Potomac a short distance and landed upon 
an island which they named St. Clements, and were there visited by some of 



96 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the natives. Thence the Governor made some explorations, and finally en- 
tered into a treaty with the barbarians for the purchase of a little territory 
at a pleasant spot near where the Potomac entered Chesapeake Bay. With 
imposing religious ceremonies by the priests, in the presence of Indians, it 
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the spot where they settled was 
named St. Mary. A year later they established the capital of the colony 
there ; and there the Legislative Assembly, composed of the whole adult male 
population, met. As population increased by immigration, a representative 
government was established, the people being allowed to send as many dele- 
gates as they pleased. Thus was planted the germs of the Commonwealth 
•of Maryland. 

When Lord Baltimore claimed jurisdiction over Kent and other islands 
in Chesapeake Bay, Clayborne, the early settler, refused to acknowledge his 
title, he having, as he said, an earlier one from the King. Baltimore ordered 
his arrest, and sent two vessels with armed men for the purpose. Clayborne 
had a vessel filled with armed retainers. A battle ensued ; the assailants 
were repulsed and one of them was killed. Clayborne was indicted for and 
found guilty of murder and other high crimes. He fled to Virginia. The 
Governor of Virginia refused to give him up. Kent Island was seized and 
confiscated by the Maryland authorities. The King severely reprimanded 
Baltimore for violating royal commands in driving Clayborne from his right- 
ful possessions. The Lords Commissioners of Plantations decided in favor 
of Baltimore, but Clayborne afterwards stirred up the people to rebellion. 

The first statutes of Maryland were enacted in 1637. Three years later 
a company of Puritans, who had been driven out of Virginia, settled in Mary- 
land, and soon showed a spirit of resistance to the authorities. Clayborne 
now reappeared at Kent Island, and stirred up the Indians against the white 
settlers and kindled a civil war among the people. The insurgents, with the 
disaffected Indians, drove the Governor and his Council into Virginia, and 
the rebels held the reins of power for a year and a half. The rebellion was 
crushed in the summer of 1647, when the Governor returned. The Puritans 
in Maryland called their chief settlement (on the site of Annapolis) Provi- 
dence. 

Governor Calvert died in 1647, and on the death of the King, in 1649, 
Lord Baltimore, professing to be a Protestant, appointed William Stone, a 
warm friend of Parliament, Governor ; but the Parliament, doubting Balti- 
more's sincerity, removed Stone, and appointed commissioners (of whom 



J 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 97 

Clayborne was one) to rule Maryland. They put Kent and Palmer islands 
in the possession of Clayborne. On the dissolution of the Long Parliament, 
Cromwell restored the proprietary rights of Lord Baltimore, and for some 
time civil and religious disputes ran high in the province. The Puritans, 
being in the majority, disfranchised Roman Catholics and members of the 
Church of England, and persecuted Quakers. A distressing civil war ensued. 
In a sharp battle near Providence, the troops of the Governor, who were 
mostly Roman Catholics, were defeated, and many were killed or made pris- 
oners. Four were executed on a charge of treason. Anarchy ensued, but 
under the rule of judicious Governor Josiah Feudal, comparative quiet 
reigned until 1660, when the people, boldly asserting popular liberty, as- 
sumed the exercise of the legislative powers of the colony, and gave Fendal 
the commission of Governor. 

On the restoration of monarchy in England (1660), the King reinstated 
Lord Baltimore in all his rights, when the latter proclaimed a general pardon 
of all political offenders. For thirty years afterwards Maryland enjoyed, 
repose, prospered, and rapidly increased in population and wealth. 

Lord Baltimore (the third) died in 1675, and was succeeded by his son 
Charles. He and his successors continued to administer the Government of 
the province, with some interruption, until the period of the old war for in- 
dependence. 

The revolution in England in 1688 shook the province to its foundations. 
The deputy governor hesitated to proclaim William and Mary, when a rest- 
less spirit named Coode, making this hesitation a pretext, excited the people 
by giving wings to a story that the civil magistrates and the Roman Catholics 
were about to join the Indians in the extermination of the Protestants. Im- 
mediately the old religious feud, which had been smouldering, burst into an 
intense flame. The Protestants, armed and led by Coode, marched upon the 
capital of the province, took forcible possession of it (September, 1689), and 
assumed the administration of the Government. They called a popular Con- 
vention and invested it with legislative functions; and by that body Mary- 
land was governed until June, 1691, when the British sovereign, ignoring the 
rights of Lord Baltimore, made Maryland a royal province and appointed a 
Governor. In 1694 the capital was transferred from St. Mary to Providence, 
which a few years afterward received the name of Annapolis, in honor of 
Queen Anne. It has remained the political capital of the Commonwealth 

ever since. 

7 



98 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

In 1716 the proprietary rights of the then late Lord Baltimore were le- 
Stored to his infant son and heir, and the original form of Government was 
reestablished and so remained until the Revolution in 1775. 

During the bitter controversy between the British-American colonies 
and Great Britain before the war for independence, the people of Maryland 
were very patriotic, but, at the same time, were conservative. They ex- 
pressed in strong terms their sympathy with patriotic movements in the other 
colonies, especially with the people of Boston, on account of their sufferings 
inflicted because of the destruction of tea in their harbor late in 1773. On 
the morning of October 15, 1774, a ship entered the harbor of Annapolis with 
seventeen packages of tea on board. The people were greatly excited, and 
prepared to burn the vessel and her cargo. Her owner, Anthony Stewart, 
declared that he had no intention to violate any non-importation agreement. 
The people would not listen, and Charles Carroll advised Stewart to burn the 
vessel with his own hands, and so quiet the public disturbance. It was done, 
when the multitude, who had gathered from the surrounding country, cheered 
and dispersed. 

The people of Maryland were ably represented in the Continental Con- 
gress from the beginning. They adopted the American Association, or 
general non-importation agreement, recommended by the Congress of 1774. 
On July 26, 1775, a Convention assembled at Annapolis, and formed a tem- 
porary Government, which, recognizing the Continental Congress as invested 
with a general supervision of public affairs, managed its own internal affairs 
through a provincial Committee of Safety, and subordinate committees ap- 
pointed in every county, parish or hundred. It directed an enrolment of 
forty companies of minute-men, and authorized the emission of bills of credit 
to the amount of over $500,000. The Convention resolved to sustain Massa- 
chusetts, and meet force by force if necessary. 

During the French and Indian war Maryland had borne its full share of 
the burden imposed by it, and Annapolis was the scene of a Convention of 
colonial governors, in the spring of 1755, to consult with General Braddock 
about the campaign for that year. In the war for independence her power- 
ful influence was felt in the council and in the field at all times. She hastened 
to comply with the recommendation of the Continental Congress to form an 
independent State Government. On August 14, 1776, a State Constitution 
was adopted, and Thomas Johnson, who nominated Washington as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Continental forces, was elected the first Governor of 



i 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 99 

the independent Commonwealth on February 13, 1777. At Annapolis, at the 
■close of the great struggle, Washington resigned his military commission to 
■Congress, then in session there, in December, 1783. 

The State Constitution was ratified by the people in November, 1776, 
and the first State Legislature assembled at Annapolis on February 5, 1777.. 
The Constitution was amended in 1802, and again in 1836; and in 1851 almost 
an entirely new one was adopted. During the war the " Maryland Line " of 
troops won a high reputation. The people of the State, by a handsome ma- 
jority, ratified the National Constitution in April, 1788. 

During the second war for independence (1812-15) the coasts of Mary- 
land suffered greatly from the operation of British marauders under Admiral 
Cockburn, and the State suffered a serious invasion by the British in the 
summer of 18 14. They swept across the State from the shores of Chesapeake 
Bay toward the National Capital, and at Bladensburg, four miles from Wash- 
ington city, a severe battle was fought. The Americans were defeated. The 
invaders pressed on to the Capital and burned the public buildings and other 
property in August. A British force landed at North Point in September, 
pushed on toward Baltimore, and were defeated and driven to their ships; 
and after an unsuccessful attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore they were 
repulsed. 

Maryland, as a slave-labor State, and ranking among the border States 
in relation to that system, was greatly agitated concerning secession from 
the Union. The opposing parties, for and against secession, were very strong 
and earnest. A capital plan of the leaders in the secession movement was 
the seizure of the National Government, its buildings, its archives and its 
treasury; and it was important to secure Maryland as an accomplice in the 
movement. The District of Columbia, the seat of the National Government, 
had once been a part of the territory of Maryland. Emissaries from the 
cotton-growing States were early within its borders plying their seductive 
arts. In Baltimore they found numerous and powerful sympathisers. But 
the Governor, Thomas H. Hicks, was a sturdy opponent of their schemes. 

It is said that on the ist of January, 1861, there were no less than 12,000 
men in Maryland pledged to follow their leaders in seizing Washington city. 
The Governor found himself powerfully supported by an eminently loyal 
people among the so-called " masses " — the " common people." The Seces- 
sionists urged him to call a session of the Legislature. Perceiving the danger 
to be apprehended from the action of a body largely made up of slaveholders. 



loo THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

the Governor refused. He had been informed that the members of the Leg- 
islature had already perfected a plan for " carrying Maryland out of the 
Union." This and cognate facts Governor Hicks set forth in an address to 
the people of the State (January 6, 1861). Henry Winter Davis, a most zeal- 
ous Union man, had just published a powerful appeal against the assembling 
of the Legislature or a Border State Convention. v 

The Secessionists denounced Governor Hicks as a traitor, but he was 
sustained by a majority of the people. A strong Union party was organized. 
Maryland became a great battle-field of opposing opinion, and it also became 
the theatre of struggles between hostile armies. The battles of South Moun- 
tain, Antietam and Monocacy were fought on its soil, and it suffered much 
from the invasion of Confederable marauding parties. 

The Union men of Maryland triumphed. In the space of four years 
from the breaking out of the Civil War, Slavery was abolished from its bor- 
ders, not only by the President's proclamation, but by the constitutional act 
of its own authorities. In October, 1864, a new Constitution was ratified by 
the people. It abolished Slavery, and disfranchised all who had aided or 
encouraged rebellion against the National Government. The authorities of 
the State furnished to the National army during the war 49,730 men. 

Maryland is becoming a considerable manufacturing State. In 1880 it 
had 6787 manufacturing establishments, employing 74,945 workmen, with 
$58,743,384 capital invested, and aggregate products valued at $106,780,563. 
It had over looo miles of railways in operation within its borders, and the 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal traverses the State from the District of Colum- 
bia to Cumberland. Baltimore is its only great city, and contained a popula- 
tion, in 1880, of 332,313. 

Maryland had in 1880 enrolled in its public schools 162,431 pupils, with 
an average daily attendance of 85,449. It expended that year for public 
schools $1,395,284. The State contained nine universities or colleges, six 
of which belong to the Roman Catholics. 




(1636.) 

Rhode Island, the smallest of the thirty-eight Common- 
wealths which comprise the Republic of the United States- 
of America, was one of the original States of the Union. 
Its history, in detail, is very interesting. The Atlantic 
Ocean washes its entire southern border; Massachusetts 
lies on its northern and eastern borders, and Connecticut 
bounds its western limits. It lies between 41° 18' and 42° 3' north latitude,, 
and 71° 8' and 71° 53' west longitude, and embraces an area of 1250 square 
miles. The population of Rhode Island in 1880 was 276,531, of which 6,592 
were colored. 

The State of Rhode Island is divided into two unequal parts by Narra- 
gansett Bay, which penetrates the land to Providence, about thirty miles from 
the sea. Its topography is diversified, a part of the country being hilly and 
other portions level and sandy or marshy. The great Bay is thickly studded, 
with picturesque islands, and its shores are clustered with historic associations.. 
The island of Rhode Island is m.ostly elevated ground, and the climate is most" 
salubrious. Its southern portion is a famous summer resort. Its name is an 
English corruption of the Dutch " Roodt Eylandt " — Red Island. They so 
called it because of the red cranberry marshes which they saw on the shores 
of Narragansett Bay. The Indians called it Aquiday, or Aquitneck. 

It is conceded to be a fact of history that Scandinavian navigators visited 
the shores of America in the loth and nth centuries, and it is believed that 
Rhode Island was a part of the country visited by them and called " Vineland " 
(see Massachusetts). An ancient round stone tower at Newport has elicited 
much investigation and disputation, some supposing it to have been erected by 
the Northmen, and others that it was built for a windmill by the early Eng- 
lish settlers on the island. It stands upon seven stone pillars. The masonry 
of the structure is admirable. 

It is claimed that Verrazani, an Italian in the French service, visited and' 



;i02 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



•explored Narragansett Bay in 1524, and had intercourse with the natives 
there, whom he found very numerous. The Dutch trapped on the shores of 
the great Bay some time before any EngHsh settlers were seated there. At 
that time Canonicus, King of the Narragansetts, ruled the domain, and treated 
with the Pilgrims at New Plymouth. 

Roger Williams, an eminent English divine and scholar, became the 
founder of the Commonwealth of Rhode Island. He came to Boston in 1630, 
with his wife, Mary, a sweet young English woman, who was a willing sharer in 
his joys and sorrows. He soon became obnoxious to ultra-Puritans at Bos- 
ton, particularlyto the bigoted clergy, because of his liberal views concerning 




ROGER WILLIAMS, TROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. 

the freedom of conscience in religious and political affairs. He had taken 
•orders in the Church of England, but, wayward in all things, he left that 
•communion, became an extreme Puritan, and adopted the independent habits 
•of " Seekers." He was a thorough separatist, and because his brethren 
in Massachusetts were not as radical as he, he assailed their theocracy. He 
became obnoxious to the authorities in Church and State at Boston, and 
went to Salem. He soon made enemies there, and went to Plymouth, where 
he became acquainted with chiefs of the barbarians and learned their language. 
Returning to Salem, he there promulgated his theological views so boldly, 
that in the autumn of 1635 the General Court of Massachusetts ordered him 
to quit the colony in six months. Observing with alarm that his doctrines 
•were spreading, it was soon determined to seize him and send him to England. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 103 

Forewarned, Williams left his home and family at midwinter, and for 
■fourteen weeks he wandered in the snows and dreariness of the region of Nar- 
ragansett Bay, where live companions joined him on the eastern bank of 
Seekonk River. They went down the stream to the head of Narragansett Bay, 
and at a fine spring they planted the seed of a colony, and called the place 
" Providence." A democratic form of government was established, which al- 
lowed no interference with the liberty of conscience — " Soul liberty." Seve- 
ral other persons from Massachusetts joined them. 

When Williams came to Boston he was inclined to become an Anabaptist. 
Now, believing baptism by immersion to be the only scriptural way, he pro- 
ceeded to establish a Baptist Church. In March, 1639, he was so baptized by 
a layman, when he proceeded to immerse eleven others. So was established 
the first Baptist Church in America. But Williams, a " seeker " after truth, 
soon doubting the validity of his own baptism and that of the others, with- 
drew from the Church and never re-entered it. 

For several years the Government of the colony was a pure democracy, 
transacting its business by means of town meetings, until a charter was ob- 
tained in 1644. From the beginning every settler was required to sign an 
agreement to give active or passive obedience to all ordinances that should be 
made by a majority of the inhabitants — heads of families — for the public 
good. 

In the year 1638 W^illiam Coddington and others, driven from Massa- 
chusetts by persecution, bought of the Indians Aquiday, or Aquitneck (now 
Rhode Island), and made settlements on the sites of Newport and Ports- 
mouth. A third settlement was formed at Warwick, on the main land, in 
1643, by a party of whom John Greene and Samuel Gorton were leaders. 
The same year Williams went to England to procure a charter for the colony, 
and brought one back with him in 1644. It united the settlements at Provi- 
dence and on Rhode Island under one Government, called " the Rhode Island 
■and Providence Plantations." 

So the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was established, but the Govern- 
•ment did not go into operation until 1647, when the first General Assembly, 
composed of the collective freemen of the several plantations, met at Ports- 
mouth (May 19), and framed and adopted a code of laws for the administra- 
tion of Government. The legislative power was vested in a Court of Com- 
missioners, consisting of six persons chosen by each of the four towns— 
Providence, Newport, Warwick and Portsmouth. Cromwell confirmed this 



I04 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

royal charter in 1655, and a new one was obtained from Charles H. in 1663,. 
under which the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was governed 180 years. 

In the fall of 1654 Williams was chosen Governor of Rhode Island. At 
that time the people were less tolerant than formerly, and they became in- 
censed against fanatical persons who came among them calling themselves 
Friends or Quakers. Williams refused to persecute them, but when George 
Fox, an educated man and founder of that sect, visited Rhode Island and 
preached there, in 1672, Williams engaged in a public debate with him and 
two others at Newport. 

When King Philip's war broke out, in 1675, the founder of Rhode Island 
watched the progress of the tempest with great anxiety. Although he was 
then seventy-six years of age, he accepted a Captain's commission, drilled a 
company at Providence, and erected defenses there for women and children. 
But the colony suffered greatly at the hands of the barbarians. They burned 
Providence and Warwick. On the soil of Rhode Island, near Kingston, the 
decisive battle that ended the war was fought. 

When Sir Edmund Andros, Viceroy of New England, began his tyrannical 
career, he seized the charter of Rhode Island (see Conncctiatf). It was re- 
stored after the accession to the throne of William and Mary in 1689, and the 
people re-adopted the seal of the province — an anchor for a device, and Hope 
for a motto. 

Rhode Island was too liberal and tolerant for the other New England 
colonies, and when the New England Confederacy was formed in 1643 Rhode 
Island was excluded. Yet it was always ready and helpful in defending those 
colonies against barbaric foes; and from the beginning of King William's 
war its history is identified with that of New England. It took an active part 
in the struggles of Great Britain and France for supreme dominion in America. 
It furnished many troops and seamen. In 1756 the colony had fifty priva- 
teersmen at sea, manned by 1500 seamen. They cruised along the American 
shores and in the West Indies. 

The people of Rhode Island were equally conspicuous for their patriot- 
ism and zeal during the long disputes with the mother country preceding the 
old war for independence, and they bore their full share of the burden and 
the honors of that war. The first Commander-in-chief of the Continental 
navy was Esek Hopkins, a native of Rhode Island; and William Whipple was 
one of the boldest of her naval commanders. 

One of the most daring events of the Revolution, in Rhode Island, was 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 105 

the seizing and carrying away of General Prescott, a British General, by 
Colonel Barton and a whaleboat's crew, on a warm summer night, and depos- 
iting him at Washington's headquarters at New Windsor, on the Hudson 
River. In the summer of 1778 there was a battle on Quaker Hill, towards the 
north end of the island, when the British were pushed back, but the Americans 
withdrew to the main land. 

When the several colonies were forming State governments in 1776-80, 
Rhode Island went forward under its royal charter, without framing a State 
Constitution. It had been under British rule a greater portion of the period 
of the war. British and Hessian troops took possession of it in December 
1776, borne there by a squadron under Admiral Parker. They occupied the 
island until near the close of 1779. In 1780 a French army, under the 
Count de Rochambeau, landed at Newport. They came as allies of the 
Americans in their struggle for freedom and independence. After the war 
Newport contended successfully with New York and Boston for commercial 
supremacy. 

The idea of State supremacy had taken such hold of the public mind in 
Rhode Island, that a majority of the people were opposed to the National 
Constitution framed in 1787, and that State was the last to ratify it. It re- 
mained out of the Union until May 29, 1790, when it yielded and took its place 
in the Republic. 

Rhode Island furnished many brave and skilled seamen during the war 
of 1812-15. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who won a decisive victory 
on Lake Erie in September, 181 3, was from Rhode Island. So, also, were 
many of his officers and men. 

Efforts were repeatedly made for several years to replace the old royal 
charter for a State Constitution, but failed. Under the charter the right to 
vote was limited to men who possessed a small amount of real estate, and to 
the eldest sons. Attempts to obtain reforms by the action of the Legislature 
having failed, " Suffrage Associations " were formed in different parts of the 
State in the winter of 1840 and 1841. They met in mass Convention at Prov- 
idence in July following, and authorized their State Committee to call a con- 
vention to frame a Constitution. The Convention assembled on the 4th of 
October and framed such an instrument. It was submitted to the people 
late in December, when it was claimed that a vote equal to a majority of 
the adult male population of the State had been given in its favor. 

Under the State Constitution, State officers were chosen, April 18, 1842, 



io6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

with Thomas W. Dorr, a distinguished lawyer, as Governor; and on May 3: 
they attempted to organize the new Government at Providence. The so- 
called " Legal Government," chosen under the charter, resisted the movement. 
That party was led by Governor King, the constitutional party was led by 
Governor Dorr. Portions of the " suffrage party," armed, attempted to seize 
the arsenal at Providence, but were frustrated by a military force led by Gov- 
ernor King. Another armed party, several hundred strong, and led by Dorr, 
assembled a month later ten miles from Providence. They, also, were dis- 
persed by King. 

Governor Dorr was soon afterwards arrested on a charge of high trea- 
son, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was released 
in 1847 under a general amnesty act. 

Meanwhile the Legislature had called (February 6, 1841) a Convention to 
frame a new Constitution. The Convention agreed upon one in February, 
1842. It was submitted to the people and rejected. Another Convention 
framed another Constitution, which was ratified almost unanimously and 
went into effect in May, 1843. 

A controversy concerning boundary lines between Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island, begun in colonial times, was settled by mutual concessions in 
1 86 1. In the spring of that year Rhode Island was among the earliest of the 
States to respond to the President's call for troops to suppress the rebellion. 
During the Civil War, that little State, then with a population of only 
175,000, furnished to the National army 23,711 soldiers. 

The agricultural productions of Rhode Island are not very extensive. 
It is a manufacturing State, especially in textile fabrics and iron and steel 
products. In the manufacture of cotton goods the State stands second in 
the Union, having, in 1880, 30,274 looms, with 1,649,295 spindles. In that year 
22,228 persons were employed in the manufacture of cotton goods, and 161,694 
bales of cotton were consumed. There were then within the little State 211 
miles of railroads in operation. Its expenditures for public instruction were 
$530,167. It had 42,489 children enrolled in its public schools, with an aver- 
age daily attendance of 27,453. The State is sometimes denominated " Lit- 
tle Rhody." 

Providence, one of the capitals of Rhode Island, has a population of 
about 120,000, and Newport, the other capital, has over 20,000. 



Mill) JIB®, 




(1638.) 

The smallest State in the Republic next to Rhode Island- 
is Delaware, having an area of 2050 square miles. It is 
between latitude 38° 28' and 39° 50' north, and longitude 
75° and 75° 46' west. Its eastern shores are laved by the 
Delaware River and Bay and the Atlantic ocean. On. 
the narrow northern boundary is Pennsylvania, and on 
its west and south borders is Maryland. The population of Delaware, in 
1880, was 146,608, of whom 26,448 were colored. 

In the northern part of Delaware the country is rolling, beautiful, pro- 
ductive and healthy. In the lower portion is a large cypress swamp and some 
smaller ones. Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland form a low penin- 
sula. 

The name of the State of Delaware was derived from Lord de la Warr,, 
who, in 1609, was appointed Governor of Virginia, and who, in 1610, sailed, 
into a broad bay, which was named De la Warr (Delaware) Bay. Henry- 
Hudson had entered it and discovered Delaware River in 1609. Samuel. 
Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, Directors of the Dutch West India Com- 
pany, purchased of the Indians a tract of land stretching along Dela- 
ware Bay, from Cape Henlopen north, over thirty miles, and two miles in the- 
interior. They were invested with patroon privileges. Captain David Pieter- 
sen de Vries, an eminent Dutch navigator in the employ of the Dutch East. 
India Company, and a friend of Patroon Godyn, also became a patroon, and 
founded a colony near the site of Lewes, on Delaware Bay, which he called 
Swaanendael. There thirty emigrants, with cattle and agricultural imple- 
ments, were seated, but the next year they were all murdered by the Indians 
and their dwellings were laid waste. 

In the year 1638 a colony of Swedes and Finns bought land of the 
Indians along Delaware Bay and River, from Cape Henlopen north to the 
Falls of the Delaware, near Trenton. Peter Minuit, formerly Director of 



io8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

New Netherland (see Nc%v York), was at the head of the colonists. There 
were fifty emigrants. They landed at Cape Henlopen. Governor Kieft, at 
Amsterdam, demanded of Miouit what his object was. He answered, " To 
plant a colony." Kieft protested and threatened, but the Swedes paid no 
attention to him. They built a fort on the site of (present) Wilmington, and 
called it Christina, in honor of the Swedish queen. So was planted the germ 
of the State of Delaware. 

In 1640 Hollanders joined the eastern settlers, and they gave the West 
India Company much trouble, for they were regarded as intruders on the 
domain of New Netherland. The settlement was called " New Sweden," and 




THOMAS m'kEAN, PROMINENT CHARACTER IN HISTORY OF DELAWARE. 

'flourished. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant with a military force seized the 
domain, and incorporated the colonists with those of New Netherland. 

Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, claimed all the territory on the 
west side of the Delaware River and Bay to latitude 40°, and settlers from 
Maryland attempted to drive away the settlers in the present State of Dela- 
ware. When, finally, William Penn obtained a grant of Pennsylvania, he was 
very desirous of owning the land on Delaware Bay to the sea. He obtained 
a title from the Duke of York (his personal friend) to the country for twelve 
miles around (present) New Castle, and to the land between that tract and 
the sea. The formal surrender of this territory to Penn occurred in the 
presence of all the settlers in October, 1682. 

Lord Baltimore still pressed his claim; but in 1685 the Lords of Trade 
and Plantations made a decision in Penn's favor. Afterwards all conflicting 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 109 

claims were adjusted by compromise. The portion of his domain, now the 
State of Delaware, Penn called the " Three Lower Counties on the Delaware " 
— New Castle, Kent and Sussex. They were governed as a part of Pennsyl- 
vania for about twenty years afterwards, each county having six delegates in 
the Legislature. Then Penn allowed them a separate Legislature — home 
rule — but not a separate Government. The Governor of Pennsylvania was 
their chief magistrate until 1776, when the inhabitants declared it an inde- 
pendent State. 

It is difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the first permanent 
settlements in the Provinces of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for 
they bore such intricate relations to each other that they may be regarded 
as parts of an episode in the history of American colonization. It is only 
when Delaware proclaimed itself an independent State that its distinct history 
tegins. 

The people of Delaware took an active part in the political discussions 
preceding the old war for independence. The " Three Lower Counties " sent 
Caesar Rodney and Thomas McKean as delegates to the first Continental 
Congress, that assembled at Philadephia in September, 1774. The people 
were earnestly in favor of independence, and on the 15th of June, 1776, the 
General Assembly of Delaware unanimously approved the resolutions of 
Congress of May 15, declaring that as the King of Great Britain had made 
war upon the colonies, and had given no heed to their humble petition for a 
redress of grievances, no further authority under the Crown should be ac- 
knowledged, but should be exercised by the people of the colonies. They 
overturned the proprietary Government within the borders of Delaware, sub- 
stituted its name on all occasions for that of the King, and gave new instruc- 
tions to its delegates in Congress, which left them at liberty to vote, respect- 
ing independence, according to their judgment. 

On the 20th of Spetember, 1776, the people of the " Three Lower Coun- 
ties " adopted a State Constitution, and then organized a State Government 
under the title of Delaware. During the old war for independence her sons 
were among the best soldiers, and won great distinction. The First Delaware 
Regiment was particularly noted for its discipline. Captain Caldwell of that 
regiment was a thorough disciplinarian, was greatly distinguished for his 
•daring spirit and was very popular. He was very fond of cock-fighting. The 
fine discipline of the regiment was attributed to him; and whenever an officer 
was sent to recruit men to fill vacancies, it was a saying that they had gone 



no THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

home for more of Caldwell's game-cocks. The Captain insisted that no cock 
could be truly game unless its mother was a hluc hen, and the name of " Blue 
Hen's chickens" was substituted for "game-cocks." From this circumstance 
the Commonwealth received the nickname of the " Blue Hen State." It is 
also called the " Diamond State," from its small size and intrinsic value. 

Delaware was the first State that ratified the National Constitution. 
That act was done on December 7, 1787. It bore its share of the burden of 
the second war for independence (1812-15), and it furnished one of the Com- 
missioners (Mr. Bayard) who negotiated peace with great Britain at Ghent, 
late in 18 14. 

Although Delaware was a slave-labor State, it took very little part in the 
secession movements at the beginning of 1861. It was still more within the 
embrace of the free-labor States than Maryland. Its Governor, its repre- 
sentatives in the National Senate, and many leading politicians sympathized 
with the Secessionists, but the people in general were conservative and 
loyal. 

The Legislature convened at Dover on June 3, 1861, when the Governor 
in his message charged the impending troubles upon the abolitionists of the 
North, saying that " from pulpits, rostrums and schools, by press and people,'" 
they had waged " a persistent war upon more than $2,000,000,000 of prop- 
erty " — meaning slaves. On the following day a commissioner from Missis- 
sippi was permitted to address the Legislature, who urged the right and 
duty of secession from the free-labor States. The House by unanimous vote, 
and a majority of the Senate, expressed their unqualified disapproval of the 
remedy for existing evils proposed by the emissary from Mississippi. 

Thus ended the mission of the representative of the Mississippi Seces- 
sionists. This loyal position Delaware maintained throughout the war that 
ensued, and gave to the National army about 10,000 men. It is a noteworthy 
fact that Delaware was the only slave-labor State the soil of which was not 
moistened by the blood of men slain in battle. 

Delaware is pre-eminently a fruit-growing State. It furnishes for the 
markets of New York and Philadelphia a vast number of peaches, apples, 
quinces and small fruits; and it has been estimated that, in connection with 
New Jersey and Maryland, it supplies fully seven-tenths of the entire demand 
for these products. Farms occupy about ten-thirteenths of the entire area 
of the State. 

Delaware has, also, quite extensive manufactories. The total product 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



Ill 



of its manufactures in 1880 was valued at $20,514,438. It has over 200 miles 
of railways in operation within its borders. 

The Commonwealth had, in 1880, 26,652 children enrolled in the public 
schools, and 404 schools for white children and fifty-six for colored children. 
Its total expenditure for public schools in that year was $221,731. It has a 
State college and a college for young women. 

The largest city in Delaware is Wilmington, with a population in 1880 of 
42,478. Its capital, Dover, had 281 1. From 1776 to 1787 two of the Gov- 
ernors of Delaware — John D. Minor and Thos. McKean — were residents of 
Pennsylvania. The first Governor of the State — Joshua Clayton — was elected 
in 1789. 





(1650.) 

North Carolina is one of the Southern Atlantic States, and 
was an original member of the American Union. Four 
sister States lie on three sides of the Commonwealth — ■ 
Virginia on the north, Tennessee on the west, and South 
Carolina and Georgia on the south. On the eastern border 
is the Atlantic Ocean. It lies between 33° 49' 45" and 
36° 33' north latitude, and 75° 25' and 84° 30' west longitude, embraces an 
area of 52,250 square miles, and, in 1880, ranked fifteen among the States in 
population, which then numbered 1,399,750. Of these 582,508 were colored 
persons, including 1230 Indians. 

Along the whole seaboard of North Carolina is a continuous line of nar- 
row, low sand-islands (some of them mere sand-banks), stretching southward 
between the mainland and the ocean, inclosing a series of sounds or lagoons, 
which are mostly shallow and difficult of navigation. The most considerable 
of these lagoons is Albemarle Sound, immediately south of the great Dismal 
Swamp. It extends inland from the sea about sixty miles, and is from four 
to fifteen miles in width. 

The surface of North Carolina, in the southern and south-eastern por- 
tions, is level and sandy, and often marshy. The great Dismal Swamp in the 
northern part of the State lies partly in Virginia. It extends nearly thirty 
miles from north to south, and averages about ten miles in width. Five navi- 
gable rivers rise out of it. The soil of the swamp is a quagmire. It is 
skirted by a fringe of reeds ten or fifteen feet in height, and it abounds with 
cedar, cypress, juniper, pine and oak trees of enormous size. This immense 
swamp is considerably higher than the surrounding country. 

Frojn forty to sixty miles from the sea-coast the surface of North Caro- 
lina begins to rise into a fine hill-country at the middle of the State, with a 
most salubrious climate. This beautiful region extends to the mountains in 
the western part of the Commonwealth, where the Alleghany ranges cross the 



I 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



115 



State from north to south, presenting several high peaks. The most lofty of 
these is Clingman's Peak, rising 6,940 feet above the sea-level. The range 
nearest the coast is known as the Blue Ridge. All are covered with verdure 
to their summits. 

The coast of North Carolina was visited by two English navigators^ 
Amidas and Barlow — in two vessels in 1584. They were sent by Sir Thomas 
Raleigh. It is conjectured that the coast was seen by Sebastian Cabot in 
1498, and by Verazzani in 1524. The first attempt to plant a settlement in 
that region was made by Raleigh, who, in 1585, sent 108 persons, with Sir 




WILLIAM R. DAVIE, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

Ralph Lane as their Governor, to plant a colony on what had just been named 
Virginia. (See Virginia.) They landed on Roanoke Island. But Lane and 
his colony were more intent on a quest /or gold than for founding a per- 
manent settlement. By their bad conduct they offended the natives, who 
had received them most kindly. The barbarians refused supplies of food for 
the intruders, and they almost starved. Afraid of the dusky enemies they had 
made, the survivors of Lane's party abandoned the country, and returned to 
England in one of Drake's ships, which had touched at the island. 

In 1587 Raleigh sent an agricultural colony to Roanoke Island, with 
John White as their Governor. He was accompanied by his son-in-law and 
his young wife. It was intended to plant the colony on the main land, but 



114 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

White went no further than the island. The emigrants cultivated the friend- 
ship of the Indians. White soon returned to England for supplies, leaving 
behind eighty men, seventeen women and two children. His daughter had 
given birth to a child since their arrival, to whom she gave the name of Vir- 
ginia. 

White touched at Ireland on his return voyage to England, where he left 
some potatoes which he had found under cultivation by the natives on 
Roanoke Island. They were the first ever seen in Europe. From this same 
spot Amidas and Barlow had carried some tobacco to England, the first ever 
seen in Europe. 

White sailed for Roanoke Island with two ships with supplies; but, in- 
stead of going directly to America, he pursued two Spanish ships in quest of 
plunder. His own vessels were so battered in a fight that he was compelled 
to return to England. He did not reach America until 1590, when he found 
Roanoke Island a desolation. Not a trace of the colony could be found. It 
is believed that, despairing of White's return, they had gone to the main 
land, and, in time, mingled with the barbarians there; for, long years after- 
wards, families of the Hatteras tribe exhibited unmistakable marks of Euro- 
pean blood. 

No other attempts to plant a colony on the soil of North Carolina were 
successfully made until the middle of the 17th century. So early as 1609 
some people from Jamestown, in Virginia, seated themselves on the Nan- 
semond River, near the Dismal Swamp; and, in 1622, the secretary of the 
Virginia Colony (John Povey) penetrated the country southward beyond the 
Roanoke River, with a view to make a settlement there. 

In 1630 Charles I. granted to Sir Richard Heath, his attorney-general, a 
patent for a domain south of Virginia, six degrees of latitude in width, ex- 
tending from Albermarle Sound to the St. John's River in Florida, and west- 
ward to the Pacific Ocean. No settlement was made there, and the charter 
was forfeited. 

At that time Dissenters, or Nonconformists, were suffering many dis- 
abilities in Virginia, and looked to the wilderness for freedom. In 1653 Roger 
Green and a few Presbyterians left that colony and settled upon the Chowan 
River, near (present) Edenton. Other Nonconformists joined them and the 
colony flourished. Thus was planted the permanent and fruitful germ of the 
Commonwealth of North Carolina. 

Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, wisely organized these settlements into 



A 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 115 

a separate political community in 1663. William Drummond, a Scotch Pres- 
byterian minister, then in Virginia, was appointed their Governor. The set- 
tlement was named "Albemarle County colony," in honor of the Duke of 
Albemarle, who had become proprietor of the territory. 

Some New England adventurers had planted themselves on the borders 
of the Cape Fear River, near the site of (present) Wilmington, in 1661, but 
many of them soon abandoned the country, partly on account of the poverty 
of the soil, and partly because Charles II. had given the whole region to eight 
of his courtiers. The domain was named " Carolina." 

The charter given to these countries extended the domain northward so 
as to include Albemarle County colony, and southward so as to include all 
Florida, excepting its peninsula. 

In 1665 a company of planters from Barbadoes bought lands of the In- 
dians near the site of Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River, where they founded 
a settlement, with Sir John Yeamans as their Governor. It was organized 
into a political community, and named the " Clarendon County colony," in 
compliment to the Earl of Clarendon, the historian, one of the proprietors. 
Yeamans's jurisdiction extended from the Cape Fear to the St. John's River. 
This settlement was permanent, but the poverty of the soil prevented a rapid 
increase in the population. It was in the region of the pine forests and 
sandy levels. Then was founded the Commonwealth of North Carolina. In 
1674 the population of that province was about 4000. 

Settlements had now begun further south in the domain of Carolina. 
The proprietors had gorgeous visions of a grand empire in America, and in 
1669 the Earl of Shaftesbury (one of the proprietors) and John Locke, the 
philosopher, prepared a scheme of government for the colony, having orders 
of nobility — a feudal system wholly at variance with the feelings of the settlers. 
It was never put into operation. 

Excessive taxation and other causes of discontent caused the people of 
Albemarle County to revolt in 1677. They seized the Governor and impris- 
oned him ; and six of his Council called an Assembly, appointed a new Gov- 
ernor and Judges, and for two years conducted public affairs independent of 
foreign control. 

In 1683 the proprietors sent Seth Sothel to North Carolina as Governor. 
He ruled the colony for six years, when, his rapacity and corruption being 
unendurable, the people banished him. In 1695 John Archdale, a Quaker, 



ii6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

became Governor. His justice and integrity restored order and good feelings 
when the colony started on a prosperous career. 

In 171 1, after the colony had passed through the excitement of a rebel- 
lion, caused by the bad conduct of a Governor, the province became involved 
in war with the Indians within its borders, and suffered dreadfully. In one 
night (October 2, 171 1) 130 persons were massacred by the barbarians. Troops 
and friendly Indians came to their aid from the "Carteret County colony" 
(afterwards South Carolina), when hostilities ceased for a time. War broke 
out again in 171 3, when eight hundred Tuscarora Indians were captured, and 
the remainder of their tribe fled northward and joined their kindred, the Iro- 
quois, in New York. 

In 1729 Carolina became a royal province, and was permanently divided 
into two parts, called respectively " North Carolina " and " South Carolina." 
Settlements in the North State gradually increased. The people, with com- 
petent leaders, took part in the political discussions preceding the war for 
independence; and in 1769 the Assembly of North Carolina denied the right 
of Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. An insurrectionary 
movement began in the interior of the colony in 1770-71 on account of the 
rapacity and extortion of their rulers. The people formed an association 
known as "the Regulators." A sanguinary battle was fought in May, 1771, 
when nearly forty men were killed. These events caused fierce hatred of 
British rule in that province. 

North Carolina sent delegates to the first Continental Congress in 1774,. 
and associations were formed in different parts of the province for mutual 
defense. A general meeting of delegates of the people of twenty-six coun- 
ties and seven towns was held at New Berne on April 3, 1775. The General 
Assembly of the Province was in session at the same time. The royal Gov- 
ernor dissolved them on the 8th, and they never met again. The people 
formed a provincial Convention, which assumed governmental authority. 

Finally, a popular defensive association of Mecklenburg County assem- 
bled at Charlotte at the close of May, 1775, and by a series of bold resolves 
virtually declared the independence of the colonies, and provided for an in- 
dependent government in Mecklenburg County. 

Alarmed by the aspect of public affairs, the royal Governor, Martin, ab- 
dicated, and took refuge on board a British war-vessel in the Cape Fear River. 
Then the provincial Convention organized a body of troops. The delegates 
of the province in the Continental Congress, in 1776, were authorized to vote 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIEIS. 117 

for independence, and the great Declaration was ratified by the people in 
August, 1776. 

A Convention met at Halifax in December, 1776, and framed a State Con- 
stitution, and that instrument remained the fundamental law of the Common- 
wealth until 1835. 

Richard Caswell was chosen the first Governor of the new State. One 
of its most distinguished citizens was William Richardson Davie,, who was 
only twenty years of age when the Declaration of Independence was adopted ; 
but before the close of the war he was at the head of a corps of cavalry doing 
noble service for his State. He was Governor of North Carolina in 1798^ 
and was afterwards employed in the diplomatic service of his country ia 
France. 

During the old war for independence the State suffered much from the 
operations of contending armies. One of the most notable battles of the war 
— Guilford Court House — occurred on its soil. It also suffered much from 
contending political factions. 

The Tories or Loyalists in North Carolina were numerous, especially 
among a large Scotch population. The Whigs, however, were largely in the 
majority, and in 1780 they treated the Tories with great severity. Corn- 
wallis, in South Carolina, had sent emissaries among the Tories, who advised 
them to keep quiet until they had gathered their crops, in autumn, when the 
British army would march to their assistance. But, impatient of the severities 
to which they were exposed, they flew to arms at once, but were defeated 
and dispersed. After the battle at Guilford Court House, early in 1781,. 
Cornwallis, who had entered the State, as promised, fled toward the seaboard, 
and into Virginia, 

The people of North Carolina, in representative Convention assembled, 
in 1788, rejected the National Constitution, but ratified it the next year. The 
people, industrious and frugal, prospered. They suffered very little from the 
effects of the war of 1812-15, for they had no battle or severe losses within 
their territory. 

Although North Carolina was a slave-labor State, its people, as a rule, 
were not inclined to sympathize with the Secession movements late in i860 
and early in 1861. Great efforts, however, were made by the Secessionists 
within and without its domain to force the State into revolution. Its Gov- 
ernor favored the movement. Its United States Senator (Clingman) made 
early efforts to arouse the people of that State to revolt ; but love for the 



ii8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Union was so strong among them that they did not readily follow such leaders. 
The South Carolinians taunted them with cowardice; the Virginia Secession- 
ists treated them with coldness; the Alabamians and the Mississippians coaxed 
them by the lips of Commissioners. 

The Legislature of North Carolina, that met on November 19, i860, pro- 
vided for a Convention, but directed that no ordinance of that Convention 
" dissolving the connection of the State of North Carolina with the Federal 
'Government, or connecting it with any other, shall have any force or validity 
until it shall have been submitted to and ratified by a majority of the qualified 
voters of the State," to whom it should be submitted at least a month after 
such submission should be advertised. 

Although there was no pretense of secession for months later, the Gov- 
ernor caused the United States forts within its borders and the United States 
arsenal at Fayetteville, which the disloyal Secretary of War had filled with 
arms for northern arsenals, to be seized. These movements the people con- 
demned. 

The Secessionists finally persuaded the Legislature to authorize a Seces- 
sion Convention. Tiie Governor was vested with authority to raise 10,000 
men, and it gave the State Treasurer power to issue bills of credit to the 
amount of $500,000. It defined treason to be making war upon the State. 

The Secession Convention met on May 20, 1861, and on the same day 
adopted and issued an Ordinance of Secession by a unanimous vote. On the 
same day the Governor issued an order for the enrolment of 30,000 men. 
Within three weeks not less than 20,000 were in arms. The United States 
Mint at Charlotte was seized. 

Some of the most stirring events in the Civil War occurred on the coasts 
of North Carolina, and in the adjacent waters. Roanoke Island and the forts 
■on Cape Hatteras were taken by National troops early in the war. Its sounds 
and their shores witnessed many minor conflicts. Fort Fisher, at the mouth 
of Cape Fear River, was captured in February, 1865. Soon afterwards Gen- 
eral Sherman made a victorious march through North Carolina, and General 
Johnson's army was surrendered on its soil. , 

On May 29, 1865, W. W. Holden was made provisional Governor of the 
State, and in October a Convention of delegates assembled at Raleigh, adopted 
resolutions declaring the Ordinance of Secession null, abolishing slavery and 
repudiating the State debt created in aid of the great insurrection. A new 
Legislature ratified the amendment to the National Constitution abolishing 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 119 

.-slavery. But the new Government of the State did not meet with the 
approval of Congress. 

In 1867 a military government for North Carolina was established, and 
measures were taken for a reorganization of the civil government. At the 
next election the votes of sixty thousand emancipated colored people were 
■cast. 

In January, 1868, a Convention adopted a new Constitution. It was rati- 
fied by the people in April, was approved by Congress, and in June North 
Carolina was declared to be entitled to representation in that body. On 
March 4, 1869, the people of North Carolina adopted the Fifteenth amend- 
ment to the National Constitution by a large majority. 

The chief industry of North Carolina is agriculture, producing all kinds 
of cereals in abundance, also tobacco and cotton in large quantities, while its 
pine forests produce a vast amount of tar and turpentine. On this account 
the Commonwealth has received the names of "The Tar State" and "The 
Turpentine State." Its manufacturing industries are not large or numerous. 
Its mineral resources are enormous. Before the acquisition of California, the 
richest gold mines known in the United States were in North Carolina, and a 
-mint, for coinage, was established at Charlotte. Silver, lead, zinc and copper 
are found there; also diamonds. Its chief mineral wealth consists of iron and 
bituminous coal. There are over 1600 miles of railways in the State. 

Provision for popular education in North Carolina is liberal. In 1880 
there were 265,422 children enrolled in its public schools, with an average 
daily attendance of 181,576. It expended for its public schools that year 
$338,700. There are eight colleges in the State, and several higher seminaries 
of learning. 





(1664.) 

New Jersey is one of the Middle Atlantic States, and 
one of the original thirteen. It lies between the Atlan- 
tic Ocean and the Hudson River, and Delaware Bay 
and River, extending from latitude 38° 55' and 41° 21' 
19" north, and longitude 73° 53' and 75° 33' west. 
On its western "borders are the States of Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, and on the north and east the State of New York. The terri- 
tory embraces an area of 7,815 square miles, occupied by a population, in 
1880, of 1,092,007, of whom 39,099 were colored, including a few Indians and 
Chinese. It then ranked nineteen in population among the States. 

The southern and middle portions of the State are generally low, level 
and sandy, especially near the coast. The north half of the State is traversed 
by three distinct ranges of lofty hills. Two of them, the Kittatinney or Blue 
Mountains (Shawangunk in New York) and the Highland range belong to the 
Appalachian chain. 

As we have observed (see Delaware), it is difficult to draw the line of 
demarcation in the early history of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, 
they were then so intimately connected. The territory of New Jersey was 
claimed to be a part of New Netherland. 

So early as 1620, some Dutch traders of New Amsterdam seated them- 
selves at Bergen, and in 1623 Captain Jacobus May, with a company of the 
Walloon emigrants (see New York), built Fort Nassau at the mouth of Tim- 
mer Kill, near Gloucester, on the Delaware, four miles below Philadelphia. 
There four young married couples began a settlement, but it did not succeed. 
In 1634 Sir Edmund Plowden, or Bloyden, obtained a grant from the 
British monarch of a tract of land on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, 
and called it " New Albion." Four years later some Swedes and Finns- 
bought lands from the Indians in that vicinity and began some settlements. 
The Swedes planted a colony, called it "New Sweden," and in 1655 were 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 121 

dispossessed by Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor of New Netherland, with a 
military force. 

After the English took forcible possession of New Netherland, in 1664, 
Governor Nicolls, under the authority of the Duke of York, proceeded to 
give patents for lands within the present domain of New Jersey. The Duke 
afterwards granted that portion of his claimed territory to two of his favor- 
ites, Lord Berkeley, brother of the Governor of Virginia, and Sir George 
Carteret. The latter had been Governor of the Island of Jersey during the 
Civil War, and defended it against Parliamentary troops. Settlements under 
grants by Nicolls had already been begun at (present) Newark, Middletown, 




WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY. 

and Shrewsbury. The name of New Jersey was given to the domain in com- 
pliment to Carteret. 

The new proprietors sent Philip Carteret, a cousin of Sir George, as 
Governor of the domain, who bore with him a Constitution as the supreme 
law for the colony, which grew very rapidly, for its terms were liberal. It 
provided a government composed of a Governor and Council, and a repre- 
sentative assembly chosen by the people. 

Four English families from Long Island had seated themselves under a 
patent from Nicolls at a place which the Governor named Elizabethtown, in 
honor of Elizabeth, wife of Sir George, and there he built a house for himself. 

The first Legislative Assembly of New Jersey convened at Elizabeth- 
town in 1668. It was vested with all Legislative powers, while the Executive 
power was intrusted to the Ggvernor and Council. Its most urgent business 



122 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

was to endeavor to adjust conflicting claims by those who had received 
patents from Nicolls and from the new proprietors. These disputes, which 
sometimes assumed the proportions of violent quarrels, disturbed the colony 
for some years. 

Other troubles arose. The proprietors published a form of agreement 
called " Concessions," containing liberal offers to emigrants who might settle 
in the territory. Among other provisions was an exemption from the pay- 
ment of quit-rents and other taxes for the space of five years. These con- 
cessions, the salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the soil, lured many 
settlers to the domain. 

The colony was peaceable and prosperous until 1670, when a quit-rent 
of a half-penny for each acre was demanded. The settlers murmured. Those 
who had purchased land from the Indians denied the right of the proprietors 
to exact a quit-rent. The people combined in resisting the payment, and 
finally revolted. They called a popular assembly, deposed Governor Car- 
teret, and put a dissolute, illegitimate son of Sir George in his place. The 
proprietors were preparing to subdue the people, when all of New Nether- 
land fell into the hands of the Dutch. 

When the English again took possession of New York, by virtue of a 
treaty, the Duke obtained a new charter, and New Jersey was placed under 
the rule of Governor Andros, " the tyrant of New England." Carteret 
demurred, and his rights were partially restored. Berkeley was disgusted, and 
sold his rights to an English Quaker, who, becoming financially embarrassed, 
disposed of his interest in the province to William Penn and others in 1675. 
The next year the province was divided into East and West Jersey, Carteret 
receiving the Eastern and the Quakers the Western division. 

There was a large emigration of Quakers from England to West Jersey, 
who settled below the Raritan River, under a very liberal government. Andros 
demanded their allegiance, but it was refused. This matter was referred to 
high legal authority in England and the settlers were sustained. 

The first popular assembly in New Jersey met at Salem in November, 
1661, and adopted a code of laws for the government of the people. After the 
death of Carteret, in 1679, East Jersey was offered for sale. It was purchased 
by William Penn and eleven others of his co-religionists in 1682, who ap- 
pointed Robert Barclay, a young Scotch Quaker and one of the proprietors, 
Governor. Emigrants from Britain and from Long Island flocked into East 
Jersey, but were compelled to endure the petty tyranny of Andros until the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 125; 

Duke, become James II., was driven from the throne and Andros was sent to. 
England. 

The colony was without a regular civil government for several years. 
Contentions and losses discouraged the proprietors, and in 1702 the domain 
of New Jersey was surrendered to the Crown. The infamous Lord Corn- 
bury, Governor of New York, misruled it for a time, and made the people 
political slaves. The province remained a dependency of New York, with a 
distinct Legislature, until 1738, when it was made an independent colony,, 
and so remained until the old war for independence. Its first Governor was 
Lewis Morris. The last royal Governor of the Colony was William Franklin, 
the only son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who, when the Revolution broke out, 
remained loyal to the Crown. He defied public opinion, and in June, 1776^ 
was arrested and sent a prisoner to Connecticut, where he was kept under 
strict guard about two years, and was then exchanged. 

The people of New Jersey took an active part in the ante-revolutionary^ 
disputes with Great Britain, and made a decided stand against the Crown 
after the affair at Lexington, in April, 1775. They had been ably represented 
in the First Continental Congress. On May 2, 1775, the Provincial Commit- 
tee of Correspondence directed its chairman to summon a Provincial Congress 
of deputies to meet at Trenton on the 23d of the same month. Thirteen, 
counties were there represented, when Hendrick Fisher was chosen president 
of the Congress. 

Governor Franklin summoned a session of the Provincial Assembly on 
the 15th of May, but they declined to appear or take any decisive action with- 
out the consent of the Continental Congress, then in session. The Provincial 
Congress adopted measures for organizing the militia and the issuing of bills 
of credit to the amount of $50,000. In June, 1776, Governor Franklin again 
called a meeting of the old Provincial Assembly, and for this offense he was. 
arrested and sent a prisoner to Connecticut, as we have observed. 

On the 2d of July, 1776, the Provincial Congress adopted a State Consti- 
tution, which was ratified on the i8th, and New Jersey took a position as an; 
independent State of the Union. Under that Constitution the State was 
governed until 1844, when the present Constitution was adopted. The early 
instrument allowed universal suffrage, without distinction of sex or color. 
The present Constitution restricts the suffrage to white men over twenty-one. 
years of age. 

Some of the most stirring events of the old war for independence oc- 



124 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

■curred on New Jersey soil. The exciting chase of Washington across the 
State from the Hudson to the Delaware by Earl Cornwallis took place at 
near the close of 1776, and soon afterwards the battles of Trenton and 
Princeton were fought. Then the State was wrested from the invading 
British. Later, the sanguinary battle of Monmouth Court House occurred 
in the more southern region of the State, and events which made Morristown 
famous occurred in the beautiful hill-country of New Jersey. The State 
suffered much during the war from the incursions of British troops, German 
mercenaries and resident Tories. 

The first Legislature of New Jersey, after its State organization, met at 
Princeton in August, 1776, and chose William Livingston Governor. The 
people of that State were among the earliest to ratify the National Constitu- 
tion, which event occurred, by unanimous vote, on December 18, 1787. The 
State capital was established at Trenton in 1790. 

The State of New Jersey was not disturbed by the intercolonial wars, 
nor by the second war for independence, though it bore its share of the bur- 
dens imposed ; but, like all the other States of the Union, it was deeply con- 
cerned in the great Civil War, in 1861-65. The members of the Legislature, 
which assembled on January 8, 1861, were divided in sentiment, chiefly on 
political partisan grounds. The Governor, in his message, favored the com- 
promise measures then before Congress; or, in the event of their not being 
adopted, he recommended a delegate Convention of all the States to agree 
upon some plan of pacification. The Democratic party had a majority of the 
New Jersey Legislature. A majority of the Committee on National Affairs 
reported resolutions endorsing the so-called " Crittenden compromise," which 
were adopted by the Democratic majority of the Legislature on the 31st as 
" the sentiment of the people of the State." The Republican minority denied 
this assertion, and by resolutions they declared the willingness of the people 
of the State to aid the Government in the execution of all the laws of Con- 
gress. They asserted the nationality of the General Government, as against 
State supremacy; clared it to be the duty of the National Government to 
maintain its authority everywhere within the limits of the Republic, and 
pledged the faith and power of New Jersey in aid of that Government to any 
extent required. The people redeemed that pledge, and furnished the National 
army with 79,511 soldiers. 

In 1870 the State Legislature refused to ratify the Fifteenth amendment 
to the National Constitution, which gave the elective franchise to the colored 



\ 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 125 

population, claiming for each State the right to regulate its own suffrage 
laws. 

The industry of the people of New Jersey is largely devoted to agricul- 
ture, yet its manufactures are very extensive. Cotton fabrics are quite ex- 
tensively manufactured in New Jersey. In 1880 there were engaged in it 
3,334 looms, running 232,305 spindles. The aggregate product of its iron and 
;steel manufactures was valued at $10,341,896. 

There are over 1750 miles of railroad in operation within the State of 
New Jersey. The assessed value of its property was $572,518,361, in 1880. 
The State exercises a zealous, fostering care for the instruction of its chil- 
dren. It expended for public schools in 1880 $2,039,930. There were 205,240 
•children enrolled in the public schools, with an average attendance of 11,860. 
There are in the State four universities and colleges, the College of New Jer- 
sey, at Princeton, being one of the oldest institutions of learning in America. 
It has numerous normal schools, seminaries for young women, and academies. 

The largest cities in New Jersey, in 1880, were Jersey City and Newark, 
the former having 153,503 inhabitants, and the latter 152,988. Its capital 
^Trenton) had 34,386. 



C-P O*) 





(1670.) 

South Carolina is one of the Southern Atlantic States^ 
and an original member of the Republic. It lies betweea 
latitude 35° 13' and 32° 4' north, and longitude 78° 28' 
and 83° 18" west, embracing an area of 30,570 square 
miles. In 1880 it had a population of 995,577, of whom 
■ considerably more than one-half were colored, they (in- 
cluding 131 Indians) numbering 604,472. 

The south-eastern boundary of the State is washed by the Atlantic 
Ocean ; on the north and north-east is the State of North Carolina, and on 
the south-west the State of Georgia, from which it is separated by the Savan- 
nah River. 

From eighty to one hundred miles from the sea-coast the country is low,, 
alluvial, and in some sections it presents swamps and marshes, through whichs 
sluggish streams flow into land-locked bays and sounds along the coast. In. 
the middle of the State is a belt of low sand-hills which are somewhat fertile.. 
Beyond this region " tlie Ridge " rises in terraces, its greatest height being 
the Blue Ridge, in the north-western part of the State, where its highest 
point. Table Mountain, reaches an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea. The 
State is thoroughly watered, its largest stream being the Santee River, which,, 
with its tributaries, drains the central part of the Commonwealth. The 
numerous islands along the coast are very fertile. 

The first attempt to plant a settlement in South Carolina was made by 
John Ribault and a party of Huguenots or French Protestants. They came 
in two ships, discovered and named the St. John's River in Florida, and,, 
sailing northward, entered a broad inlet and harbor, to whicft they gave the 
name of Port Royal. They landed on a beautiful island, where they built a 
fort, and named it Carolina, in honor of Charles IX., King of France. That 
was in 1562. D'Allyon, a Spanish adventurer, had made a brief tarry on the 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



127 



shores of South Carolina as early as 1520. Ribault and his companions soon 
abandoned it 

As we have remarked in the sketch of North Carohna, this region was 
granted to eight of the favorites of Charles n.,who, in 1670, sent three ships^ 
with emigrants, under the direction of Sir William Sayle and Joseph West,, 
to plant a colony below Cape Fear. They entered Port Royal Sound, and 
landed on Beaufort Island, at the very spot where the Huguenots had so- 
journed for a while and built a fort. 

These English immigrants soon abandoned Beaufort, sailed northward^ 
entered what is now Charleston Harbor, went up a river (now the Ashley), 
and seated themselves on its' right banks. W^est exercised the functions of 




WILLIAM MOULTRIE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Governor until the arrival of Sir John Yeamans, the Governor of both the 
Carolinas, late in 1671, with fifty families and a large number of African slaves 
from Barbadoes. Civil government was established the next year under the 
title of " The Carteret County colony," so named in honor of Sir George 
Carteret, one of the grantees (see New Jersey). So was planted the germ of 
the State of South Carolina. 

Ten years later this colony removed to Oyster Point, at the junction of 
(present) Ashley and Cooper rivers, where they founded a city, and named 
it Charlestown or Charleston. It was laid out by John Culpepper, who had 
been surveyor-general of North Carolina. 

Not long after this, some Dutch families, dissatisfied with English rule 



128 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

at New York, went to South Carolina and seated themselves along- the San- 
tee and Edisto rivers. The proprietors of the Carolinas tried to induce the 
settlers to accept as a form of government the plan drawn up by Locke and 
Shaftesbury, called Fundavicntal Constitiitions, but they refused compliance. 

West remained nominal Governor for several years. The colony increased. 
It was soon made up of different nationalities and characteristics. There 
were cavaliers and their sons, of the English aristocracy, who had come as 
adventurers; Irish and Scotch Presbyterians; French Huguenots; German 
and Swiss Protestants, Moravians and Bohemians. The cavaliers were dis- 
posed to " lord it " over the others, and political and religious quarrels dis- 
tracted the colony for a long time. The people were often In opposition to 
the proprietary rulers, and in 1690 they broke out into open rebellion, when 
the popular Assembly impeached and banished Governor John Colleton. 

At this juncture Seth Sothel, banished from North Carolina, arrived, when 
the people chose him for their Governor. For fully two years he plundered 
and oppressed them, when he, too, was deposed and banished. When Philip 
Ludlow came to govern for the proprietors, though a good man, the aroused 
colonists resolved not to tolerate him. He tried to enforce the Fundamental 
Constitutions, but soon gladly withdrew from the turbulent community. 

A conciliatory spirit now gained influence over the colony. In 1695 
John Archdale, an English Quaker, came to govern the province. His eldest 
sister had married Sir Ferdinando Gorges (see Nczv Hampshire and Mai?ie), 
and he was one of the Carolina proprietors. On his arrival in South Caro- 
lina he formed a commission of sensible and moderate men, to whom he ex- 
pressed the desire and determination to allay all ill feeling in the colony. 
He was then seventy years of age His mild, republican rule made the 
people happy. 

For the first time South Carolina issued bills of credit on account of a 
burden of debt laid upon it by its ambitious Governor, Moore, who led an 
unsuccessful expedition against the Spaniards at St. Augustine, Florida, in 
1702 The debt incurred was $26,000. The Governor conducted a more 
successful expedition against the Appalachian Indians the next year. They 
were in league with the Spaniards. He made their whole territory in Georgia 
tributary to South Carolina. 

At about this time the proprietors attempted to establish the Anglican 
Church ritual as the State method of worship in South Carolina, and the 
Assembly excluded all dissenters from public ofifices. The British ministry 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 129 

compelled the Assembly to repeal the law, but the Church party remained 
dominant. 

A French and Spanish fleet attacked Charleston in 1706, but were re- 
pulsed. A few years later (171 5) a general Indian Confederacy was formed 
for the extermination of the white people in South Carolina. They came 
upon the Carolinas from Georgia, from the west, and from North Carolina. 
After several encounters the South Carolinians expelled the dusky invaders 
from their borders. These conflicts involved the colony in more debt. The 
proprietors seemed indifferent, when the suffering people arose in their might 
(1719), and deposing the proprietary Governor, put another magistrate in his 
place. They organized a government independent of the proprietors. The 
difficulty was solved by the purchase of the two Carolinas by the King of 
England for about $80,000. In 1729 the two territories were separated, and 
became distinct royal provinces. 

From that time, until the French and Indian War, the colony was pros- 
perous, though troubled occasionally by hostile Indians and Spaniards. The 
colony was loyal. But when the oppressive laws devised by the British 
ministry aroused all the English-American colonies to resistance, South Caro- 
lina participated in the movement. The people early took measures to resist 
the invasion of their rights. A provincial Congress was formed in 1774, and 
delegates were sent to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The royal 
Governor (Lord Campbell) abdicated the government, and took refuge from 
the wrath of the Whigs on board a British war vessel in Charleston Harbor, 
in September, 1775, when royal power ceased and the government was ad- 
ministered by a Provincial Council. 

In March, 1776, a State Constitution was adopted, when the Council 
resolved itself into an Assembly, and chose from its own body a Legislative 
Council of thirteen members. John Rutledge was chosen President and 
Henry Laurens Vice-President. This government was formed to last only 
until the end of the war. William Moultrie was elected first Governor in 1785. 

South Carolina suffered fearfully during the war for independence, from 
invasions of British armies and the violence of factions — the bitterness of 
Whigs and Tories. Several severe battles and many sanguinary encounters 
between partisans occurred. Charleston was seized by the British in 1780, 
and held by them until the end of the war. 

On the 28th of May, 1788, the people, in representative Convention, 
ratified the National Constitution. The first permanent State Constitution 



I30 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

was aaopted by the Legislature, without submission to the people, on June 
3, 1790. Charles Pinckney had been chosen Governor at the close of 1789. 
Among the most distinguished of the early patriots and statesmen of South 
Carolina, was Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who bore a very active part in 
civil and military affairs during the Revolution. He was sent as minister to the 
revolutionary government of France in 1796. When the Directory demanded 
tribute, Pinckney said: " Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute." 

The chief agricultural product, cotton, had made a very profitable indus- 
try after the introduction of Whitney's cotton-gin, and the slave-labor system 
became vitally important. The number of slaves rapidly increased, and in 
1820 they exceeded in n'umber the white people. The high tariffs imposed 
were unfavorable to the cotton-growing States, and great political excitement 
was manifested in some of them, particularly in South Carolina, from 1828 to 
1833. The " Nullification " movement in that State was defiance of National 
authority. 

Immediately after the Presidential election in 1832, a South Carolina 
State Convention met and adopted, by unanimous vote, an ordinance which 
pronounced the tariff " null and void, and no law, nor binding on the State, 
its officers and citizens " ; and prohibited the payment of duties on imports 
imposed by that law within the State after February i, 1833. It declared 
that no appeal in the matter should be made to the Supreme Court of the 
United States against the validity of an Act to that effect, and that, should 
the National Government attempt to enforce the law thus nullified, or inter- 
fere with the foreign commerce of the State, the people of South Carolina 
would " hold themselves absolved from all further obligations to maintain 
and preserve their political connection with the people of the other States." 

This was an assertion of State sovereignty or State supremacy, pure and 
simple. The defiance of the National authority brought forth a strong proc- 
lamation from President Jackson, and preparations were made to sustain that 
authority, by force of arms, if necessary. Compromise tariff laws were en- 
acted by Congress, and civil war at that time was averted. State pride fos- 
tered the political idea of State supremacy. It was the basis of the nullifi- 
cation movement, and it made the political leaders of South Carolina eager 
to become pioneers in the secession movements which culminated in civil war. 

A more active and powerful nullification and secession movement 
occurred in South Carolina nearly thirty years after that of 1832. The atti- 
tude of the Northern States toward the slave system of the South had alarmed 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 131 

and disturbed the people of the latter section ; and when the Republican 
party, formed in 1854, nominated Abraham Lincoln, a pronounced Anti- 
Slavery man, for President of the United States, threats of secession from 
the Union were made by the politicians in the slave-labor States. When 
Lincoln was elected, in the fall of i860, measures for that purpose were 
adopted. In this movement South Carolina took the lead. A State Con- 
vention assembled first at Columbia, the State capital, and then at Charleston, 
and adopted an ordinance of secession on December 20, i860. The Conven- 
tion adopted a declaration of independence, and the Governor of the State 
declared its sovereignty. The newspapers of Charleston gave items of intelli- 
gence from the other States of the Union under the heading of " Foreign News." 

A few days after the Ordinance of Secession was passed. Civil War was 
begun in Charleston Harbor, by insurgents in batteries on the shores, firing 
■on a national vessel that entered it, and by the seizure of national property 
within its borders. In April, 1861, citizens of South Carolina attacked Fort 
Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, whereupon the President of the United States 
called for 75,000 men to put down the rising rebellion. Meanwhile the poli- 
ticians in other slave-labor States had passed ordinances of Secession, and 
were in an attitude of revolt 

Assuming an attitude of sovereignty. South Carolina sent commissioners 
to the National Government to treat upon public matters. They were not 
received. During the Civil War that was then begun, the people of South 
Carolina suffered dreadfully. Slavery was abolished throughout the Union. 
At the close of the war the President of the United States appointed (June 
30, 1865) a provisional Governor for South Carolina, and in September a State 
Convention repealed the Ordinance of Secession and declared slavery abol- 
ished. State ofificers were chosen in October, This government was super- 
seded by military government in March, 1867. 

On January 14, 1868, at a Convention composed of thirty-four white 
people and sixty-three colored people, a State Constitution for South Carolina 
was adopted. It was ratified at an election in April, 1869, by a large major- 
ity, when members of the Legislature (72 white and 85 colored) and represen- 
tatives in Congress were chosen. On the ratification of the Fourteenth 
amendment to the National Constitution, the reorganization of the Common- 
wealth was practically effected. The military power had been withdrawn on 
July 13, 1868, and the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified 
in March, 1869. 



132 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

The signing of the South Carolina Secession ordinance was performed 
with considerable dramatic effect. It had been engrossed on parchment, 
twenty-five by thirty-three inches in size, with the great seal of South Carolina 
attached. The Governor and his Council, and both branches of the Legisla- 
ture, were assembled in a large public hall, which was densely crowded with 
men and women of Charleston. Back of the President's chair was suspended 
a banner composed of cotton cloth, with devices rudely painted in water-color 
by a Charleston artist. The base of the design was a mass of broken and 
disordered blocks of stone, bearing the names of the Free-labor States of the 
Union, showing their ruin. Rising from them were two columns, composed 
of symmetrical blocks, bearing the names of the Slave-labor States, represent- 
ing the new order of things. Over these was a sort of arch, of which South 
Carolina was the key-stone. In the space formed by the two columns and 
the arch was the device on the seal and flag of South Carolina — a palmetto 
tree with a rattlesnake coiled around its trunk, and the legend on a fluttering 
ribbon " Southern Republic." On the keystone of the arch was a picture of 
John C. Calhoun, leaning against a palmetto tree. Beneath all were the 
words — " Built from the Ruins." 

After the signature of every member of the Convention was affixed to 
the Ordinance, a venerable clergyman, a native of New York State, advanced 
to the front of the platform and invoked the blessings of Almighty God 
upon the act just performed. Then the President of the Convention stepped 
forward, read and exhibited the instrument to the people, and said: 

" The Ordinance of Secession has been signed, and I proclaim the State 
of South Carolina an independent Commonwealth." 

A shout of exultation went up from the multitude. So closed the first 
great act of the terrible drama of Civil War in the United States. 

The climate of South Carolina is like that of the south of France and the 
north of Spain. Its largest agricultural product is cotton; its manufactured 
products are limited in amount, and these are chiefly textile fabrics. In 
1880 there were a little over 1400 miles of railways within the State, which 
had cost $36,741,000. 

The number of children of school age in South Carolina in 1880 was little 
more than 228,000, of whom 134,000 were enrolled in the public schools. 
The aggregate expenditure for these schools in 1880 was $367,259. There 
are eight universities or colleges in the State. In 1880, of 667,456 persons of 
ten years of age and upwards, 321,780 were unable to read or write. 



lefmsYLiJif 




(1682.) 

Pennsylvania, one of the original States of the Republic,, 
and one of the middle States of the Atlantic slope, lies 
between latitude 39° 43' and 42° 15' north, and longitude 
74° 43' 36" and 80° 31' 36" west. It embraces an area of 
45,215 square miles. In the census of 1880 this State 



ranked second in population, the number of its people then being 4,282,891, 
of whom 85,875 were colored, including 148 Chinese and 184 Indians. 

Pennsylvania presents a greater variety of surface, than any other State 
in the Union. Its mountains spread over a fourth part of the State, in almost 
parallel ridges. The Appalachian chain crosses the State in a belt varying^ 
in width from seventy-five to one hundred and sixty miles, trending from* 
north-east to south-west. Between these ridges are beautiful and very fer- 
tile valleys, varying in width from two or three to thirty miles. The moun- 
tains are high and rugged in the northern part of the State, but seldom rise 
over 2000 feet above the sea level. The principal river of the State is the: 
Susquehanna, with its sources in New York and Western Pennsylvania. The 
chief head waters of the Ohio River are in Pennsylvania. The Delaware River 
washes its eastern border, and separates it from the States of New Jersey and 
New York. On the north is Lake Erie, a short distance, and the State of 
New York; on the west is Ohio, and on the south Virginia and West Vir- 
ginia. 

The Dutch, as we have observed, claimed jurisdiction over the waters of 
Delaware Bay and River. This claim was first assailed by a colony of Swedes 
and Finns. (See New Jersey^ They settled on the western side of these 
waters, yet they were regarded by the proprietors of New Netherland as 
intruders. The Dutch, under Governor Stuyvesant, subdued and absorbed 
them. 

A large territory west of the Delaware river was granted (1681') by 
Charles II. to William Penn, son of Admiral Penn, a favorite of the King,. 



134 THE GREAT REPUBIJC OF THE WEST: 

The monarch owed the Admiral's estate about $80,000, and the charter for 
the territory was given in payment of that debt. The King directed the 
region to be called Penn-sylvania, or " Penn's wooded country," in the patent. 
The modest Quaker objected to this personal distinction, but to no purpose, 
William Penn was a zealous member of a sect of Puritans called 
" Friends," and Quakers, in derision, who were suffering persecution in Eng- 
land at that time. He sent a colony of " Friends " to his domain, under the 
general superintendence of William Markham, with instructions to deal kindly 
and honestly with every one. The Swedes, who had seated themselves in 
his territory, were treated with great consideration and kindness. He also 
proposed a scheme of liberal government for his colony. 




THOMAS MIFFLIN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Penn had secured from the Duke of York a proprietary title to the ter- 
ritory of the (present) State of Delaware (which see) in August, 1682, and in 
September he sailed for America, with a few emigrants, in the ship Welco7iie. 
A-t the end of six wrecks he landed (October 28th, O.S.) near the site of (pres- 
ent) New Castle, Delaware, where he was warmly welcomed by about 1000 
settlers. After conferring with some of the Indian chiefs and sachems, he 
went up the Delaware River many miles, in an open boat, to the (present) 
Kensington District of Philadelphia, where he landed. 

On a cold day in November, and under the branches of a wide-spreading 
elm tree, a number of Indian sachems were assembled, with chiefs and women. 
The later foliage of the elm was just falling. A moderate council-fire was 
lighted, and then William Penn concluded a treaty with the barbarians — the 
rightful owners of the soil — for the purchase of the domain which the mon- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 135 

arch of England bad given to him without a shadow of right. This treaty 
confirmed former treaties made by his cousin, WilHam Markham. 

" We meet," said Penn to the Indians, " on the broad pathway of good 
faith and good will ; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall 
be openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes 
chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, for brothers sometimes 
differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain, 
for that the rains might rust or a falling tree might break. We are the same 
as if one man's body was to be divided into two parts — we are all one flesh 
and blood." 

Then Penn gave presents to the chiefs, and they, in turn, presented him 
with a belt of wampum — an official pledge of their fidelity. With implicit 
faith in his words, the representatives of the barbarians said : 

" We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the 
sun and moon shall endure." 

This promise was kept. Not a drop of blood of a Quaker was ever shed 
by an Indian. It was a sacred covenant of peace and friendship between two 
races. Penn was then thirty-eight years of age, and most of his companions 
at the treaty — the deputy-governor and others— were younger than he. 

Penn bought land of the Swedes between the Delaware and Schuykill 
rivers, and there, immediately after the treaty, he founded the City of Phila- 
delphia — ** City of Brotherly Love." He caused streets to be laid out, and 
their boundaries to be marked on the trunks of trees, several of which still 
ibear the names Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, etc. 

Penn divided his domain into six counties, and summoned representatives 
from each to meet him at Philadelphia in March, 1683. They were there at 
the appointed time — ^Dutch, Swedes and English. He gave them a " Charter 
of Liberties." Population was rapidly growing by immigration; and when, 
in August that year, Penn left for England, there were twenty settled town- 
ships and 7,000 inhabitants in Pennsylvania. He left Thomas Lloyd, a 
Quaker preacher. Governor of the province, with five men as a Council to 
assist him in the administration of government. 

Finally Penn became involved in troubles after the accession of William 
and Mary to the throne of England, in 1689. Because of his personal regard 
for King James II., Penn was accused of disaffection to the new Government, 
and suffered imprisonment and deprivation of his colonial rights for a time. 
Meanwhile discontents had sprung up in Pennsylvania, and the three lower 



136 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

counties, now forming the State of Delaware, offended at some action of the 
Council, seceded (April, 1691), and, with the reluctant consent of Penn, set 
up a separate Government, with William Markham as chief magistrate. 

Penn's colonial Government was taken from him in 1692, and the province 
was placed under the authority of Governor Fletcher, of New York, when the 
three revolted counties were reunited with Pennsylvania. All suspicion of his- 
loyalty being removed, Penn's chartered rights were restored to him in 1693; 
but when, in 1699, he again came to America, he was pained to find discon- 
tents rife again. The people were clamorous for greater political privileges. 

Late in 1701 Penn gave to his colonists a new charter, far more liberal 
in its concessions than the former. It was cheerfully accepted by a majority 
of the people; but those of the three lower counties, evidently aiming at in- 
dependence, and whose delegates had withdrawn from the provincial Assem- 
bly, declined to accept it. Penn acquiesced in their decision and allowed 
them a distinct Assembly. This first independent Assembly convened at 
New Castle in 1703. (See Dciaivarc.) 

The boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia, on 
account of the claims of Lord Baltimore and others, continued to be a topic 
for disputes for many years. The line was finally fixed, in 1767, by Charles 
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English mathematicians, and was ever afterwards 
known as " Mason and Dixon's Line." In the debates on slavery before the 
admission of Missouri as a State, John Randolph used the words " Mason and 
Dixon's Line " as figurative of the division of the two systems of labor. 

Members of the Society of Friends had been the chief emigrants to> 
Pennsylvania, until between 171 7 and 1725, when there was a heavy influx of 
Germans and Scotch-Irish families. Penn died in 171 8, and his heirs succeeded- 
him as proprietors of the province. 

During the French and Indian war, and for ten years preceding it, the 
colony was much disturbed by apprehensions of the hostility of the Indians 
against the white people of the province, which the French stimulated. The 
people vainly endeavored to retain the friendship of the barbarians. The 
Shawnees were the first to break faith with the colony, the French having 
secured them as allies. In 1755 and 1756, Western Pennsylvania was the 
scene of conflicts. In the former year occurred Braddock's disastrous expe- 
dition, and other stirring events in which Washington participated. So, also, 
for two or three years longer, when, in 1758, a treaty with the Indians secured 
peace until 1763, when Pontiac's war spread alarm throughout the colony. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 137 

In 1764 discontents prevailed with the proprietary Government of Penn- 
;sylvania, at the head of which was John Penn, a grandson of WilHam Penn. 
Two strongly opposing parties were formed. The Anti-Proprietary party 
secured a majority in the Assembly. That body sent Benjamin Franklin to 
England as their agent, authorized to ask for an abrogation of the proprietary 
authority and the establishment of a royal Government. The mutterings of 
the gathering tempest of revolution in the colonies were then growing louder, 
and nothing more was done in the matter. 

The people of Pennsylvania took an active part in movements in favor of 
American independence. The merchants of Philadelphia signed non-import- 
ation agreements, and in 1774 they prevented the landing of tea there. The 
.same year a Convention of the people of Philadelphia took the reins of gov- 
-ernment ; and, though the provincial Assembly continued to meet, no quorum 
could be obtained. Finally, with an impotent protest, the old Colonial Leg- 
islature expired in September. 

Pennsylvania was the theatre of some of the most important events 
which distinguished the old war for independence. In September, 1774, the 
First Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, and a large proportion 
of the succeeding sessions of that Congress were held three. In that city the 
resolution and Declaration of Independence was adopted in July, 1776; and 
there, in 1787, the Constitution of the United States was framed by a Con- 
vention over which Washington presided. 

Pennsylvania was well represented in the first Continental Congress. 
On January 23, 1775, a provincial Government was formed at Philadelphia. 
After the skirmish at Lexington, a committee of safety was appointed ; and 
at a large public meeting on April 24, 1775, measures were taken for forming 
a volunteer military association, the spirit of- which permeated the whole 
province. Many of the young Quakers took part in the organization, in spite 
of the remonstrances of their elders. They afterwards formed the society 
■called the " Free Quakers." Thomas Mifflin, afterwards a Major-General, 
was a leading spirit among them ; John Dickinson accepted the command 
of a regiment ; so, also, did Thomas McKean and James Wilson, who were 
afterwards signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

On July 15, 1776, a Convention met at Philadelphia and prepared a State 
Constitution. It was published on the 28th of September. A large and 
influential party in the State regarded it as too democratic. In some of the 
•counties its opponents plotted against it, and there was delay in choosing 



138 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

councillors in whom executive authority was vested. As a result of these 
machinations, when the Assembly, elected under the Constitution, met on the 
28th of November, 1776, they were compelled to adjourn without organizing 
a Legislature. Committees were afterwards chosen, and the State Govern- 
ment was organized on March 4, 1777, with Thomas Wharton, jr., as Presi- 
dent. 

Very important military events occurred in Pennsylvania during the war 
for independence. The notable encampment at Valley Forge ; the battles at 
the Brandywine Creek and at Germantown, and the desolation of the Valley 
of Wyoming by Tories and Indians, were events within its borders. During 
the winter of 1777-78 Philadelphia was occupied by the British army, and 
caused the flight of the Continental Congress from it. Pennsylvania fur- 
nished more than its full quota of troops during the war. Slavery was abolished 
within its borders in 1780. 

The National Constitution, framed by a Convention at Philadelphia in the 
summer of 1787, was ratified by the people of Pennsylvania on December 
12, 1787. It was the second State that performed that important act. Its 
Constitution was revised in 1790, and again in 1837-38. Its capital was re- 
moved to Lancaster in 1799, and in 181 2 to Harrisburg. 

A speck of civil war in Pennsylvania, before that of the Revolution, has 
been alluded to in the sketch of Connecticut. It is known in history as the 
" Pennymite war." 

The people of Pennsylvania were greatly disturbed by an event known in 
history as the "Whiskey Insurrection," in 1794. The four counties of the 
State west of the Alleghany Mountains, had been largely settled by hardy 
Scotch-Irish, men of energy and decision, and restive under the restraints of 
law. Being far from markets, they converted their rye crops into whiskey,, 
and in that smaller bulk conveyed it to market. 

A new excise act, passed in the spring of 1794, was specially obnoxious 
to these people, and when officers were sent to enforce the act among them, 
they were resisted by the people in arms. The insurrection became general 
throughout all that region. It was stimulated by leading men in the commu- 
nity. Many outrages were committed in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Build- 
ings were burned, mails were robbed, and government officers were insulted and 
abused. The local militia formed a part of the armed mob, at one time 
numbering between six and seven thousand men. The insurgent spirit spread 
into the neighboring counties of Virginia, and presented alarming aspects to. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 139 

President Washington, who observed that the leaders in the insurrection were 
connected with the secret Democratic societies, under the influence of the 
French Revolution. 

The President took prompt measures to suppress the insurrection. He 
issued a proclamation urging the insurgents to desist, and calling upon the 
Governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia for a body of 
troops aggregating 13,000 in number, afterwards raised to 16,000. The troops 
were placed under the command of General Lee, of Virginia. 

Before these troops were put in motion, commissioners were sent over 
.the mountains, authorized to arrange for the submission of the insurgents. 
They found the leaders of the malcontents in convention at Parkinson's Ferry. 
A tall pole near their meeting place bore the words " Liberty and no Excise I 
No asylums for cowards and traitors!" They appointed a committee of sixty, 
who met the commissioners at Pittsburgh, where terms of submission were 
arranged, to be ratified, however, by a vote of the people. The alacrity with 
which the President's call for troops was responded to, settled the matter. 
The insurgents had a wholesome fear of the soldiers, and in October the 
" Whiskey Insurrection " was ended. 

Pennsylvania bore its share of the burdens of the second war for inde- 
pendence, but no hostile forces met on its soil. The capture of Washington 
City, the attack on Baltimore, in 18 14, and the presence of, a blockading 
fleet on the coast, alarmed the citizens of Philadelphia. They cast up some 
fortifications, in which task, as at New York at about the same time, citizens 
of every degree gave their personal aid. The enemy did not come. 

After the war of 1812-15 the State engaged in vast enterprises of internal 
improvements which crippled its financial powers for several years. When,, 
in the winter of 1860-61, the Republic was in dangerfrom internal foes, it was 
mighty in strength. It then possessed about three million inhabitants.. 
Though profoundly moved by the rising tempest of Secession, the people, 
glowing with patriotic ardor, were, nevertheless, conservative at first. A 
week before the first Ordinance of Secession was passed there was an immense 
assemblage of citizens in Independence Square, Philadelphia, called by the 
Mayor, who said disunion was inevitable unless the people should, " in a 
special manner, avow their unfailing fidelity to the Union and their abiding 
faith in the Constitution and Laws." The proceedings were opened by a 
prayer by the Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania (Alonzo 
Potter, D.D.), which was followed by highly conservative speeches — rather 



140 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

-more conservative than the general sentiments of the people desired. The 
resolutions then adopted were condemnatory of the conduct of the people of 
the North on the subject of slavery, and, in tone, really justified the disloyal 
movements in the slave-labor States. 

These obsequious resolutions aroused the whole State to energetic action 
in support of the Republic. The address of Governor Curtin to the Legisla- 
ture, on January 15, 1861, was a foreshadowing of the loyalty and energy 
which he and the people displayed throughout the war. The Legislature 
approved the course of Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, and commended 
Governor Hicks of Maryland. It pledged " the faith and honor of Pennsyl- 
vania " in support of the National Government, and its efforts to sustain its 
authority. By its loyal Governor and Legislature, Pennsylvania was placed 
squarely as a staunch supporter of the National Government, and it fully 
redeemed all its pledges. 

Pennsylvania has the h'onor of- having sent the first troops to the National 
capital for its defense, in April, 1861. They comprised five companies 
from the interior of the State. They went without arms (for expected new 
muskets were not ready) under an escort of forty regular soldiers. They 
found Maryland a hostile territory to pass through. The people of Washing- 
ton hailed them as deliverers, for they were alarmed by rumors that men from 
Maryland and Virginia were about to seize the capital. The Pennsylvanians 
undoubtedly saved the City of Washington from capture at that time. 

During the war Pennsylvania was invaded by Confederate armies, and 
on its soil, at Gettysburg, one of the two decisive battles of the war was 
'fought. At the beginning of the conflict the State raised a large body of 
reserve troops, and it furnished to the National army 357,284 soldiers. 

Pennsylvania is pre-eminently a manufacturing State, especially in iron 
and steel. The value of the products of these industries for 1880 was 
Si45'576,268, being nearly five times that of any other State. It has a 
monopoly of anthracite coal, besides vast fields of bituminous coal. About 
20,000,000 tons of anthracite are annually sent to market ; and it furnished, 
in 1880, about 6,000,000 tons of bituminous coal. It also yields avast amount 
■of petroleum. In 1882 Pennsylvania had 6700 miles of railway within its 
borders, which cost $485,424,686. It is also a large importing and exporting 
•State. 

Pennsylvania Ifas ample provisions for the instruction of its children. In 
J 880 the number enrolled in its public schools was 950,300, with an average 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 141 

daily attendance of 622,351. Its aggregate expenditure for public schools 
that year was $7,306,692. There are twenty-seven colleges and universities 
in the State, with many normal schools, academies and seminaries for girls. 
It was early named " The Keystone State," because of its central position in 
the group of the thirteen original States — like the keystone of an arch. 

There are several large cities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
The largest two are Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The former had, in 1880, 
547,170 inhabitants, and the latter 1 56,389. Harrisburg, its capital, had 30,762. 




mft\ S^ ■ fnt », 







(1724.) 

Vermont is one of the New England States, but not one 
of the original thirteen that formed the American Union. 
It lies between latitude 42° 44' and 45° north, and 70° 
30' and 73° 26' west longitude. On the north it joins 
the Province of Quebec, of the Dominion of Canada; on 
the east lies New Hampshire; on the south, Massachu- 
setts, and on the west, New York. The State embraces an area of 9,565 
square miles, and had a population in 1880 of 332,286, of whom 1,063 were 
colored. 

The face of Vermont is greatly diversified by hills and valleys. It is 
divided into two unequal parts by the GreenMountains, which extend through 
the whole length of the State from north to south. These mountains are 
among the most picturesque in the Union. They present four peaks, which 
are over 3,000 feet in height. Mount Mansfield rises to an altitude of 4,360 
feet above the sea level. 

Lake Champlain lies on its western border, and the Connecticut River 
forms its eastern boundary. Between the lake and the Green Mountain 
ranges is a beautiful and fertile '-oiling country, well watered by many 
streams. It has nearly one hundred smaller lakes and ponds. Its winters, 
are cold and long; the summers are short and quite hot; but there are few 
portions of the United States blessed with such a healthful climate. 

Vermont was discovered by Samuel Champlain in 1609, but no settle- 
ment was attempted within its borders until 1724. It was the battle-ground 
between the Algonquin tribes, in the region of the St. Lawrence River, and 
the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in the i6th century It was while Champlain 
was with a party of the former that he discovered the beautiful lake that 
bears his name. 

From 1720 to 1725 a very distressing war was carried on between the 
eastern Indians and the New England Colonies; while the French in Canada. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



143 



stimulated the barbarians over whom they exercised control, to hostilities 
against the English. It was during that war (in 1724) that some people from 
Massachusetts built Fort Dummer, near the site of (present) Brattleborough 
in Vermont, and planted a little colony — the seed of the Commonwealth. 

Soon after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, settlements in New 
Hampshire began to extend westward of the Connecticut River, and Benning^ 
Wentworth, the Governor of New Hampshire, began to make grants of land 
to settlers in the region between the Connecticut and Lake Champlain. 
These settlers were undisturbed in their possessions until 1764, when the 
British monarch, by an Order in Council, placed their territory under the 




THOMAS CHITTENDEN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF VERMONT. 

jurisdiction of New York, that province claiming, by virtue of the charter to 
the Duke of York, the Connecticut River as its eastern boundary. A mild 
dispute then arose. 

New York having relinquished its claims so far east as against Massa- 
chusetts, it was then not seriously insisted on ; and the settlers believed that 
while there was a change in territorial authority, to which they were indiffer- 
ent, the titles to the lands would not be questioned. They were mistaken. 
The Governor of New York soon notified them that their grants were illegal 
and void, and they were ordered to surrender their charters and repurchase 
their lands from the New York authorities. 

The settlers were disposed to be quiet, loyal subjects of New York, but 
this act of injustice converted them into rebellious foes, determined aAd de- 



144 • THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

fiant. They resisted, and were backed by the sympathies of the people of 
New Hampshire — aye, of all New England. They preferred to defend their 
rights even at the expense of their blood rather than submit to such injustice. 
Foremost among those who took this attitude was Ethan Allen, who became 
the leader in the border forays and irritating movements that ensued. 

The Governor and Council of New York summoned all the claimants 
under the New Hampshire grants to appear before them at Albany, with 
their evidence of possession, within three months, failing in which it was de- 
clared that the claims of all delinquents should be rejected. To this requisi- 
tion the people of the grants paid no attention. 

Meanwhile New York speculators had been purchasing from New York 
large tracts of these estates in the disputed territory, and were making prep- 
arations to take possession. The people of the grants sent one of their num- 
ber to England, who laid their cause before the King. He came back in 
August, 1767, armed with an order for the Governor of New York to abstain 
from issuing any more patents for lands eastward of Lake Champlain. But, 
as the order was not ex post facto in its operations, the New York patentees 
proceeded to take possession of their purchased lands. This speedily brought 
on a crisis, and for seven years the New Hampshire grants formed a theatre 
where all the elements of civil war, excepting actual carnage, were in active 
exercise. 

When, late in 1771, Governor Tryon, of New York, by proclamation, 
offered a reward of ;i^20 each for the apprehension of Ethan Allen, Remember 
Baker and Robert Cochran for their " riotous opposition " to New York, these 
leaders of the "Green Mountain Boys," as they were called, issued the fol- 
lowing counter-proclamation : 

"^25 Reward. 
"W/if?'eas, James Duane and John Kemp, of New York, have, by their 
menaces and threats, greatly disturbed the public peace and repose of the 
honest peasants of Bennington and the settlements to the northward, which 
peasants are now and ever have been in the peace of God and the King, and 
are patriotic and liege subjects of George HL Any person who shall ap- 
prehend these common disturbers, 7'ic., James Duane and John Kemp, and 
bring them to landlord Fay's at Bennington, shall have ^^15 reward for James 
Duane and $10 for John Kemp, paid by 

" Ethan Allen, 
" Remember Baker, 
"Dated, Poultney, Feb. 5, 1772." "ROBERT CoCHRAN.' 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. i45 

The controversy between New York and the New Hampshire Grants 
paused at the beginning of the old war for independence, but the spirit of 
liberty among the settlers east of Lake Champlain, continued conspicuously 
all through the period of the war. They had assumed a provisional independ- 
ent political organization, and, in 1776, they petitioned the Continental Con- 
gress to admit them into the Union as such. New York so vehemently opposed 
their pretensions that their suit was rejected. And there was hesitation about 
accepting the services of Ethan Allen and his followers (who had captured 
Fort Ticonderoga in 1775) in the Continental army. 

A Convention held at Westminster on January 15, 1777, declared ''that 
the district and territory comprehending and usually known by the name and 
description of the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be and is declared 
forever hereafter to be a free and independent jurisdiction or State, to be for 
ever hereafter called, known and distinguished by the name of New Connec- 
ticut or Vermont." 

New York used all its influence to prevent Congress from recognizing the 
independence of Vermont, and succeeded for a while. Meanwhile the Con- 
vention that declared its independence, met at Windsor on the first Wednes- 
day in June, and appointed a committee to draft a State Constitution. It was 
done, and in July it was adopted. A State Government was organized, with 
Thomas Chittenden as Governor, and the first Legislature met at Windsor 
on March 12, 1778. 

The Legislature of Vermont demanded of Congress its separation from 
the other States and its admission into the Union, upon a basis of perfect 
equality. Disputes ran high, and at one time, in 1779, the claims of New 
York by jurisdiction over territory in Vermont almost produced civil war. 
At this juncture a question of greater magnitude than these local disputes 
presented itself. The British authorities in Canada had eagerly w^atched the 
progress of the Grants with great interest, and now entertained hopes that 
Vermont would be so far alienated from the " rebel " cause by the opposition 
of New York and the injustice of Congress, as to be induced to return to its 
allegiance to the British crown. Accordingly, in the spring of 1780, Colonel 
Beverley Robinson wrote to Ethan Allen from New York, making overtures 
to that effect. The letter was delivered to Allen in the street at Arlington 
by a man disguised as a farmer. To this, and another letter written by 
Robinson in February, 1 781, Allen made no reply; but early in March he sent 
the letter to Congress, with one from himself in these words: 



146 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

" I am as resolutely determined to defend the independence of Vermont 
as Congress is that of the United States, and rather than fail, I will retire 
with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate caverns of the moun- 
tains, and wage war with human nature at large." 

The shrewd Allen, Governor Chittenden, and other leaders, saw their 
advantage, and used it for the benefit of their new State. 

Meanwhile some British scouting parties had captured some Vermonters, 
and Ira, a brother of Ethan Allen, was sent to negotiate with a British officer 
(Colonel Dundas) for an exchange of prisoners. Under the direction of the 
commanding officer in Canada, Colonel Dundas made to Allen verbal over- 
tures similar to the written ones of Colonel Robinson to Ethan. They were 
received with apparent favor. The British authorities were delighted with 
their skill in diplomacy, and readily acceded to Allen's proposition not to 
allow hostilities on the Vermont frontier until after the next session of the 
Legislature. Thus the British forces, about ten thousand strong, were kept 
inactive, and Vermont was spared the infliction of their presence. 

Vague rumors of these matters got abroad, and the authorities of New 
York, and also Congress, were alarmed. General Schuyler wrote to Governor 
Clinton — " The conduct of some people at the eastward is alarmingly myste- 
rious. A flag, under pretense of settling a contest with Vermont, has been 

on the Grants. Allen has disbanded his militia Entreat General 

Washington for more Continental troops, and let me beg of your Excellency 
to hasten up here " — from Poughkeepsie. 

The coquetry of the Vermont leaders with the British continued until 
the peace in 1783, when dissimulation was no longer necessary. The shrewd 
Vermont diplomatists had been working for a twofold object, namely: to 
keep the British troops from their territory, and to induce Congress to admit 
the independent State into the Union. They outwitted the Britons, hood- 
winked Congress, and finally gained their point. 

The difficulties were not settled until some years afterwards. Finally the 
Legislature of New York appointed commissioners, late in 1789, to settle all 
matters in controversy. It was agreed that the State of Vermont should pay 
to New York $30,000 in settlement of claims by citizens of the latter Common- 
wealth, for compensation for the land which had been granted them from 
Vermont. All other matters were amicably adjusted, and in the spring of 
I791 Vermont took its place as an independent member of the Republic. 

Vermont, like other New England States, was opposed to the war of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. i47 

1812; but the Legislature, in the fall of that year, resolved as follows: "We 
pledge ourselves to each other, and to our Government, that with our indivi- 
dual exertions, our examples and influence, we will support our Government 
and country in the present contest ; and rely on the Great Arbiter of events 
for a favorable result." 

There was vehement opposition to this declaration. In the elections in 
the fall of 181 3 the Federalists gained the ascendancy, and chose Martin 
Chittenden, Governor. Party spirit was wrought up to the highest pitch. 
The Governor refused to call out the militia, and forbade troops to leave the 
State. A brigade of Vermont militia, which had been drafted into the service 
•of the United States and marched to Plattsburgh, in 1813, were discharged 
from service by a proclamation from the Governor, and ordered to return to 
the State. Their ofificers refused obedience, and sent a written protest against 
the order. Vermont volunteers, however, took an active part in the battle at 
Plattsburgh in September, 18 14. 

During the troubles in Canada in 1837-38, sympathizing Vermonters to 
the number of fully six hundred crossed the line to help the insurgents, but 
they were soon disbanded by the authorities of the United States. 

Vermont took an active part in the civil and military events of the late 
Civil War. It furnished to the National army 35,256 troops. A party of 
Confederates from Canada made a descent upon the town of St. Albans, near 
the frontier. They robbed the bank of $211,152, and committed some other 
•depredations. They were pursued by a party of citizens, and were finally all 
captured by them or by the Canadian authorities. 

In spite of a rather sterile soil, Vermont yields annually large crops of 
cereals; also a large amount of wool, its mountain slopes, where not covered 
by trees, yielding rich pastures. In 1880 it had about 500,000 sheep. Its yield 
of maple sugar made it at one time the second sugar-producing State in the 
Union. 

The manufactures of Vermont are important. In 1880 there were 2,874 
manufacturing establishments, employing $23,265,224 of capital, and produc- 
ing goods to the value of $31,354,366. There were 916 miles of railway in 
operation within the State, which cost over $42,000,000. 

Ample provision is made for the education of the children of the State. 
In 1880 the number of children enrolled in its public schools was 73,237, with 
an average daily attendance of 47,200. It has three colleges and several nor- 
mal schools. 



148 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



Vermont has no large city. The largest is Burlington, on the shore of 
Lake Champlain. Its population in 1880 was 11,365. Montpelier, its capi- 
tal, had only 1847 inhabitants. The name of the State is derived from the 
verdure that covers its loftiest hills, and its pseudonym is " The Green Moun- 
tain State." 





(1733.) 

Georgia was the latest settled of the thirteen original States 
of the Union. It is one of the South Atlantic States, ly- 
ing between latitude 30° 20' and 35° north, and longitude 
80° 48' and 85° 38' west. Georgia embraces an area of 
59,475 square miles, and ranked, by the census of 1880,. 
thirteen among the States of the Union in population, 
which then numbered 1,542,180. Of this number 725,274, including 124 In- 
dians, were colored, or a trifle over one half. 

Tennessee and North Carolina are the neighbors of Georgia on the north;; 
on the east is South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south is Florida,, 
and on the west are Florida and Alabama. 

The surface of Georgia is flat, and abounding in marshes, for about one 
hundred miles inland. There rice is extensively cultivated. The centre of 
the State presents a fine, rolling country, while its northern and north-western 
region is traversed by ranges of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which rise in one 
instance to an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea. The mountain district 
comprises twenty-five counties. The Savannah River divides the State from 
South Carolina. It is navigable to Augusta, 230 miles from the sea. There- 
are several navigable rivers in the State for small craft. Steamers go up the 
Chattahoochee River, at certain seasons of the year, to Columbus, 350 miles. 
from its mouth. It washes the western border of the State. 

Georgia was originally a part of the domain of the Carolinas. When, in 
1729, the Carolinas were surrendered to the Crown, the whole country south- 
ward of the Savannah River was a wilderness to the vicinit}^ of St. Augustine 
in Florida, peopled by native tribes and claimed by the Spaniards as a part 
of Florida. The English disputed this claim, and war-clouds appeared. 

It was at this juncture that Colonel James Oglethorpe, an accomplished 
soldier, who had been an aide to Prince Eugene in a campaign against the 
Turks, and then a member of Parliament, commiserating" the wretched condi- 



T50 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



"tion of prisoners for debt, in England, brought the matter before the Legisla- 
ture. He proposed the founding of a colony in America, partly for the bene- 
fit of this important class. A committee of inquiry reported favorably, and 
a plan, as proposed by Oglethorpe, was approved by King George H. A 
royal charter was obtained (June 9, 1732) for a corporation for twenty-one 
years, " in trust for the poor," to establish a colony in the territory south of 
the Savannah River, to be called Georgia, in honor of the King. 

The management of the new settlement was intrusted to twenty-one 
"gentlemen and noblemen," who were constituted "Trustees for Settling and 
Establishing the Colony of Georgia." Colonel Oglethorpe was one of them. 




•GEORGE WALTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA. 



They were invested with legislative and executive powers for the government 
of the colony. At the expiration of the twenty-one years a permanent Gov- 
ernment was to be established by the King or his successor. There was no 
political liberty for the people. 

Every feature of the project commended itself to the British people. 
Donations from all ranks and classes were freely given to assist the emigrants 
in planting comfortable homes in the wilderness. The Bank of England 
made a generous gift, and the House of Commons, from time to time, voted 
money, amounting in the aggregate to $160,000. Lord Viscount Percival 
'wa? chosen President of the Trustees. 

Colonel {Oglethorpe generously offered to accom-pany the emigrants to 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 151 

their new home. All things being in readiness, thirty-five families — 120 men, 
women and children — sailed from Gravesend in the ship Anne, of 200 tons 
burden, on November 6, 1732. Rev. Mr. Shubert, of the Church of England, 
accompanied them as their spiritual guide, also a few Piedmontese silk-workers 
— for one object of the trustees was the growing of silk in Georgia. 

After a passage of fifty-seven days the Anne touched at Charleston, and 
gave great joy to the inhabitants, for they felt that a barrier was to be placed 
between them and the Indians and Spaniards. Landing a large portion of 
the immigrants on Port Royal Island, Governor Oglethorpe proceeded to the 
Savannah River with the remainder. Sailing up that stream about ten miles 
to Yamacraw Bluff, he laid the foundation of the future State of Georgia, at 
the site of (present) Savannah, in the spring of 1733. The rest of the immi- 
grants soon joined him. They built a fort and named the place Savannah. 

There Oglethorpe held a friendly conference with Creek Indians settled 
near, with Mary Musgrove, a half breed who could speak English, as inter- 
preter. Their venerable chief, To-mo-chi-chi, then ninety-one years of age, 
^ave the immigrants a warm welcome, and became their fast friend. 

Within eight years 2,500 immigrants were sent over from England, at an 
•expense of $400,000. The condition on which the lands were parcelled out 
was military duty; and so grievous were the restrictions that many colonists 
went into South Carolina, where they could procure land in fee. The colony 
quite rapidly increased, immigrants coming from Scotland and Germany. 

In 1 734 Oglethorpe went to England, and returned in 1736 with 300 immi- 
grants, among them 150 Highlanders skilled in military affairs, with several 
cannons. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and his brother Charles, 
were among them. They came to preach the Gospel among the settlers and 
surrounding barbarians. Moravians also came to Georgia with Oglethorpe 
and his soldiers. They were soon followed by George Whitefield, who was 
destined to make a great stir in the colonies as an evangelist. With his 
Highlanders and his cannons, Oglethorpe felt confident that he could defend 
his colony against all intruders. A test was soon presented. 

The Spaniards at St. Augustine were jealous of the thriving English col- 
ony, and showed signs of hostility soon after Oglethorpe's return. The Gov- 
'crnor prepared for expected trouble by building some forts in the direction 
■of the Castilian stronghold. He went to several of the coast islands and 
made preparations for defensive works. On St. Simon's island he erected a 
fort and founded Frederica. He planned a little military work on a small 



152 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

island at the entrance of the St. Johns River, which he named Fort George.. 
He also founded Augusta, far up the Savannah River, and built a stockade- 
there as a defense against Indians who might come from the west. 

These hostile preparations caused the Spanish at St. Augustine to 
threaten war. Creek tribes offered to help Oglethorpe. Through a com- 
mission the Spaniards demanded the evacuation of all Georgia and a portion 
of South Carolina by the English. Oglethorpe hastened to England to con- 
fer with the trustees and seek military strength. He returned in the autumn 
of 1738, with a commission of Brigadier-general, and entrusted with the chief 
command of all the troops in South Carolina and Georgia. 

War between England and Spain broke out in 1739. St. Augustine was 
strengthened. Oglethorpe resolved to strike a blow before the Spaniards 
should be prepared for it. He invaded Florida with a thousand white men 
and some Indians, but soon returned without achieving anything of much, 
importance 

In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated. With a fleet of thirty-six vessels 
from Cuba, and a land force three thousand strong, they entered the harbor 
of St. Simon's, in July, preparatory to seizing Georgia and South Carolina. 
Oglethorpe, always vigilant, had forewarnings of this expedition, and he was 
on the island of St. Simon's before the Spaniards arrived, but with less than 
one thousand men, for South Carolina had failed to send promised men and 
supplies. The task of defending both provinces, therefore, fell upon the 
Georgians. Oglethorpe had a few vessels. 

When the Spanish vessels passed the English batteries, Oglethorpe saw 
that resistance would be futile, so he ordered his little squadron to run up 
to Frederica, while he spiked the guns on St. Simon's, fell back with his troops, 
and waited for the Carolinians. He finally proceeded to make a night attack 
upon the Spaniards on the island. A Frenchman in his ranks, when they 
approached the enemy, ran ahead, fired his musket, deserted to the enemy, 
and aroused them to resistance. Oglethorpe fell back to Frederica. He 
sent a letter addressed to the Frenchman as a spy in the Spanish camp, di- 
recting him to represent the Georgians as very weak in numbers, and to advise 
the Castilians to attack them at once ; but if they could not do so, to try and 
persuade them to remain a few days longer at St. Simon's, for within that 
time a British fleet would arrive with a thousand land troops to attack St^ 
Augustine. 

This letter fell into the hands of the Spanish commander, who afterwards 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. i53 

lianged the Frenchman as a spy. A council of war was held. While it was 
in session vessels from Carolina seen at sea were mistaken for the expected 
British fleet, and the Spaniards determined to attack Oglethorpe at once, 
and then hasten to the defense of St. Augustine. They advanced towards 
Frederica along a narrow defile, flanked by a forest and a morass, when they 
were assailed by the Georgians lying in ambush, who slew or made prisoners 
nearly the whole of the advanced division. A second division shared their 
fate. The Spaniards retreated in confusion, and fled to their ships. Ogle- 
thorpe had punished the deserter, outgeneralled his enemy and saved Geor- 
:gia and South Carolina from utter ruin. 

Slavery in the colony of Georgia was prohibited, and the people mur- 
mured. Many settlements were abandoned for want of tillers of the soil. 
Finally, the restrictions concerning slavery were adroitly removed by allow- 
ing the colonists to contract for the services of negro laborers for ninety-nine 
years. In 1752 the trustees surrendered the colony to the Crown, and Geor- 
gia became a royal province, with political privileges similar to that of others. 

In 1755 a General Assembly was established; and in 1763 all the lands 
between the rivers Savannah and St. Mary were annexed to Georgia. The 
colony prospered. 

In the political disputes with Great Britain, previous to the w^ar of the 
Revolution, the people of Georgia sympathized with their northern brethren, 
and bore a conspicuous part in the armed struggle which ensued. It was not 
represented in the First Continental Congress (1774), but a Provincial Con- 
gress assembled on July 4, 1775, adopted the " American Association " author- 
ized by that body. Thenceforward Georgia stood shoulder to shoulder, in the 
'great strife, wuth its sister colonies and States in the council and in the field. 
Royal power ceased in Georgia early in 1776. Sir James Wright, who 
had ruled the province wisely as Governor since 1764, was a warm loyalist, 
though born in South Carolina. His influence kept down open resistance 
for some time. In January, 1774, the patriots arrested him, but set him free 
on parole. He violated it. On a stormy night in February he escaped to an 
armed British ship below Savannah, and so abdicated. A State Constitution 
was framed in 1777, a second one in 1785, and a third in 1798. Under the 
latter (occasionally amended) the State thrived until the Civil War (1861-65). 
George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was, 
elected the first Governor of Georgia, in 1779. 

In 1779 General Lincoln was sent to Georgia to defend the State against 



154 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

British invasion. General Prevost, in command in East Florida, had joined 
a British force lately arrived (January) at Savannah, under Lieutenant-colonel 
Campbell, Prevost sent Campbell up the Savannah River. He took Augusta. 
South Carolina was menaced with invasion. Lincoln was at Charleston with 
less than 1,500 troops. He hastened to the protection of the fords of the 
Savannah. He crossed the river into Georgia, and in a battle at Brier Creek 
his troops were defeated and dispersed. The British now held possession of 
all Georgia, and Savannah became their headquarters in the South. 

In the fall of 1779 the British, strongly entrenched at Savannah, were 
beseiged by the Americans under Lincoln, and a French land and naval force. 
The latter deserted the Americans just as victory seemed certain, and Lin- 
coln retired to Charleston. The British held possession of Georgia until 
the close of the war, 

On June 2, 1788, the people of Georgia ratified the National Constitu- 
tion. The settlers on its western frontier suffered much from incursions of 
the Creek Indians. These incursions were ended by treaties of friendship in 
1790-91. In 1802 the Creeks ceded to the United States a large tract of 
land which was afterwards assigned to Georgia, and now forms the south-west- 
ern counties of the State. The same year Georgia ceded all its claims to 
lands westward of its present boundaries. Difficulties finally arose between 
the State and National Governments respecting the Cherokees. On the re- 
moval of the latter to the country west of the Mississippi, in 1838, Georgia 
came into possession of all their lands. 

The political leaders in Georgia were among the most zealous and per- 
sistent advocates of Secession in i860. Foremost among them were Robert 
Toombs and Howell Cobb, the latter then Secretary of the Treasury in Presi- 
dent Buchanan's cabinet. A majority of the people of the State were opposed 
to Secession, but could not effectually restrain the Secessionists. 

Early in January, 1861, elections were held for members of a Convention 
to consider the subject of Secession. Alexander H. Stephens, the ablest 
statesman in Georgia, though believing in the rigJit of the State to secede, 
opposed the measure as unnecessary and full of danger to the public welfare. 
Mr. Toombs, a popular leader, by impassioned harangues, circulahs and tele- 
graphic despatches, carried masses of the more unthinking people with him. 
He was one of the most active of the enemies of the Republic at that time, 
in and out of Congress, and worked persistently to precipitate his State into 
revolution, and succeeded. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES.. 155 

The Convention assembled at Milledgeville, the capital of. the State, on 
January 16. A decided majority of the 295 members present were opposed 
to Secession. But that majority was speedily changed. On the i8th a reso- 
lution was passed by a vote of 165 against 130, declaring it to be the right and 
the duty of the State to withdraw from the Union. A committee was appointed: 
to draft an ordinance of Secession. It was reported on the same day. It was. 
very short — a single paragraph — and simply declared the repeal and abroga- 
tion of all laws which bound the Commonwealth to the Union, and that the 
State of Georgia was in " full possession and exercise of all the rights of sover- 
eignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State." 

This ordinance elicited many warm expressions of Union sentiments. Mr^ 
Stephens made a powerful speech in favor of the Union^ and he and his brother 
voted against the ordinance. But, unlike Henry Clay, who on one occasion 
in Congress said, " If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance 
[to the Union] I will never fight under that banner. I owe a paramount 
allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my own State," Mr. 
Stephens, when the ordinance was adopted by a vote of 208 against 89 (Jan- 
uary 19, 1861), arose and declared his intention to go with his State. He after- 
wards became Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, of which Jefferson 
Davis was chosen President, and was one of the most urgent advocates of the. 
seizure of the National capital. 

A resolution to submit the ordinance of Secession to the people for rati- 
fication or rejection was lost by a large majority. Not one of the Secession 
ordinances of the seven States wherein such action was taken was ever al-^ 
lowed to go before the people for their consideration. 

At this point in the proceedings, a copy of the resolutions of the State 
of New York (see New York), tendering to the President all of the available- 
forces of the State to stay the rising tempest of revolution, was received, and 
produced much excitement. Mr. Toombs immediately offered the following 
resolution, which was adopted unanimously: 

"As a response to the resolution of New York, this Convention highly 
approve of the energetic and patriotic conduct of the Governor of Georgia., 
in taking possession of Fort Pulaski by Georgia troops, and request him to 
hold possession until the relations of Georgia with the Federal Government be 
determined by this Convention; and that a copy of this resolution be ordered 
to be transmitted to the Governor of New York." The Convention chose; 
delegates to the proposed General Convention at Montgomery, in Alabama. 



155 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The Governor of Georgia had ordered the seizure of all property of the 
United States within its borders. In the four years' war that ensued, the 
State suffered much. The war made havoc on its coasts and in the interior. 
General Sherman swept through it from Atlanta to the sea at near the close of 
1864, "living off the country." Within its borders the President of the Con- 
federacy w.as captured, and taken to Fortress Monroe a state prisoner, in the 
spring of 1865. 

In June, 1865, a provisional Governor was appointed for Georgia. A 
Convention "held at Milledgeville, late in October, repealed the Ordinance of 
Secession, declared the war debt void, amended the Constitution so as to 
abolish slavery, and in November the people elected a Governor, Legislature 
and members of Congress. That body did not approve these measures, and 
the Senators and Representatives were not admitted to seats. 

In 1 867 Georgia, with Florida, was constituted a military district, and 
placed under military rule. In March, 1868, a Convention held at Atlanta 
framed a satisfactory Constitution, which was ratified in April by a majority 
of nearly 18,000 votes. On June 25 following. Congress by act, provided for 
the re-admission of Georgia, with other States, upon their ratification of the 
Fourteenth amendment to the National Constitution. 

Owing to a violation of the so-called " Reconstruction Act," in not per- 
mitting colored men, legally elected, to occupy seats in the Legislature, 
Georgia representatives were not permitted to take seats in Congress. The 
Supreme Court of the State decided that negroes were entitled to hold 
ofifice. A new election was held, and on January 31, 1869, the State Legisla- 
ture was duly organized. All the requirements of Congress were acceded 
to, and by an act of that body, on July 15, Georgia was fully re-admitted to 
the Union on an equality with the other States. Its delegates took their 
seats in Congress in December, 1869. 

The soil of the alluvial lands of Georgia is very rich. Its chief agricul- 
tural products are cotton and maize, or Indian corn. The cotton crop in 
1880 was 814,441 bales, and its yield of Indian corn was 23,202,018 bushels. 
Its other cereal products were large. It yielded 25,369,687 pounds of rice. 

Georgia is becoming a largely manufacturing State, especially of wood 
products from its unrivalled forests of yellow pine. It is increasing in its 
manufacture of textile fabrics, especially of cotton goods. In 1880 it had 
forty cotton mills. Its manufactures of iron, steel and woollen goods are 
quite extensive. The products of all its manufactures, in 1880, aggregated in 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. i57 

value $36,440,948, of which $6,481,894 were from cotton goods. There were, 
in 1880, 2673 miles of railroads in operation within the State. The assessed 
valuations of real and personal estate in Georgia at that time was $239,472,- 
5*99, the true valuation being estimated at $313,067,293, 

Georgia has provided well for the education of its children. In 1880 
there were 226,627 out of 433,444, of school age, enrolled in its public schools, 
but the average daily attendance was only 132,000. There were 34,000 in 
private schools. There are seven universities and colleges in the State. 

The largest city in Georgia is Atlanta, its capital, which contained, in 
1880, 37,409 inhabitants. Its population is rapidly increasing. Savannah had 
30,709, and Augusta 21,891. 

The sobriquet of " The Empire State of the South " has been given to 
Georgia. 




iti 



KY« 




(1775.) 

One of the Central States of the Valley of the Mississippi 
is Kentucky, which embraces an area of 40,400 square 
miles, and a population, in 1880, of 1,648,690, of whom 
271,51 1, including fifty Indians, were colored. It lies 
between latitude 36° 30' and 39° 6' north, and longitude 
82° 3' and 89° 26' west. North and north-west of it are 
the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, from which it is separated by the 
Ohio River. On the east are Virginia and West Virginia, on the south is 
Tennessee, and on its extreme south-western border is the Mississippi River, 
that separates it for about fifty miles from Missouri, It is extremely irregu- 
lar in shape. 

The surface of Kentucky presents two special aspects — a mountain 
district and table land. The former is in the east and south-east part of the 
State, and covers about 4000 square miles. The Cumberland Mountains 
separate it from Virginia. None of the ridges are very lofty — not one ex- 
ceeds 3000 feet. The two larger tributaries of the Ohio River — the Cumber- 
land and the Tennessee — have their ultimate sources in the mountain districts 
of Kentucky. The whole State presents a beautiful and picturesque aspect. 

It is not known that the foot of any Anglo-Saxon trod the soil of Kain- 
tuck-ee, as the Indians called the beautiful river that flows through portions 
of the State which bears its name, before the middle of the i8th century,, 
when the pale-faced pioneer went there. It was the favorite hunting ground 
of dusky tribes of men, who were disposed to dispute his right to intrude 
upon their domain. They were not the original occupants of the soil, for 
indications exist which point to a race of higher civilization, who were 
dwellers there a thousand years ago. 

The earliest white visitors to the territory of Kentucky, who made a part 
of its early history, were Daniel Boone and his companions, who hunted and 
explored its wilds as early as 1769. Dr Walker was in the north-eastern part 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



159 



of Kentucky nine or ten years before, and John Finley, a backwoodsman, 
had made quite extensive explorations in 1767. 

Boone was a famous hunter from his early youth. At the age of nine- 
teen years he accompanied his family to western North Carolina, from their 
home in Pennsylvania. There he married Rebecca Bryan soon afterward. 
Hunting was his pastime and his pursuit. After the French lost their influ- 
ence over the Cherokee Indians on the frontiers of North Carolina and 
Virginia, professional hunters of Pennsylvania and Virginia, hearing of the 
fine hunting grounds west of the mountains, went thither. 

In March, 1769, Boone led one of these hunting parties — five congenial 
spirits — into Kentucky. " I resigned my domestic happiness, for a time," he 




ISAAC SHELBY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY. 

said, " and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in 
North Carolina, to wander through the wildernesses of America in quest of 
the country of Kentucky." His loving wife had consented to the undertak- 
ing. He was then thirty-four years of age, and had sons old enough to till 
the little farm on which they dwelt. 

The hunters and explorers soon saw the beautiful land of Kentucky from 
a mountain summit, on the 6th of June. They caught glimpses of the Ken- 
tucky River, coursing through the rolling country. There they hunted the 
deer and the buffalo, with which the country abounded. They saw no other 
human beings but themselves until December, The Shawnees had lived 
and roamed in that region, but the Cherokees claimed it as their own hunting 
ground. 



i6o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Early in 1770 Boone and his companion were joined by his brother and 
another hunter. They gathered much peltry. Boone and his brother 
remained in the wilderness, while the others returned. Daniel was captured 
by Indians, but escaped. Having fixed on a place to plant a settlement, 
the brothers returned home in the spring of 1771. 

In the autumn of 1773 Boone and his brother returned to Kentucky. 
They had some fights with Indians, and in 1775 they built a fort of log- 
houses and stockades at the site of (present) Boonesborough, on the Ken- 
tucky River, in Madison County, about eighteen miles south-east of Lexington. 
There, in September, Boone's wife and daughters joined him, and other 
families soon came. 

Other parties of hunters, explorers, and surveyors had followed the 
Boones. In 1774 James Harrod erected a log-cabin on the site of (present) 
Harrodsburgh, and the place rapidly grew into a station, probably the oldest 
in Kentucky. During the same year Colonel Richard Henderson purchased 
from the Cherokee Indians all of Kentucky south of the Kentucky River, 
He employed Daniel Boone to survey the country, and select suitable posi- 
tions for "stations" or settlements. Henderson had roseate dreams of 
manorial possessions and privileges, and named his domain " Transylvania." 
The Legislature of Virginia subsequently declared his purchase null and 
void, for it claimed the sole right to buy lands from the Indians within the 
bounds of its royal charter. 

In the summer of 1776 three young women of Boonesborough, one of 
them a daughter of Daniel Boone, were captured by Indians, but were 
recovered forty-five miles from their home after a desperate encounter with 
the barbarians. To such dangers the hardy settlers were long exposed. 

In the winter of 1776-77 the Legislature of Virginia formed Kentucky 
into a territory of that Commonwealth. The first court was held at Harrods- 
burgh in the spring of 1777. It had just adjourned when the infant State was 
smitten by an Indian invasion. Harrodsburgh, Boonesborough, and other 
stations were furiously attacked, and the hunters and surveyors were driven 
within the stockade from the forest. The invasion lasted several weeks, but 
the barbarians were slowly driven back toward the Ohio. The settlers were 
re-enforced during the summer by forty-five men from North Carolina, and 
in September by one hundred men from Virginia. 

In the spring of 1778 Boone and a party engaged in making salt at the 
Lower Blue Licks were captured by Indians and Canadians, and carried to 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. i6i 

Detroit, where they were deHvered to the English commandant. Boone was 
reserved by the Indians and taken to ChiUicothe, where he saw a large body 
of barbarians prepared for a descent upon Boonesborough. He managed to 
escape and give the alarm among all the settlements in Kentucky in time for 
them to make preparations for the attack. His escape disconcerted the en- 
terprise, and the barbarians did not invade Kentucky. 

During the whole period of the old war for independence the settlements 
in Kentucky were continually menaced with destruction by the Indians from 
the northward, incited by the British at Detroit. The brave and skillful 
Colonel George Rogers Clarke became their effectual shield. He had been 
in Kentucky in 1775, when he took temporary command of the armed settlers 
there. In 1778 he captured a region bordering on the Mississippi, which was 
organized into Illinois county under the jurisdiction of Virginia. He in- 
spired the Indians and the British at Detroit with such wholesome fear, that 
the infant republic south of the Ohio River was spared from ruin. 

At the close of the Revolution the settlers in Kentucky desired the 
independence of home rule. Conventions held at Danville in 1784-85 
recommended a peaceable and constitutional separation from Virginia. In 
compliance with these desires, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act for 
such separation in January, 1786. Its terms required another Convention at 
Danville, to determine whether they were acceptable to the people, and, if 
so, for the Kentuckians to fix upon a day when the authority of Virginia 
should cease within their domain. 

The population had now greatly increased. The people generally ac- 
quiesced in the terms of separation proposed by Virginia, and yet there were 
many signs of discontent, and long delays occurred. The retention of the 
British posts in the north-west after the war for independence had ceased, 
allowed the British in that region to continue to incite the Indians to hostili- 
ties, while the States in the East were enjoying the tranquillity of peace. 
The National Government appeared utterly unable to defend Kentucky from 
Indian forays. 

The Kentuckians had no Government at home, and their rulers beyond 
the mountains could not or would not protect them. Added to this cause of 
discontent. Congress had bartered away the right to navigate the Mississippi 
River. 

Here was a field for the work of intriguers. Colonel (afterward General) 
James Wilkinsgn, of the Revolution, was a resident of Kentucky, and was a 



i62 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

candidate for a seat in Convention at Danville as a representative of Fayette 
county. In that canvass he boldly advocated secession from the Union. He 
counselled an immediate declaration of independence, as the exigencies of the 
country, he said, would not allov/ them to wait. He was the first public man 
who gave utterance to such sentiments. There were earnest opposers of his 
views everywhere, and so loudly was he condemned that he was compelled to 
greatly modify his utterances. He was elected by only a few majority. 

The Legislature of Virginia was induced by existing circumstances to 
revise its act. Another Convention was held at Danville, in September, 1787, 
when the time for the authority of Virginia in Kentucky to cease was fixed at 
January i, 1789. Up to that time no newspaper had been published in Ken- 
tucky. 

There were now other causes of delay in the drama of the fate of Ken- 
tucky, and the public were much excited, especially by a refusal of Congress 
to admit the territory into the Union. But the people were pat^-iotic, and 
would not listen with patience to the illegal schemes advocated by Wilkinson. 
Other conventions were held. 

Meanwhile the National Government had gone into operation under the 
new Constitution, with Washington as President of the Republic. Protection 
to the Kentuckians was promptly furnished. In July, 1790, an eighth Con- 
vention accepted the Virginia act of separation. In December, 1790, Wash- 
ington strongly recommended to Congress the admission of Kentucky into 
the Union, and on February 4, 1791, an act for that purpose became a law. 
A ninth Convention, held in April, framed a State Constitution, and Kentucky 
was admitted into the Union as a State on June i, 1792. Its population at 
that time was about 75,ocx). Isaac Shelby was elected its first Governor. 

For several years much uneasiness was felt among the people of Ken- 
tucky on account of Indian forays, and especially because of the non- 
admission of the free navigation of the Mississippi River by the Spanish 
possessors of Louisiana. The question was settled and all uneasiness was 
allayed by the purchase of Louisiana from the French in 1803. {Se& Louis- 
iana.') 

Kentucky took an active part in the second war for independence (1812- 
15), sending about 7000 men to the field. They were the principal actors in 
the military events in the north-west during that war, and which broke the 
power of the barbarians, and gave peace to the whole country west of the 
mountains which stretch north and south from the region of the St. Law- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 163 

rence to Alabama. In the war with Mexico, Kentucky gave more than its 
quota of volunteers. 

The progress of the State was rapid. A second Constitution, made in 
1800, continued in force until the present one was adopted in 1850. After 
the war of 1 812-15 the State was undisturbed by any stirring events until the 
breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. 

Kentucky being a border State, it held a position of great importance 
during the Civil War. Its population in i860 was 1,155,684, of whom 271,511 
were colored. The people, generally, were strongly attached to the Union, 
but many of the most influential of its political leaders sympathised with the 
Secessionists. The action of that State was awaited with great anxiety 
throughout the Union. The attitude of defiance of the National authority 
assumed by the Governor caused a great Union meeting to be held at 
Louisville on the evening of April 18, 1861, at which it was resolved that 
Kentucky reserved to herself " the right to choose her own position ; and 
that while her natural sympathies are with those who have a common interest 
in the protection of Slavery, she still acknowledges her loyalty and fealty to 
the Government of the United States, which she will cheerfully render until 
that Government becomes aggressive, tyrannical, and regardless of our rights 
in Slave property." 

They declared that the States were the peers of the National Govern- 
ment, and gave the world to understand that the latter should not be allowed 
to use " sanguinary or coercive measures to bring back the seceded States." 
They pledged equal fidelity to the State of Kentucky and to the United 
States. They alluded to the " Kentucky State Guard " as the " bulwark of 
the safety of the Commonwealth." That " Guard " was under the command 
of Simon B. Buckner, a Captain in the United States army, who appears to 
have been a sympathiser with the Secessionists; for when the Legislature 
required the " Guard " to swear allegiance to the United States and the State 
of Kentucky, Buckner would not do so himself nor allow his troops to do 
so ; and it was not long before he led a large portion of that Guard into the 
Confederate camp, and became a Major-General in the Confederate army. 

The Governor of Kentucky issued a proclamation of neutrality, which 
not only forbade the United States and " Confederate States " " invading the 
soil of Kentucky," but also forbade the citizens of Kentuc'<y making " any 
hostile demonstration against any of the aforesaid sovereignties." 

The neutrality of Kentucky was respected several months. It gave the 



i64 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Secessionists of that State and Tennessee time to prepare for revolutionary- 
action. The Confederate Government gave solemn assurance that the neu- 
trality should be respected, but on September 4, 1861, General (Bishop) Polk, 
with a considerable force, seized a strong position at Columbus, Kentucky. 
He excused the violation of Kentucky neutrality by alleging that the 
National troops had done the same. The Confederate Secretary of War 
publicly telegraphed to Polk to withdraw his troops. President Davis pri- 
vately telegraphed to him to hold on, saying, "The end justifies the means." 

In the autumn of 1861, General A. S. Johnston was in command of the 
Confederate "Western Department," which included Southern and Western 
Kentucky and the State of Tennessee. Under the shadow of this power the 
Secessionists of Kentucky met in convention at Russellville, October 29, and 
passed an ordinance of Secession ; declared the State independent ; organized 
a provisional Government ; chose a provisional Governor; appointed delegates 
to the Confederate Congress at Richmond, and called Bowling Green the 
State capital. Fifty-one counties were represented in that " Sovereignty 
Convention " by about two hundred men, without the sanction of the 
people. 

Kentucky was scarred by battles and raids, plundered by marauding 
invasions, and scourged by heavy losses almost everywhere during the war. 
On July 5, 1864, the President proclaimed martial law in Kentucky, but the 
civil law was restored in 1865. The illegal government established was 
harmlessly represented in the Confederate Congress. As it did not affect 
the integrity of the State Constitution, when the war was over Kentucky 
resumed its normal constitutional functions. The Legislature refused to 
ratify the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution. 

Agriculture is the chief industry of Kentucky. A large proportion of 
the State is exceedingly fertile, and produces a great variety of crops in 
abundance. The raising of fine stock is also largely pursued. Tobacco is 
extensively cultivated. The famous " Blue Grass " region is specially pro- 
ductive. The peculiarity of that species of grass is that, falling down as it 
ripens, the lower portion of its stalk is protected, and furnishes nutritious 
grazing in winter as well as in summer. In 1880 Kentucky had 372,648 
horses, 843,794 cattle, and 1,000,296 sheep. 

Kentucky has extensive manufactures, those of iron and steel alone em- 
ploying a capital of $5,493,085, and yielding products valued at $5,090,029 in 
1880. It had then about 1600 miles of railways in operation within its 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



165 



borders, which cost $69,262,000. The assessed value of the real and personal 
taxable property of the State was $350,563,971. 

Of its 345,161 children of school age in 1880, 260,581 were enrolled in 
the public schools, with an average daily attendance of 192,231. The State 
expended for public schools in 1880 $1,162,944. 

Kentucky has been nicknamed " The Corn-Cracker State.'" 




(1758.) 




'T)TRECTLY west of North Carolina, and extending from 
that State to the Missisippi River, Hes Tennessee, oc- 
cupying an area of 42,050 square miles, and containing 
in 1880, a population of 1,542,359, of whom 403,151, in- 
cluding 352 Indians, were colored. The State lies 
between latitude 36° 30' north, and longitude 81° 37' 
;and 90° 28' west. On its northern boundary are Kentucky and Virginia; on 
its southern borders are the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia; 
.and beyond the Mississippi, on the west, are Arkansas and Missouri. 

The face of Tennessee may be properly divided, in aspect, into eight 
natural divisions. On its eastern border are the Appalachian ranges, called 
Unaca Mountains, covering an area of 2000 square miles, and rising, at one 
point, 5000 feet above the sea. On the west of this range is the fertile valley 
•of East Tennessee. Next lies the Cumberland table-land, a rocky plateau of 
about 1500 square miles, and an average height of 2000 feet above the sea 
level. From the western line of this plateau are the Terrace lands, which 
■extend to the Tennessee River — a fine agricultural region, covering over 9000 
square miles. Here is found the Great Central Basin, appearing like the bed 
of a drained lake, and very productive. The West valley of the Lower 
Tennessee occupies about 2000 square miles. Thence stretching toward the 
Mississippi is the rolling slope of West Tennessee, about eighty-four miles in 
width, the soil of which is light and porous, and quite fertile. The slope 
•embraces about 850 square miles. 

Tennessee was originally a part of the Carolinas, and was claimed as a 
part of the hunting grounds of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Shawnoese, and 
even by the Iroquois. After the two Carolina provinces were separated, in 
1729, North Carolina claimed Tennessee as a part of its domain, and defined 
iits boundaries as of equal width with its own, and extending to the Missis- 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 167 

si'ppi River. No Indian tribe made that region its fixed habitation excepting 
the Cherokees, who dwelt in the extreme south-east part. 

In the year 1756 the Earl of Loudoun, then Governor of Virginia, sent 
Andrew Lewis into the Tennessee region to plant a settlement and build a 
fort. He erected F'ort Loudoun on the Tennessee River, about thirty miles 
from the site of (present) Knoxville. The colony was planted in 1758. 
Two years later the fort was attacked by the Cherokees after great provoca- 
tion. 

While returning from their expedition against Fort Duquesne, in 1758, 
along the mountains of Western Carolina, the Indians got into a quarrel with 
some of the white settlers, when several of both parties were killed. Some 




JOHN SEVIER, FIRST GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE. 

Cherokee chiefs were sent to Charleston to arrange an amicable settlement 
of the dispute. They were treated contemptuously by the Governor of 
South Carolina, and soon afterwards the latter, with 1500 men, invaded the 
Cherokee country. The troops were Virginians and Carolinians. They 
demanded the slayers of the white people. The Cherokees were prepared 
for war, and the Governor was glad to make the insubordination of his 
soldiers and the prevalence of the small-pox an excuse for withdrawing from 
the country. He accepted twenty-two Indian hostages as a security for 
peace and the delivery of the slayers, and then fled eastward in haste and 
confusion in June, 1760. 

These hostages, who included some chiefs and warriors, were placed in 
Fort George, at the head waters of the Savannah River. The Cherokees 



i68 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

attempted to rescue them, and in the affray a soldier was wounded, when his- 
companions, inflamed with anger, put all the hostages to death. 

This perfidy aroused the whole Cherokee nation. They beleaguered the 
fort, and a war-party scourged the frontiers. The fort was captured and 
the inmates were massacred or carried into captivity. A distressing war 
ensued, which lasted about a year, when it was ended by South Carolina 
troops and British regulars. In June, 1761, the Indians sued for peace. 
Already armed men from Virginia and the Carolinas had retaken Fort Lou- 
doun. After that settlements increased in that region, particularly on the 
Holston and Watauga rivers. They formed a community called the 
" Watauga Association," which flourished from 1769 to 1777. They had a 
representative in the Legislature of North Carolina for the " District of 
Washington." 

In 1784 North Carolina ceded its western lands (Tennessee) to the 
United States. The people of East Tennessee, piqued at being thus disposed 
of, feeling the burden of State taxation, and alleging that no provision had 
been made for their defense or administration of justice, assembled in Con- 
vention at Jonesborough to take measures for organizing a new and indepen- 
dent State. The North Carolina Legislature repealed the act of cession the 
same year, made the Tennessee counties a separate military district, with 
John Sevier Brigadier-General; and also a separate judicial district, with 
proper officers. 

Ambitious men urged the people to go forward to the goal of indepen- 
dence; and at a second Convention at the same place (December 14, 1784) 
they resolved to form an independent State under the name of Frankland, so 
called in honor of Benjamin Franklin. A provincial Government was 
formed; General Sevier was chosen Governor in March, 1785; the machinery 
of an independent State was put in motion, and the Governor of North Car- 
olina (Martin) was officially informed that the counties of Sullivan, W'ashing- 
ton and Greene, were no longer a part of the State of North Carolina. 

This secession movement produced much excitement. Governor Martin 
issued a proclamation exhorting all engaged in the movement to return to their 
duty. The Assembly passed an Act of Oblivion as to all who should submit. 
The warning was unheeded. In November, 1785, the provisional Constitution 
of Frankland, based, in its construction, upon that of North Carolina, was- 
adopted as a permanent one, when the new State entered upon an indepen- 
dent career. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 169 

Rivalries and jealousies soon shook the new State to its centre. These 
•crystallized into parties. The people were divided and bewildered. Finally 
a third party arose which exhibited much and rapidly increasing strength. 
It favored adherence to North Carolina. This party was led by Colonel 
Tipton. It sent a delegate to the North Carolina Legislature, who was 
received. A delegate to represent Frankland was sent to the National Con- 
gress, but was not received. 

Party spirit now ran high. Frankland had two sets of ofificers. Collis- 
ions were constantly occurring, and civil war seemed to be inevitable. The 
inhabitants of South-western Virginia sympathized with the revolutionists, 
and were inclined to secede from their own State. At length a collision 
between armed men, led respectively by Sevier and Tipton, occurred. Sevier 
Avas defeated. He was arrested and taken to prison in irons. This was a 
•death-blow to the State of Frankland. The Assembly passed an Act of 
Oblivion, offered pardon to all offenders in Frankland, and in 1788 the terri- 
tory was reunited to the parent State. 

Virginia, alarmed hy this revolutionary movement, which had affected its 
own citizens, hastened to pass a law subjecting to the penalty of treason any 
person or persons who should attempt to erect a new State in any part of its 
territory without previous permission being obtained from the Assembly. 

In 1789 North Carolina again ceded its " territory beyond the moun- 
tains " to the United States; and in 1790 it was organized into the " Territory 
of Tennessee." A distinct Territorial Government was granted to Tennessee. 
The first l^egislature met at Knoxville. The census revealed the fact, the 
next year, that it contained a sufficient population to entitle it to admission 
as a State, and measures were taken for that purpose. It contained 77,262 
inhabitants, of whom 10,613 were slaves. On June i, 1796, Tennessee was 
admitted into the Union as a State. General John Sevier was elected its 
first Governor, served two terms, and was re-elected in 1803. The Constitu- 
tion then framed was amended in 1835 and again in 1853. 

The people of Tennessee took an active part in the second war for inde- 
pendence. A week after the declaration of war in 1812, the tidings of that 
event reached General Andrew Jackson, at the " Hermitage," twelve miles 
from Nashville, when he immediately authorized Governor Blount to tender 
to the President of the United States himself and 2500 men. The offer was 
gladly accepted, and the Secretary of War tendered his thanks to Jackson 
and his volunteers. 



I/O THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

A call was soon made upon Tennessee for troops, and in January about 
two-thirds of the best young citizens of the State, led by Jackson, started for 
New Orleans to reinforce General Wilkinson there. After many hardships 
the troops reached Natches, on the Mississippi, where they met an order 
from Wilkinson to halt there, as he had no instructions concerning their 
employment, nor quarters for their accommodation. Finally, in March, 
1813, Jackson received a letter from Armstrong, the new Secretary of War, 
telling him that the causes for calling out the Tennessee volunteers had 
ceased to exist, and ordering him to dismiss them from the public service,, 
and turn over to Wilkinson all public property in his hands. The letter con- 
cluded with the tender of a cold and formal letter of thanks of the President. 

This cruel letter greatly exasperated Jackson. It dismissed his army 500' 
miles from home, without pay, without suf^cient clothing, without provisions 
or means of transportation through a wilderness in which barbarians only 
roamed. The hero, then forty-six years of age, disobeyed the order. He 
wrote a fiery letter to the President and the Secretary of War. The latter 
apologized, saying he did not know that Jackson had moved far from Nash- 
ville when he wrote his orders. 

Through great sufferings the volunteers marched back through the. 
wilderness to Nashville, taking a month in making their journey, and were 
then dismissed. Other Tennessee troops under John Coffee and other leaders 
performed eminent services in the Gulf region during the war, and against the. 
Creek Indians. Jackson's soldiers, who admired his persistence and endurance,, 
said he was " as tough as a hickory," and from this circumstance he was 
called ever afterwards " Old Hickory." He won the battle of New Orleans,, 
and saved the Southern States from invasion and possible conquest by the. 
British. 

Like those of Kentucky, the large majority of the people of Tennessee 
were opposed to Secession. They loved the Union supremely, but their 
Governor was an active and persistent enemy of the Republic. He had beea 
for months in confidential correspondence with the public enemies in the 
Gulf States, and in Virginia and South Carolina. He labored incessantly to- 
effect the secession of Tennessee. He called a special session of the Legisla- 
ture at Nashville on January 7, 1861, and in his message he recited a long list 
of alleged grievances which the people had suffered under the authority of 
the National Government. He recommended amendments of the National, 
Constitution, favorable to the perpetuation of the slavx^-Labor system. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 171 

The Legislature provided for a Convention, but decreed that when the 
people should elect the delegates they should vote for " Convention " or " No 
Convention; " also that any ordinance adopted by the Convention concerning 
" Federal Relations," should not be valid until submitted to the people for 
ratification or rejection. The election was held on February 9, and the 
Union candidates were elected by an aggregate majority of about 65,000, 
and by a majority of nearly 12,000 decided not to have a Convention. The 
loyal people were gratified, and believed that the Secession movement in the 
State would cease. It was a delusive belief and hope.. 

The Governor called another session of the Legislature on April 25,, 
1 86 1, and in his message to that body strongly urged the immediate secession 
of the State. He urged that there was no propriety in wasting time in sub- 
mitting the question to the people, for a revolution was imminent. A few- 
days later a commissioner of the " Confederate States of America," clothed 
with authority to negotiate a treaty of alliance, appeared before the Legisla- 
ture, He argued that there was not a true-hearted man in all the South 
who would not spurn submission to the "Abolition North," and who did not 
consider the system of Government founded on Slavery, which had just been 
established, as the only form of government that could be maintained in: 
America. 

On the first of May the Legislature, in which there was now a majority 
of Secessionists, authorized the Governor ta enter into a military league with, 
the Confederate States, by which, the whole military rule of the Common- 
wealth would be subjected to the will of the President of the Confederacy. 
It was done on the 7th of May. Eighteen members from East Tennessee 
(which section remained loyal) did not vote. An act was passed to submit to 
the people of Tennessee a declaration of independence and an ordinance of 
Secession; also an ordinance for the adoption of the Constitution of the 
" Confederate States." So Tennessee was bound to the fortunes of the Con- 
federacy. The authorities of that State were also bound to turn over to the 
" Confederate States all the public property, naval stores, and munitions of 
war of which they might then be in possession, acquired from the United 
States, on the same terms and in the same manner as the other States of the 
Confederacy.' 

The Governor had already (April 29) ordered the seizure of Tennessee 
bonds to the amount of $66,000, and $5000 in cash, belonging to the United 
States; and at about the same time Jefferson Davis, the President of the: 



172 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Confederacy, disgusted with " Kentucky timidity," recommended the Ken- 
tuckians who were " true to the South," to go into Tennessee, and there rally 
and organize. The Governor was empowered to raise 50,000 volunteers for 
" the defense of the State," and, if necessary, to call out the whole available 
military strength of the Commonwealth, to be under the immediate and 
absolute control of the Governor. He was also authorized to issue bonds of 
the State to the amount of $500,000, to bear an annual interest of eight per 
cent. So the purse and the sword of Tennessee were placed in the hands of 
the disloyal Governor before the people were allowed to be heard on the 
vital subject of Secession from the Union. 

Yet loyal men in the Commonwealth, in face of threatened violence, and 
by competent authority, openly declared that the vote was against Secession 
iin Tennessee h>y a large majority. And equally competent authority de- 
clared that the change of figures at Nashville, by the Governor and his con- 
federates, seemed to authorize him to proclaim, as he did (June 24, 1861), 
that the vote in the State was 104,913 for Secession and 47,238 against 
Secession. 

During the war that ensued Tennessee became a theatre of most distress- 
ing events. The people suffered intensely. These sufferings ceased only 
ivhen General Hood was driven from Tennessee after the battle at Nashville, 
in December, 1864. Tennessee furnished 31,000 volunteer soldiers for the 
National army. 

On January 9, 1865, a State Convention assembled at Nashville, and pro- 
posed amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth abolishing 
Slavery and prohibiting the Legislative recognition of property in man. The 
military league with the Confederacy, the ordinance of Secession, and all 
acts of the "Confederate States" Government were annulled, and the pay- 
ment of any debts contracted by that Government was prohibited. 

Meanwhile, William G. Brownlow had been elected Governor of Tennes- 
see. These proceedings just mentioned were ratified by him and by the 
Legislature. In April, 1865, the Legislature ratified the Thirteenth amend- 
ment of the National Constitution ; reorganized the State Government, and 
elected Senators to Congress. The Fourteenth amendment of the Constitu- 
tion having been ratified by the State in 1866, it was soon afterwards 
admitted to representation in Congress. The State Constitution was revised 
•early in 1 87 1. 

The staple agricultural products of Tennessee are cotton and Indian 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



173 



corn. It ranked ninth in product of corn among the States in i< 
yielding that year 62,764,429 bushels, and the product of cotton was 330,621 
bales. It is also an extensive stock-raising State. It may not be reckoned 
as a manufacturing State to any great extent. Its industries are diversified. 
Its iron and steel manufactures, in 1880, amounted in value to $2,274,203. 
There are nearly 2000 miles of railroads in operation within the Common- 
wealth, which cost $114,776,000. 

The provisions for popular education in Tennessee are liberal. In 1880 
there were 544,862 children of school age, of whom 291,500 were enrolled in 
public schools, with an average daily attendance of 205,081. The State ex- 
pended for public schools that year $786,000. There were 1450 private 
schools, with 41,000 pupils. The State has twenty-one universities and 
colleges. 

Tennessee is an Indian word, signifying " River of the Big Bend," allud- 
ing to its course from its sources in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, 
down into Alabama, and up through Tennessee and Kentucky into the Ohio 
JRiver. It is sometimes called "the Big Bend State." 






(1788.) 

Ohio is one of the Central States of the Union, lying be- 
tween latitude 38° 23' and 41° 58' north, and longitude 80° 
31' and 84° 48' west. Lake Erie and a part of the State 
of Michigan form its northern boundary. On the east is 
Pennsylvania and West Virginia; on the south Kentucky^ 
and on the west Indiana. It is separated from West Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky by the Ohio River, while a larger portion of its northern 
shore is washed by the waters of Lake Erie. Ohio embraces 41,060 square 
miles of territory, and in 1880 it contained a population of 3,198,062, of 
whom 80,142, including Indians and Chinese, were colored. In population it 
ranks third among the States, third in agricultural products, and fifth in the 
value of its manufactures. 

The central part of Ohio is a table land about 1000 feet above the sea 
level. On its water-shed, between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, in the 
northern part of the State, the land rises to an altitude of thirteen and four- 
teen hundred feet. In the south central part of the State is a range of bold 
hills, near the Ohio River. There is some prairie land in the State. In the 
north-west is a large tract of very fertile soil called the " Black Swamp," 
which was heavily timbered. The Ohio River flows along its border a dis- 
tance of 436 miles in a navigable stream. 

Ohio was formerly a part of the vast region claimed by France, lying 
between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, that bore the general 
name of Louisiana. The region was first visited by whit'^ men in 1673, 
when Father Marquette, a French missionary, accompanied by M. Joliet, of 
Quebec, with five boatmen, set out from Mackinaw to penetrate the unex- 
plored region south of that station of the Jesuit missions in the wilderness. 
They had heard of the Mississippi River and sought it. In two canoes they 
reached the Wisconsin River by way of Green Bay and the Fox River. They 
floated down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, and went down that mighty 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



175 



stream to the mouth of the Arkansas River, whence they returned to tell of 
their great .discoveries. In this exploration they entered the mouth of the 
Ohio River, and learned something of its vast length and the region it passed 
through. 

Marquette's account caused other explorations in the region of the Mis- 
sissippi to be undertaken. Robert Cavalier La Salle, a Jesuit priest in his 
earlier years, was an ardent adventurer at Montreal, in Canada, at the middle 
of the 17th century. He engaged in trade with the Indians along the St, 
Lawrence and the shores of Lake Ontario. Inspired by Marquette's adven- 




KDWARD TIFFIN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

tures, he conceived a grand scheme of exploration and trafific westward, with 
a few companions. He was authorized to build forts, and was given the 
monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins for five years. He first established a 
trading-post at the mouth of the Niagara River. In the summer of 1679 he 
built a vessel near the site of the city of Buffalo, and, with other adventurers 
and servants, went in her through the chain of great lakes to Green Bay, in 
the north-western part of Lake Michigan, whence he sent the vessel back, 
laden with furs, and made the rest of their voyages in canoes. 

La Salle and his companions penetrated to the Mississippi River, voyaged 
to its mouth, and there, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, they erected a 
cross, placed on it the arms of France, and proclaimed the whole Valley of 



1/6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

the Mississippi and the region of its tributaries a part of the dominion of 
France. La Salle called the whole vast domain Louisiana, in hpnor of his 
King, Louis XIV. of France. 

The charters granted to English adventurers on the Atlantic coasts 
covered the domain westward between the Alleghany Mountains and the 
Pacific Ocean. This produced conflicting claims of the French and English. 
The former claimed the whole region north-west of the Ohio River, as a part 
of Louisiana. The French erected forts on the Mississippi, the Illinois and 
the Miami, or Maumee, rivers, and on the lakes. 

In 1748 the "Ohio Land Company," of English-speaking people, was 
chartered, chiefly to counteract and check the encroachments of the French. 
The latter at once began the erection of a chain of forts in the rear of the 
English settlements that were forming. This brought on the conflict known 
as the French and Indian War. Previous to the breaking out of that conflict, 
the English had built (1749) a fortified trading-post on the Miami River, at 
the mouth of Laramie Creek in (present) Shelby county, Ohio. This creek 
was so called in compliment to Laramie, an enterprising French trader, who 
erected a trading station there a few years before. He was a bitter foe of 
the English, and incited the barbarians against them. The settlement at this 
post was named " Pickawillany," and was the first settlement by Britons within 
the present domain of the State of Ohio. It was destroyed by some French- 
men and Indians within a year or so after it was established. 

At about the same time Celeron, an accomplished French commander, 
with a few regular soldiers, some Canadians and Indians, was sent to take 
possession of the whole Ohio country for the French King. He was provided 
with leaden tablets, properly inscribed, to bury at different places as evidence 
of pre-occupation. The expedition left Montreal at the middle of June, 
1749, crossed Lake Ontario, and, making a portage at Niagara Falls, coasted 
along the south shore of Lake Erie, and made an overland journey to the 
waters of the Alleghany River. They went down the Ohio in canoes to the 
mouth of the Great Miami, below Cincinnati, proclaiming French sovereignty 
and burying six leaden plates. Thence they made an overland journey to 
Lake Erie. 

In these efforts to secure territorial dominion no heed was given to the 
more rightful claim of the natives to the soil. A Delaware chief said : 

" The French claim all the land on one side of the river, and the English 
claim all the land on the other side of the river. Where is the Indians' land ? " 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. ijj 

After the Revolution disputes arose between several States as to their 
respective rights to lands north-west of the Ohio. These disputes were set- 
tled by the cession of the territory to the United States by the respective 
States, Virginia reserving 3,709,848 acres near the rapids of the Ohio, and 
Connecticut reserving a tract of 3,666,921 acres near Lake Erie, known as 
the " Western Reserve." The fine city of Cleveland is within the domain of 
the "Western Reserve." That tract was ceded to the United States in 1801. 

These ceded lands were erected into a Territory in 1787. The National 
Congress was in session, while the Convention that framed the Constitution 
of the United States was in session at Philadelphia. The former had assem- 
bled at New York. In July a committee, of which Nathan Dane of Massa- 
chusetts was chairman, reported -'An ordinance for the government of the 
territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio." This territory was 
limited to the ceded lands in that region. 

The report, embodied in a bill, contained a special proviso, which struck 
a fatal blow at the unjust British law of primogeniture. It provided that the 
estates of all persons dying within the territor)- should be equally divided 
among all the children or next of kin in equal degree. It also provided and 
declared that " there shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in the 
said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted." 

This ordinance was adopted after adding a clause relative to the reclama- 
tion of " fugitives from labor " — in other words, slaves — similar to that which 
was incorporated into the National Constitution a few weeks afterwards. 
This making the region a free-labor territory, arid the fact that Indian titles 
to seventeen million acres of land in that country had lately been extin- 
guished by treaty with several tribes of barbarians, caused a sudden and great 
influx of settlers into the country along the northern banks of the Ohio. 
The " North-western Territory " so established included the present States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is estimated that 
within a year after the passage of that ordinance and the organization of the 
Territory fully 20,000 men, women and children passed down the Ohio River 
to become settlers upon its banks. 

The first permanent settlement in Ohio was made in 1788. General 
Rufus Putnam, of the Continental army, and General Benjamin Tupper 
formed a plan for a company of soldiers of the Revolution to undertake the 
task of founding a settlement on the Ohio River. Delegates from several 



1/8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

counties in Massachusetts responded to a call to consider the matter. They 
formed the " Ohio Com^ ny," composed of men like Generals Putnam, 
Varnum, Tupper, Parsons, Meigs and others whom Americans delight to 
honor. They purchased a large tract of land from the Government, and in 
the spring of 1787 General Putnam and a company of forty-eight men, 
women and children seated themselves near the confluence of the Muskingum 
and Ohio rivers athwart the great war-path of the five north-western tribes 
when they made their bloody incursions to the frontiers of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania. A fort was then in course of erection there, which was named 
Fort Harmer. 

They named the settlement Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, 
Queen of King Louis XVL of France. This was the seed from which the 
great State of Ohio sprang. It was composed of the choice materials of New 
England society. At one time — in the year 1789 — there were no less than 
ten of the settlers there who had received a college education 

In the same year when Marietta was founded, John Cleves Symmes, who 
had been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and a member 
of the Continental Congress, in behalf of himself and associates, contracted 
with the Board of Treasury for the purchase of a large tract of land on the 
north side of the Ohio River, between the Great and Little Miami Rivers; 
and in November, 1788, the first settlers on that tract seated themselves near 
the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles above the site of Cincinnati, where 
Fort Washington was built soon afterwards. These settlements were an- 
noyed by the Indians (who were incited by the British, who were yet occupy- 
ing the fort at Detroit) until after the victories of Wayne, in 1794, and the 
treaty at Greenville the next year. 

General Arthur St. Clair was appointed Governor of the Territory, 
Winthrop Sergeant Secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons, James M. 
Varnum and John Cleves Symmes, Judges. The Territory of Ohio had 
been erected soon after the settlement at Marietta, but there was no fixed 
seat of government for some time. In 1795 the Governor and Judges, who 
constituted the Supreme Court of the Territory, undertook to revise the laws 
and to establish a system of statutory jurisprudence by adaptations from the 
laws of the original States. For this purpose they met at Cincinnati. A 
General Court was fixed there and at Marietta. Laws were passed whenever 
needed, and were promulgated at any place where the Territorial Legislature 
after the organization of that body happened to be assembled. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 179 

The first meeting of the Territorial Legislature was organized on Sep- 
tember 24, 1799, when they were addressed by Governor St. Clair. The 
Territory was then entitled to a change in the form of its Government, under 
the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, which provided that when there were 
five thousand free males of full age in the Territory, the people should be 
authorized to send a representative to a Territorial Legislature. The laws 
enacted by the Governor and Judges, the validity of which had been ques- 
tioned, were ratified. William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the 
United States (who was a son-in-law of Judge Symmes), and was then 
Secretary of the Territory, was elected a delegate to Congress. A short time 
after the adjournment of this session of the Legislature, Connecticut ceded 
the Western Reserve to the United States. 

On the first of November, 1802, a Territorial Convention assembled at 
Chillicothe and framed a State Constitution, which was ratified on the 29th. 
It was never referred to the people for consideration, but became the funda- 
mental law of the land by the act of the Convention. By this act Ohio 
became one of the States of the Republic, on equality with the others. 
Edward Tiffin was made the first Governor of Ohio, in 1803, and served until 
1807. 

The first General Assembly under the State Constitution met at Chilli- 
cothe, on the Scioto River, on April i, 1803. That place remained the seat 
of government until 18 10, when it was removed to Zanesville. In 18 16 
Columbus became the capital of the State and so remains. 

During the second war for independence Ohio was the theatre of many 
stirring military events, the most prominent of which were the seige of Fort 
Meigs and the defense of Fort Stephenson at Sandusky, now Fremont. The 
famous naval battle on Lake Erie, in which Perry gained a decisive victory, 
was fought in sight of the shores of Ohio. Her citizens were participants in 
about all the struggles in the north-west at that time. 

Some of the southern counties of Ohio suffered from the raids of 
guerillas during the Civil War. Her sons volunteered to assist in the salva- 
tion of the Republic with great alacrity. That Commonwealth furnished to 
the National army during the war 317,133 soldiers. 

At the kindling of the Civil War, Ohio had a population of 2,300,000. It 
had been settled chiefly by New England people, and public sentiment was 
decidedly in favor of the freedom of the slaves. Its Governor (Dennison) 
was an avowed anti-slavery man. In his message to the Legislature, in 



i8o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

January, 1861, he explained his refusal to surrender fugitive slaves from 
Kentucky and Tennessee; denied the right of Secession; afitirmed the loyalty 
of his State ; suggested the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law, as the most 
effectual way of effecting the repeal of the Personal Liberty acts, and called 
for the repeal of the laws of the Southern States which interfered with the 
rights of the citizens of the free-labor States. The Legislature was in accord 
with the Governor, and pledged " the entire power and resources of the State 
for a strict maintenance of the Constitution and laws of the General Govern- 
ment, by whomsoever administered." These promises and pledges were ful- 
filled to the utmost. 

Ohio is famous alike for its agricultural and manufactured products. 
Besides its immense cereal crops, it raises a vast number of cattle, sheep, and 
swine. In 1880 it had 1,860,000 cattle, 492,400 sheep, and 3,142, 000 swine. 
There were 20,699 manufactories in the State in 1880, employing about $189, 
000,000 invested capital, and yielding an annual product of the value of 
$348,298,390. 

The assessed valuation of the property of the State, real and personal, 
was $1,525,445,000. It had, in 1882, within its boundaries, 6664 miles of rail- 
roads in operation, which cost, with equipments, $610,728,103. The Com- 
monwealth ranks second in railroad mileage. 

Ohio makes ample provision for the education of its children. In 1880 
there were enrolled in its public schools 752,442 children, and an average 
daily attendance of 495,000. The State expended that year for public 
instruction $7,707,630. Normal schools, academies and seminaries abound, 
and in nearly all the larger cities there are commercial colleges. There were 
thirty-five universities and colleges in the State, with 5,694 pupils. 

Ohio is an Indian word signifying " Beautiful River." It is nicknamed 
" The Buckeye State," so called from the buckeye tree, which bears a nut 
resembling the horse-chestnut. 



m 







(1699.) 

Louisiana is one of the " Gulf States/" rynxg- whoWy 
in the Mississippi Valley, between latitude 28° 56' and 
33° north, and longitude 89°and 94° west. It embraces, 
an area of 48,728 square miles, and in 1880 the number 
of its inhabitants was 939,946. Of these 484,992 (a 
trifle more than one-half) were colored, including 848. 
Indians and 489 Chinese. 

The entire surface of Louisiana is flat, the summits of its highest land' 
not exceeding 250 feet above the Gulf in altitude. The southern portion, 
including the Mississippi delta, and embracing nearly 8,500 square miles,, 
presents very extensive marshes, and its coast is deeply indented by estuaries, 
bays and sounds. The southern portion is always subject to overflow when 
the riv^ers are full. The country is slightly rolling in the northern part, ex- 
cepting in the north-west, where there are extensive marshes in the region^ 
of the Red River and its tributaries. The alluvial portions of the delta are. 
very fertile. 

The State of Louisiana is bounded on the north and east by Arkansas, 
and Mississippi. On its western border is Texas, and its southern and south- 
eastern shores are washed by the Gulf of Mexico and its swamps and bays. 
Its estuaries are called bayous, some of the larger ones being mouths or out- 
lets of the great river. 

The soil of Louisiana was first trodden by Europeans when, in 1541, De 
Soto and his followers, proceeding westward from Florida in search of gold, 
came to the Mississippi, crossed it, and penetrated to the outlying eastern 
spurs of the Rocky Mountans. In 1673, Father Marquette, a Jesuit mission- 
ary and explorer, came down the Mississippi from the region of the Great 
Lakes, and discovered the upper portion of the present State of Louisiana,, 
but did not plant the seeds of a colony. (See 0/iw.) 

Late in December, 168 1, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, an eaexgetic French: 



182 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



adventurer, after coasting along the southern shores of Lake Michigan in 
canoes, with other adventurers and servants, entered the Chicago River, 
crossed by portage to the IlHnois River, descended to the Mississippi, and 
went down that great stream to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. He 
named the mighty stream " Riviere Colbert," in compliment to the great 
minister of Louis XIV., who had encouraged his schemes in America, and 
was really his patron. 

Henri di Tonti, an active Italian, was La Salle's lieutenant in this expe- 
dition. After the three debouching channels of the Mississippi had been 
•explored, the whole company assembled at an elevated sand dune near the 




WILLIAM C. C. CLAIRBORNE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. 



'Gulf, and there erected a cross, upon which they affixed the arms of France 
•and this inscription : 

" Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre, April 9, 1682." 
Then a leaden plate, with a Latin inscription affirming the discovery, 
was buried near, when La Salle, with uplifted sword, proclaimed the whole 
Valley of the Mississippi, and the region of its tributary waters, a part of the 
French dominions. He named the vast region Louisiana, in honor of his 
sovereign, Louis XVI, The imposing ceremony of taking possession of the 
newly discovered country was concluded by the signing of tx proces verbal, or 
official report of the affair, by the leader and his companions, in the following 
order : 

La Materie (notary), De la Salle, P. Zenobe (Recollet missionary), Henri 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 183 

di Tonti, Francois de Bous-voudet, Jean Bourdon, Sieur d'Autray, Jacques 
Cauclois, Pierre You, Giles Meneret, Jean Michel (surgeon), Jean Mas, Jean 
Duglignon, Nicholas de la Salle. 

So was planted the first germ of French empire in that region, which 
sprang up and flourished in the i8th century. 

The next year La Salle returned to Quebec, leaving Di Tonti in com- 
mand in the western wilderness, with directions to meet him at the mouth of 
the Mississippi the following year. He went to France, laid before the 
Court a proposition for the settlement of Louisiana, and the conquest from 
the Spaniards of the rich mining country in northern Mexico, of which he 
had heard. He received authority for such adventures, and he was made 
commandant of the vast territory from the present State of Illinois to 
Mexico, and westward indefinitely. 

On August I, 1684, La Salle sailed from France with 280 persons of in- 
different character, in four ships. They touched at Santa Domingo, entered 
the Gulf of Mexico, and, in consequence of a miscalculation of the incom- 
petent navigator, they passed the mouths of the Mississippi without knowing 
it. They finally landed in Matagorda Bay, where their storeship was 
wrecked. The navigator, pleading a lack of provisions, deserted La Salle, 
leaving him only one small vessel. There La Salle determined to plant his 
colony, but the natives were hostile. Murder and sickness reduced the party 
to forty at the end of a year. La Salle set out for the Illinois country in 
1688, and was murdered. The rest of the emigrants were massacred or made 
prisoners by Spaniards sent from Mexico to drive out the French. 

In 1698 Pierre Le Moyne Iberville, a native of Montreal, was sent from 
France with two vessels and a number of men, women and children, to 
occupy the region at the mouth of the Mississippi river. There he received 
from the Indians a letter left by Di Tonti in 1686 for La Salle. He built a 
fort which he named Biloxi, garrisoned it, seated his colony (1699), made his 
brother, Bienville, Lieutenant-governor, and returned to France. He came 
back afterwards twice. At his last visit he found the colony reduced by 
sickness, and transferred it to Mobile, and so began the colonization of 
Alabama. 

The French Government, desirous of promoting settlement in the region 
•discovered by La Salle, officially gave it the name of Louisiana, and in 171 2 
granted the whole province, with a monopoly of trade, to Anthony Crozat, a 
wealthy French merchant, who expect.ed large profits from mines and trade 



i84 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

with Mexico, He was bound to send goods and emigrants to Louisiana 
every year, and was allowed $10,000 annually from the French public treasury 
for civil and military establishments. Crozat established trading-houses at 
several points ; but finding small returns for great outlays, he abandoned the 
enterprise in 1717. 

Governor Bienville having resumed control of the country, prepared to 
found a town on the Lower Mississippi. He sent a party of convicts from 
Fort Biloxi to clear up a swamp on the site of New Orleans, in 171 8. When 
Charleroix visited it in 1722, the germ of the future city consisted of a large 
wooden warehouse, a shed for a church, two or three very ordinary houses, a 
quantity of huts, and 200 inhabitants. Bienville, believing that it would " at 
no distant day become an opulent city, the metropolis of a great and rich 
colony," removed the seat of government to this spot in 1723. 

Other speculators succeeded Crozat in Louisiana. John Law, a Scotch 
financial adventurer, had established a bank at Paris, by royal authority, that 
had a financial association with the Government. It was the immediate cause 
of the elevation of the Government credit and of general prosperity. Law 
was hailed as a public benefactor. He soon promulgated a scheme of colo- 
nization and trade for the purpose of drawing great profits from the French 
possessions in America. An association was formed called "the West India 
Company," with a capital of 100,000,000 livres. It was invested with a mon- 
opoly of trade with Canada and sovereign rights over the territory of 
Louisiana, which was to be colonized on a vast scale. 

In 1719 a royal edict conferred upon the association a monoply of the 
East Indian and African trade, which now absorbed the F'rench East India 
Company and took the name of "The Company of the Indies." Its capital 
was augmented, and it undertook to pay the French national debt by loaning^ 
money to the King at three per cent. 

The Company undertook to send 600 white settlers and half as many- 
negroes to Louisiana, but failed to carry out the scheme. Law finally in- 
duced 1,500 German emigrants to settle on a tract twelve miles square on 
the Arkansas River. Not long after their arrival, the great bubble of specu- 
lation burst (1720), causing the ruin of thousands who had invested money in 
the enterprise. The Germans in Louisiana went down to the inchoate city 
planted by Bienville, which was named New Orleans, received allotments of 
land on each side of the Mississippi, and settled there on cottage farms, rais- 
ing vegetables for the supply of the growing town and the soldiers. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 185 

"The Company of the Indies" remained in existence for ten years after 
the crash in 1720, when it surrendered its grant to the Crown, by whom the 
colony was managed until 1762, when the whole province was secretly ceded 
to Spain by France. Louisiana passed into the possession of Spain late in 
1764. It was restored to France by a secret treaty in the year 1800. 

This retrocession to France was effected by Napoleon Bonaparte, who, 
when he became First Consul, or supreme ruler of France, ardently desired 
to re-establish the colonial empire of his country. At this juncture a combi- 
nation of circumstances led to the purchase of the vast domain of Louisiana 
by the United States of America. 

The settlers of the country west of the Alleghany Mountains had been 
much disturbed, for some time, by apprehensions that the Spanish possession 
of Louisiana might restrict the free navigation of the Mississippi River, and 
so obstruct their commerce with the outside world, which the people of the 
future commonwealths of the Great Valley might desire to enjoy. Their 
apprehension was justified by the violation of a treaty made with Spain by 
the Governor of Louisana, who, in 1795, closed the port of New Orleans 
against the commerce of the Republic. 

This act produced intense excitement, in the Western country espec- 
ially. There was a proposition before Congress for forcibly taking possession 
of the Louisiana region, when it was rumored that by a secret treaty Spain 
had retroceded that domain to France. President Jefferson, ever alive to the 
interests, independence and power of his country, wrote an able letter to 
Robert R. Livingston, then the American minister at the Court of the First 
•Consul, instructing him to represent to Bonaparte that the occupation of 
New Orleans by France would endanger the friendly relations between the 
two nations, and perhaps even compel the United States to make common 
cause with Great Britain. Livingston was instructed to insist upon the free 
navigation of the Mississippi, and to open negotiations, if possible, for the 
acquisition of New Orleans and surrounding territory by the United States. 

Bonaparte, who had failed in his efforts to reduce Santa Domingo to 
submission, saw that the tenure by which he held Louisiana was feeble, and 
he promptly determined that what he could not defend he had better dispose 
of. He summoned two of his ministers on April 10, 1803, to whom he said 
that the English, having despoiled France of all her northern possessions in 
America, would now covet those in the South. He spoke of the strong- 
British naval force then in the Gulf of Mexico, said affairs with Santa 



i86 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Domingo were daily getting worse, and that the EngHsh might easily conquer 
Louisiana. 

" I am not sure," said Bonaparte, "that they have not already begun an 
attack upon it. Such a measure would be in accordance with their habits, 
and in their place I should not wait. I am inclined, in order to deprive them 
of all prospect of ever possessing it, to cede it to the United States. Indeed 
I can hardly say that I cede it, for I do not yet possess it ; and if I wait but 
a short time, my enemies may leave me nothing but an empty title to grant 
to the Republic I wish to conciliate. They only ask for the city of New 
Orleans, but I consider the whole colony as lost ; and I believe that, in the 
hands of this rising power, it will be more useful to the political, and even the 
commercial interests of France, than if I should attempt to retain it." 

Bonaparte asked the opinion of the two ministers. They did not agree. 
The next day he sent for Marbois (one of them), who approved of the pro- 
posed cession, and said : 

" The season for deliberation is over. I have determined to renounce 
Louisiana." 

The negotiations began on that day by Mr. Livingston and Mr. Monroe 
with representatives of the First Consul. The treaty was signed on April 30, 
1803. The vast domain of Louisiana was ceded to the United States for the 
sum of $15,000,000, and it was agreed that the vessels and merchandise of 
France and Spain should be admitted into all its ports free of duty for 
twelve years. 

" By this cession of territory," said Napoleon to Mr. Livingston, " I have 
secured the power of the United States, and given to England a maritime 
rival who, at some future time, will humble her pride." 

The American flag was first raised in Louisiana in December, 1803. The 
next year the territory was divided into two governments, namely — the 
" Territory of Orleans," and the " District of Louisiana." In February, 181 1, 
Congress authorized the inhabitants of the former Territory to meet in con- 
vention and frame a State Constitution. It was done, and on April 8,, 
1812, the Territory was admitted into the Union as the State of Louisiana- 
William C. C. Clairborne was elected its first Governor in 1812, and served 
until 1816. 

On April 14, 181 2, Congress, by act, took possession of a region east of 
the Mississippi which it had acquired the year before, and which now forms 
a part of the Commonwealth of Louisiana, and added it to the new State.. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 187 

By another act, on June 4, the " District of Louisiana " had its title altered 
to " District of Missouri." 

In the war of 18 12-15 Louisiana bore a pretty heavy share of the burden. 
On its soil was fought the last great battle of that war. The State was. 
invaded by a powerful British land and naval force in the last month of 18 14., 
The enemy appeared in the Gulf of Mexico with fifty vessels of war of all 
sizes, and first came in sight of the coast a little east of Lake Borgne.. 
Believing their expedition to be unknown to the people of Louisiana, they 
came in buoyant spirits. But they had been seen by a buccaneer of the Gulf,, 
who revealed their approach to the Americans. New Orleans was thrown 
into a panic. General Jackson, who was at Mobile, was sent for in great, 
haste. He came, proclaimed martial law, and prepared for the defense of: 
the city. 

The British scattered a flotilla of American gunboats oa Lake Borgne,, 
and landed several thousand troops some miles below New Orleans, where. 
Jackson boldly attacked them on the night of December 23. Reinforced, the. 
British pressed forward, and on January 8, 181 5,. a very severe battle was, 
fought on the plains of Chalmette, four or five miles below the city, by troops. 
led by General Pakenham, one of Wellington's veterans, and Americans, 
largely composed of volunteers from Kentucky and Tennessee under Gen- 
eral Jackson, who had hastily cast up a line of entrenchments. The British: 
were repulsed and driven to their ships, and New Orleans and the State of. 
Louisiana were saved. 

New Constitutions for the State of Louisiana were framed in 1845 ^^id 
1852. The people of the State were disposed to regard the Secession move- 
ments with disfavor, but the leading politicians favored them, and soon had 
control of public affairs. Soon after the election of Mr. Lincoln, the Gov- 
ernor called a special session of the Legislature at Baton Rouge, on Decem- 
ber 10, i860. In that body the Union sentiment was powerful, yet not 
sufficiently so to arrest the mischief that menaced the Cammonw^ealth with, 
disaster. An effort was made to submit the question of " Convention " or. 
" No Convention " to the people, but failed, and an election of delegates to a. 
Convention to be held on January 8, was ordered. At that election the popu- 
lar vote was small, but it was of such a complexion that the Secessionists, 
were hopeful. 

The Convention met at Baton Rouge on January 23, 1861. The Legis- 
lature had convened there on the 21st. The number of the delesfates in the. 



188 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

'Convention was 130. Governor A. Mouton was chosen President. Commis- 
sioners from South Carolina and Alabama were there, and were invited to 
•seats in that body. They accepted, and made violent speeches in favor of 
Secession. A committee of fifteen was appointed to draft an ordinance of 
Secession. It was reported on the 24th and was adopted on the 26th by a 
vote of 113 against 17. 

Though Louisiana had been purchased by the United States less than 
sixty years before, that Convention declared that the State " reserved the 
Tights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United 
•state of America," its creator. The President of the Convention, at the con- 
. elusion of the ballotting, said: " In virtue of the vote just announced, I now 
•declare the connection between the State of Louisiana and the Federal 
Union dissolved, and she is a free, sovereign and independent power." 

No State in the Union was more dependent on that Union for its perma- 
Tient growth in population and wealth than Louisiana, The device on its 
■seal was a pelican brooding over its young, emblematical of the fostering 
:care of the National Government. The Convention, by a decided majority, 
refused to submit tlie ordinance of Secession to the people for consideration. 
The State authorities proceeded to seize the property of the National Gov- 
^ernment within the borders of Louisiana. 

In the war that ensued Louisiana became the theatre of very stirring 
'events. In the spring of 1862 a military and naval armament, commanded 
?respectively by General B. F. Butler and Commodore Farragut, ascended 
tthe Mississippi from the Gulf, and took possession of New Orleans and of a 
portion of the State. The demand for troops made upon the State by the 
'Confederate Government was responded to with alacrity, but the control of 
the navigation of the great river by the National Government kept the whole 
State in subjection. 

In December, 1862, the first election for Union civil officers was held. 
j\n election for State officers was held in 1864, when Michael Hahn was 
chosen Governor, and invested with the powers of military Governor. On 
the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment to the National Constitution, 
Louisiana was regarded as a re-organized State, and it soon resumed its place 
in the Union. 

The two most valuable agricultural resources of Louisiana are cotton 
and sugar. In 1 880 the value of the cotton productions was $20,000,000. It 
produced in that year about 175,000 hogsheads of sugar and 12,000,000 gal- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



189 



Ions of molasses. It is not largely engaged in manufactures. New Orleans 
had, in 1880, over 900 manufacturing establishments, which produced articles 
valued at $19,000,000. The assessed valuation of taxable property in the 
State was $160,162,439. It contained 1231 miles of railways in operation, 
which cost about $45,000,000. 

The number of children of school age in the State in 1880 was 273, 845, of 
whom only 64,440 were enrolled in the public schools. Of this number 
about one half were colored. The whole amount expended for public schools 
that year was $455,758. There were over 300 private schools and eight 
colleges. 

New Orleans is the commercial metropolis of the State. It contained 
216,000 in 1880. Baton Rouge, its political capital, contained 7,200 inhabi- 
tants. 

Louisiana is called " The Creole State." 






(1730.) 

Indiana is one of the most flourishing of the Central 
States of the Union, and in 1880 ranked sixth among the 
States in population, and sixth in the value of its agri- 
cultural productions. Its population then was 1,978,301, 
of whom 39,503 were colored, including 246 Indians and 
a few Chinese. It lies between latitude 37° 46' and 41° 
46' north, and 84° 49' and 88° 2' west, and embraces an area of 36,350 square 
miles. The State of Michigan and the southern end of Lake Michigan form 
its northern border. On the east is Ohio, on the west Illinois, and on the 
south-east and south is Kentucky, from which it is separated by the Ohio 
River. 

The topography of Indiana is peculiar. There are no mountains in the 
State, and no hills of considerable height excepting those known as " river 
hills." These have been formed by the erosion of rivers which drain the: 
State, that have, in the course of ages, furrowed valleys of considerable 
depth and much broader than their present channels. The sloping bounds of" 
these valleys are given the appearance of hills varying from two hundred to 
four or five hundred feet above the valleys. Some of the river hills along 
the Wabash Valley reach an altitude of 600 feet. These river hills are broken 
and rugged. There is a large area of prairie land in the State. 

Indiana was first trodden by Europeans in the persons of French mis- 
sionaries and traders. They established Christian missionary stations on the 
shores of the great Lakes, from the eastern end of Lake Ontario to Lake: 
Superior. They carried the Cross and the lilies of France far into the wilder- 
ness south of the Lakes and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (see 
Louisiana), making thousands of converts, and friends of the dusky barba- 
rians. They planted seeds of civilization here and there ; and the discoveries, 
of their priests and traders gave to France a claim to a magnificent domain, 
of millions of square miles in extent. This was accomplished before the close. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. igr 

of the 17th century. Indiana formed a part of this domain, and the French 
had missionary stations and trading posts within its borders so early as the 
year 1700. 

The first and most considerable of these religious and commercial sta- 
tions in Indiana was planted in Vincennes, on the Wabash, in present Knox 
county. There a small colony of Canadians were seated in 1702. It is. 
believed that the first white settlers there were French soldiers, who, by in- 
termarriages with the Indians, lost many of their civilized habits. But little 
is known of the country until the English seized the French domains in' 
America, and became permanent owners by the treaty of 1763. 

During the old war for independence the French settlers in that region: 




JONATHAN JENNINGS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 

were bitterly hostile to the English. The latter built a strong fort at Vin- 
cennes, where some stirring events occurred in the year 1779. The year 
before. Major George Rogers Clarke, a Virginian, who first appeared in Ken- 
tucky in 1772 as a land surveyor, led an expedition against the British frontier 
posts north of the Ohio. He captured that at Vincennes in August, and left 
a small garrison there. 

Clarke was trying to make peace with the Indian tribes in the north- 
west, who were continually incited to war with the settlers by the British, 
and he hoped to accomplish much by the possession of the strong post of 
Vincennes. In January, 1779, British troops from Detroit retook Vincennes:. 
Clarke, at a post in Illinois, started immediately with 175 men to recover, it^ 
They penetrated the dark wilderness, and for an entire week they traversed 



192 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the " drowned lands," suffering every privation from wet, cold and hunger. 
They sometimes waded the cold snow-flood arm-pit deep in the forest, and 
arrived in sight of Vincennes on the morning of February i8. 

The troops blackened their faces with gunpowder, to make themselves 
appear hideous, crossed the river in a boat, and pushed toward the little 
town. The garrison and the people were astounded at this apparition. It 
seemed as if the intruders must have dropped from the clouds. The garrison 
surrendered without opposition, and before noon the American flag was seen 
waving over the fort. 

Indiana formed a part of the north-western territory. (See Ohio}) Soon 
after the settlements were made in Ohio, several military expeditions were 
sent into that region. In 1790 General Harrison destroyed the Indian towns 
near the site of the (present) city of Fort Wayne; and in May, 1791, Gen- 
eral Charles Scott led a force from Kentucky, which laid waste Indian 
villages on the Wabash and Eel rivers. The treaty at Greenville, in 1795, 
completed the pacification of the Indians on the north-west, and the settlers 
from the East began to seat themselves in Indiana. 

In the year 1800, the "Western Reserve" (see OJiio) in north-eastern 
Ohio having been sold to a company of speculators, measures were taken to 
extinguish certain claims on the part of the United States and the State of 
Connecticut. Fully 1000 settlers were already on the " Reserve." Congress 
passed an Act (April 28, 1800) authorizing the issue of letters-patent convey- 
ing the title of these lands to the Governor of Connecticut for the benefit of 
those claiming under him, and similar letters-patent were issued by Connec- 
ticut, relinquishing all jurisdiction. The "Reserve" was annexed to the 
North-west Territory, which was presently divided by Act of Congress (May 
7) into two separate jurisdictions, the western one being called " the Terri- 
tory of Indiana," after one of the old Revolutionary Land Companies. 

On July 4, 1800, the Territorial Government of Indiana was organized at 
Vincennes (which was made its capital), with William Henry Harrison as 
Governor. It then included Michigan and Illinois. The former was set off 
in 1805, and the latter in 1809, when Indiana was reduced to its present 
dimensions. At that time its population was about 24,000. 

In 1803 a movement was made in Congress, at the instance of the settlers 
in Indiana, for suspending for a limited term, in the case of that Territory, 
the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 (see Ohio), prohibiting slavery north- 
west of the Ohio River. A committee, of which John Randolph, of Vir- 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 193. 

ginia, was chairman, reported strongly against the propositions. They ex- 
pressed a belief that in " the salutary operation of this salutary and sagacious 
restraint [of the ordinance] the inhabitants of Indiana would, at no distant day, 
find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and immigration." 

The subject was brought up the next year and referred to a new 
committee, who reported in favor of such suspension, so as to admit, for ten 
years, the introduction of slaves born within the territory of the United 
States, their descendants to be free, males at the age of twenty-five years, 
and females at twenty-one years. No action was had, and Indiana was 
spared the infliction. Other unsuccessful efforts were made to introduce the 
slave-labor system. 

In the spring of 1810, Tecumtha, a crafty, intrepid, unscrupulous and 
cruel Shawnoe chief, attempted to form a confederacy of all Indian tribes of 
the north-west in war against the people of the United States. His brother, 
" the Prophet," was his wily accomplice. During the ensuing summer the 
frontier settlers became so alarmed by the frequent religious and military ex- 
ercises of the barbarians, that General Harrison, Governor of the Indiana 
Territory, invited the brothers to a council at Vincennes. Tecumtha ap- 
peared on August 12, leaving a body of his warriors in camp in a grove near 
by. Accompanied by thirty of his followers, Tecumtha approached. He 
was invited to come under the broad porch of the Governor's residence, but 
refused, saying: 

" Houses were built for you to hold councils in ; Indians hold them in 
the open air." 

He then took a position under some trees in front of the house, and 
addressed the large concourse of people with great force and eloquence. 
When one of the Governor's aides offered him a chair, saying, "Your father 
requests you to take a seat by his side," the haughty chief drew his mantle 
around him, and standing erect, said, with scornful tones: "My father! 
The Sun is my father, and the Earth is my mother on her bosom I will 
repose! " and then seated himself upon the ground. 

Tecumtha's speeches at the council were bold, arrogant, and sometimes 
insolent. He avowed the purpose of his brother and himself to establish a 
confederacy of the tribes, and his general bearing was one of hostility. The 
people were alarmed. No one slept tha. night. In the morning Tecumtha 
apologized for some of his words of anger, and he and Harrison, equal in 
courage, ended the council in an apparently friendly manner. 



194 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The next spring (1811) the Indians, encouraged by the teachings of the 
Prophet, began to roam over the country in small marauding parties, plunder- 
ing the settlers of horses, cattle and other property, and creating universal 
alarm. This annoyance continued all summer, and, growing worse, General 
Harrison resolved to put an end to these depredations. 

Early in the fall the Governor obtained from the General Government an 
increase of military strength. Near the present town of Terre Haute he 
built a stockaded fort. He mobilized the militia of the Territory, and he 
decided that measures must be taken at once to measure strength with the 
Prophet, who was evidently preparing for war. With about 1000 men; 
regulars and militia, the Governor moved in the direction of the Prophet's 
town. To him the Governor sent friendly chiefs on a mission, who were 
treated with scorn. 

The troops now pressed forwards, and on November 6, 181 1, they en- 
camped near Tippecanoe creek, within three miles of the Prophet's seat. 
These movements had been watched by vigilant barbarian scouts. The camp 
was arranged so as to meet a sudden attack at any point, with wagons and 
baggage in the centre. Early in the evening the wearied soldiers were 
soundly slumbering, excepting many vigilant sentinels. 

In the camp of the Prophet none slumbered. After midnight his war- 
riors crept stealthily through the prairie grass undiscovered, and with horrid 
yells fell upon Harrison's camp, which was soon in arms and their fires 
extinguished. It was half a surprise. A desperate fight ensued. Nineteen- 
twentieths of the militia had never seen a battle. The struggle lasted until 
daylight, when the barbarians were dispersed by the mounted men of the 
Governor's force, leaving forty of their number dead on the field. The 
horsemen rode to the Prophet's town and found it deserted. It was laid in 
ashes, and then the little army, with its wounded, fell back to Vincennes. 
Sixty of its number had been killed, and twice as many wounded. Then he 
devastated the Indian country around. This little campaign effectually 
checked the alarmed invaders; inspired them with wholesome respect for the 
power of the frontier settlers; secured peace for a while, and gave Governor 
Harrison a decided military reputation. When, in 1840, he was a candidate 
for the Presidency of the United States, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for 
Vice-president, one of the most popular campaign songs had the couplet: 

" Tippecanoe 
And Tyler too." 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 195 

During the war of 1812-15, that broke out soon afterwards, the Indians in 
the north-west generally joined the British. They massacred a large portion 
of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago. But they were terribly punished 
by the devastation of their country. Tecumtha, who was commissioned a 
Brigadier-General in the British army, was slain at the battle of the Thames, 
in Canada, at which General Harrison commanded the Americans. After the 
close of that war the Indians remained quiet, and formed friendly relations 
with the frontier settlers. 

On the 29th of June, 18 16, the people of Indiana, in Convention assem- 
bled, adopted a State Constitution; and on the nth of December the same 
year the Territory was admitted as an independent State of the Union, when 
Jonathan Jennings was chosen its first Governor for the term of three years. 
The new State grew rapidly in wealth and population. 

In 1820 Indianapolis (then just laid out) became the seat of government, 
and in 1824 it was made the State capital. It is near the centre of the State, 
on the west fork of the White River. It was incorporated a city in 1836. 
It contained 76,000 inhabitants in 1880. 

So rapidly did immigration pour into Indiana, as one of the consequences 
•of the completion of the Erie cana by the State of New York, that more 
than 3,500,000 acres of land were purchased from the United States Govern- 
ment within the State during the ten years ending in 1830. Then began an 
era of wild speculation there. Vast internal improvements were begun. 
When the terrible collapse of the credit system occurred in 1837 there was 
general bankruptcy, and the State was burdened with a debt of over $'14,000, 
<X)0. But recuperation was soon completed, and in 1840 the population of the 
State had doubled. Between 1850 and i860 a great canal from the lakes to 
the Ohio River was completed, and in 1880 there were 5,069 miles of railroads 
in operation within its borders, which cost $213,462,348. 

When the Civil War broke out, Indiana took an intensely loyal position. 
The attack on Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, aroused the patriotic indignation 
of the people. Its Governor (Oliver P. Morton) was able and energetic, and 
gave a steady support to the National Government. Indiana troops were 
among the first in the field, and they were seen in almost every battle-field 
of that contest. One of the earlier battles (Romney) was fought by an 
Indiana regiment, led by Colonel Lew Wallace, who afterwards took a high 
rank in the army, in diplomacy and in literature. Indiana furnished to the 
National army 195,147 soldiers. 



196 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



The heaviest agricultural product of Indiana is Indian corn. In 1880^ 
according to the census, that product amounted to 115,482,300 bushels. Its 
wheat product was 47,300,000 bushels; its oats yield was 15,600,000 bushels; 
and its wool product was 6,168,000 pounds. It is an extensive manufacturing 
State, The value of its total manufactures, in 1880, was $148,000,000, in 
which pursuit nearly $66,000,000 were invested. 

The assessed value of the taxable property of the State, in 1880, was 
$727,815,122. The State debt was only $4,998,178. 

The State expended, in 1880, the sum of $4,504,407 for public instruc- 
tion. The number of children of school age in 1885, from six to twenty-one 
years, was 740,176. Of these 12,1 12 were taught in private schools. There 
were in the State, in 1885, fourteen colleges and universities. 

Indiana has been nicknamed "The Hoosier State." The word Jioosicr is 
a corruption of JuisJicr, formerly a common term for a bully throughout the 
West 






'The State of Mississippi lies between latitude 30°^ 20' and' 
35° north, and longitude 88° 12' and 91° 4° west. Its. 
area is 47,156 square miles, and in 1880 its population 
was 1,131,597. Of these 652,199, including 1857 Indians,, 
were colored, Arkansas and Louisiana lie on its western 
border, Tennessee on its northern, Alabama on its east- 
ern, and Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico on its northern boundary. 

The northern and eastern portions of Mississippi present a fine rolling 
country; the southern part is level, and much of the whole State is marshy,, 
but very fertile in the northern part. The north-eastern counties embrace 
fine prairie land, and the south-eastern counties are covered with a dense 
growth of pine trees. 

It is probable that the first European who trod the soil of Mississippi, 
was Fernando De Soto, an energetic Spanish adventurer, who accompanied 
Pizarro to Peru, and afterwards conducted an expedition to Florida in 
search of gold. He sailed from Cuba at the middle of May, 1539, with a 
thousand followers, cattle, horses, and swine, to found a State there as well 
as to procure gold. He landed on the shores of Tampa Bay and started on 
his quest, exercising such cruelty toward the gentle natives whom he found 
there that he made enemies of them all. 

For nearly two years De Soto wandered, chiefly in a north-westerly 
direction at first, his companions greatly diminishing in numbers by slaughter 
and disease, until May, 1541, when he stood upon the banks of the mighty 
Mississippi River, then full to the brim. He had crossed the (present) State 
of Mississippi, and was now near the Lower Chickasaw Bluffs, in Tunica, 
county. The Spaniards made no settlements, and for 132 years afterwards 
that region was hidden from the ken of dwellers in the Eastern hemisphere.. 
Then (1673) Marquette and Joliet, two French explorers, having floated dowri 



198 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the Mississippi in canoes, touched at several points on the shores of the State 
■we are considering. 

De la Salle and the Chevalier di Tonti (see Louisiana) visited the Natchez 
Indians in 1682, and spent some time among them. These Indians, seated 
on the site of Natchez, were* most interesting objects for the contemplation of 
these visitors. They were more enlightened than any of the barbarian 
nations north of Mexico. They were Sun and Fire worshippers. Their King 
they called " the Great Sun," and the chiefs "Suns." Like the Parsees of 
India, their priests kept a fire continually burning in their principal temple, 
.and offered sacrifices of the first-fruits of the earth and of the chase. The 
JNatchez was a small nation. 




BIENVILLE, PROMINENT CHARACTER IN HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI. 

The first attempt to found a colony within the bounds of Mississippi was 
made by Iberville in 1699. He landed 200 emigrants from France on the 
shores of Biloxi Bay, where he built a fort, and there fostered the germ of 
the subsequent settlements at New Orleans and Mobile. He made his 
brother, Bienville, King's lieutenant, and on his departure his brother, Sau- 
ville, became Governor of Louisiana. Iberville visited the Natchez nation, 
where he was very kindly received, and was given leave to build a fort at 
their metropolitan village on the bank of the Mississippi River. 

A few French stragglers made their way to the Natchez, but no effort at 
settlement was made there until Bienville, in 1716, built a fortification on the 
site of Natchez, and named it Fort Rosalie, in compliment to the Countess 
■Pontchartrain. It is supposed to have stood near the eastern limit of the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 199 

present city of Natchez. The colony then estabHshed there was also called 
Rosalie. Biloxi was abandoned and Rosalie flourished for a time, though, in 
1 71 8, it came under the control of John Law, the great gambler and specula- 
tor. Bienville planted other colonies in the Yazoo region and at other points, 
but their growth was feeble. 

The " Great Sun " of the Natchez was at first the warm friend of the 
white settlers around Fort Rosalie, but the commandant of that work, M. 
Chopart, behaved so cruelly toward him and his people, that his friendship 
was alienated. Chopart even ordered the chief to leave the village of his an- 
cestors, with his people, when the " Great Sun " resolved to rid his country of 
the intruders. He formed a plot to this end. A young Indian girl, who 
loved the ensign of the garrison, revealed the plot to him, whilst tears ran 
down her cheeks. The ensign told Chopart of the plot, who put him in irons 
for giving a false alarm. Fatal security! 

On the appointed day, November 29, 1729, the "Great Sun," with a few 
chosen warriors, repaired to the fort. They were all armed with knives and 
other concealed weapons. A large supply of powder, lead and provisions 
had lately been sent to the fort. The Indians applied for a supply of am- 
munition for a great hunt upon which they said they were about to enter, and 
brought corn and poultry to barter for it. Thus the garrison was thrown off 
its guard, and a number of the Indians were permitted to enter the fort ; 
among them the Great Sun. Others were distributed among the warehouses 
of the " Company of the Indies" (see Louisiana) at various points. 

The Great Sun gave a signal, when his followers drew their concealed 
weapons and proceeded to massacre the garrison and all near the warehouses. 
The massacre began about nine o'clock in the morning, and before noon the 
whole male population of the French colony in that region was destroyed — 
about seven hundred in number. The negro slaves and women and children 
were saved. Two soldiers, who happened to be away in the woods at the 
time, hearing the yells of the barbarians, who were excited by liquor, and the 
smoke from burning buildings, as they were returning, escaped in a boat and 
carried the dreadful tidings to New Orleans. The colony on the Yazoo had 
shared the same fate ; also at two or three other places, and dismay spread 
over all the settlements. 

The exasperated French at New Orleans at once began a war of exter- 
mination. The little nation of the Natchez were driven across the Mississippi 
and dispersed, when most of them perished, while the Great Sun and his prin- 



200 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

cipal war chiefs, made prisoners, were sent to Santo Domingo and sold as 
slaves. The nation was wiped out. Other prisoners were captured to the 
number of about 400, and were taken to New Orleans and sold as slaves. 

Louisiana, which embraced Mississippi, became a royal province in 1730, 
and in 1733 Bienville (who had gone to France) was sent back as Governor. 

Other wars with the Indians ensued. In 1763, Eastern Louisiana, which 
included present Mississippi and nearly all Alabama, was ceded to Great 
Britain by the treaty of Paris, which ended French dominion in North Amer- 
ica. Soon afterwards emigration from the English colonies and the Atlantic 
seaboard began to people that region. 

Early in 1798 the United States became possessed of Eastern Louisiana, 
and on April 7 of that year the domain was erected into the " Territory of 
Mississippi " by act of the National Congress. It comprised all of the pres- 
ent States of Mississippi and Alabama, between latitude 30° and 35"^ north. 
A Territorial Government was organized in 1802: William C. C. Clairborne 
was appointed Governor, and was made a commissioner, with General Wilkin- 
son, to take possession of Louisiana when it was purchased from France. In 
1804 Clairborne was appointed Governor of the Territory of Louisiana. 

Mississippi proper was very little affected by the war of 1812-15, or the 
preceding wars with the Indians. Many of the most stirring events of the 
war with the Creek nation occurred in its eastern portion, which is npw the 
State of Alabama. {See Alaba7na.) In 181 1 the portion of the Territory 
below 31°, ceded by Spain, was added to Mississippi. 

In March, 181 7, Alabama was set off from Mississippi, and its dimensions 
were reduced to the present area of the State. A delegate Convention framed 
a State Constitution soon afterwards, which gave to all adult male white resi- 
dents the right of suffrage, but a pecuniary qualification was required to hold 
ofifice. The Governor, chosen for two years, must possess 600 acres of land, 
or other real property to the value of $2000; the Senators, chosen for three 
years, half as much ; and the members of the House, chosen for one year, 
half the qualification of Senators. 

On the subject of slavery the Constitution provided that the Legislature 
should have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the 
consent of their owners, nor without paying therefor, previous to such 
emancipation, a full equivalent in money; nor laws to prevent immigrants 
from bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the 
United States, so long as any persons of like age and description should be 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 201 

continued in slavery by the laws of the State. But laws might be passed 
prohibiting the introduction of slaves for the purpose of sale, and also laws 
to compel the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide them 
with necessary clothing and provisions, and to abstain from all injuries ex- 
tending to life and limb. Provision might also be made, in case of disobe- 
dience to such laws, for the sale of a slave to some other owner, the proceeds 
to be paid over to the late master. The Legislature was also required to 
pass laws giving to owners of slaves the right of emancipation, saving the 
rights of creditors, and requiring security that the emancipated slaves should 
not become a burden to the county. Similar restrictions and provisions had 
been made in the first Constitution of Kentucky. A new Constitution was 
adopted in 1832, when the slave population of the State had been, for thirty 
years, in excess of the free population. David Holmes was chosen the first 
Governor of the State of Mississippi. 

Mississippi, after the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the 
United States, was one of the earliest of the slave-labor States to take meas- 
ures for seceding from the Union. Its Legislature assembled at Jackson, its 
capital, early in November, i860, the special object of the session being to 
make preparations for the secession of the State. A Convention was author- 
ized to meet on January 7, 1861, and an election of delegates thereto was 
ordered to take place on December 20. The Governor (John J. Pettus) was 
authorized to appoint commissioners to visit each of the slave-labor States, 
to endeavor to secure their co-operation. 

A portion of the Legislature was for immediate separation and secession. 
The press of the State was divided in sentiment, and so were the people, 
while their representatives in Congress were active in promoting revolution, 
while retaining their seats. One of the latter was Lucius Q. C. Lamar (now, 
1888, one of the Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court), who 
was afterwards sent as a diplomatic agent to the Russian Court by the Con- 
federacy. 

Before the close of November, i860, Mr. Lamar (who is a native of 
Georgia) submitted to the people of Mississippi a plan for a Southern Con- 
federacy. After reciting the ordinance by which Mississippi was created a 
member of the Union, and proposing its formal withdrawal therefrom, the 
plan proposed that the State of Mississippi should " consent. to form a Federal 
Union " with all the slave-labor States, the Territory of New Mexico, and the 
Indian Territory west of Arkansas, under the name and style of the United 



202 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

States of America, and according to the tenor and effect of the Constitution 
of the United States," with slight exceptions. It proposed to continue in 
force all laws and treaties of the United States, so far as they applied to 
Mississippi, until the new Confederation should be organized, and that all 
regulations, contracts and engagements made by the old Government should 
remain in force. It provided that the Governor of Mississippi should perform 
the functions of President of the new United States within the limits of that 
State, and that all public officers should remain in place until the new Gov- 
ernment should be established. It was also provided that the accession of 
nine States should give effect to the proposed ordinance of Confederation; 
and that when such accession should occur, it should be the duty of the 
Governor to order an election of Congressmen and Presidential electors. 

The question of immediate secession or co-operation at once became a 
vital issue among the political leaders in Mississippi Two parties were 
formed, one called the " Secessionists,' and the other " Co-operationists." 
Each was equally zealous for secession. " These are but household quarrels," 
said a leading " Co-operationist." "As against Northern combinations and 
agressions, we are united. We are all for resistance. W differ as to the 
mode; but the fell spirit of Abolitionism has no deadlier, and, we believe, no 
more practical foes than the Co-operationists of the South. We are willing 
to give the North a chance to say whether it will accept or reject the terms 
that a united South shall agree upon. If accepted, well and good ; if not 
accepted, a united South can win all its rights, in or out of the Union." 

The Co-operationists," governed by reason rather than by passion, 
counselled waiting for an overt act of wrong on the part of the incoming 
Administration, before raising the resisting arm. The Hotspurs denounced 
this counsel as cowardly in thought and disastrous in practice. One of their 
poets put into the mouths of the " Co-operationists " these words of bitter 
irony: 

" We are waiting till Abe Lincoln grasps the purse and grasps the sword. 
And is sending down upon us all his abolition horde ; 
Waiting till our friends are murdered, and our towns and cities sacked, 
And poor ' Sambo ' gets his freedom — waiting for the ' overt act ' ; 
Waiting till our fields of cotton, cane and rice, and every grain, 
All are desolate and lonely 'neath King Cuffee's stupid reign; 
'Till our sisters, wives and daughters are compelled to his embrace — 
Yes, we're waiting! only waiting, for this horrible disgrace." 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 203', 

The Convention met at Jackson, a town of 2500 inhabitants,, on January 
7, 1861. Only about one-third of the members were " Co-operationists." 
The confident Secessionists at once assumed an arrogant and. menacing tone.. 
Delegates from South Carolina and Alabama, being present, were invited to 
seats in the Convention, and added weighty words, in favor of immediate 
secession. An Ordinance of Secession was speedily drawn. It was reported 
on the 8th, and when the vote was taken many of the " Co-operationists," in- 
timidated by the words and manner of the Secessionists, had not the courage 
to vote No, and the next day the Ordinance was adopted by a vote of 
eighty-four ayes and fifteen noes. The vote was declared unanimous by the 
Chairman, and Mississippi was proclaimed to be a " free, independent and sov- 
ereign State." Speaking for the people of the State (to whom the Ordinance 
was not submitted for their consideration) the instrument declared that they 
would "consent to form a Federal Union with such of the States as have 
seceded or may secede from the Union of the United States of America." 

The next step was to assert the " sovereignty " of Mississippi. South 
Carolina was acknowledged as a " sovereign State " by her younger but not 
less ardent sister, who, like herself, had a population of slaves greater in 
number than the population of freemen. Steps were taken to sever its con- 
nection with the National Government, excepting the convenient one of the 
postal system. They assumed the right to dictate the terms on which the. 
Mississippi River should be navigated on that portion which washed the shores 
of that State. They planted a battery at Vicksburg, to the dictates of which 
all passers-by were required to bow, as to the cap of Gessler. These 
obstructions were maintained until removed by the power of the National 
forces in 1863. At that point was fought one of the most decisive battles of 
the Civil War, which resulted in victory for the National troops, at the 
beginning of July, that year. 

In June, 1865, the President appointed W. L. Sharkey provisional Gov- 
ernor of Mississippi, who ordered an election of delegates to a Convention 
which met August 14. By that Convention the Ordinance of Secession was 
repealed, and the State Constitution was so amended as to abolish slavery. 
A Governor and Congressmen were elected in November, but the latter were 
not admitted to seats in the National Legislature, the Congress having its 
own plan for the re-organization of all disorganized States to carry out. 

Mississippi and Arkansas were constituted one military district, and mili- 
tary rule took the place of civil government. 



'204 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



Earlyin 1868 a Convention framed a new Constitution, which was rejected 
in June following. Congress, in the spring of 1869, authorized the President 
of the United States to again submit the Constitution to a vote of the people 
of Mississippi. It was almost unanimously ratified at an election in Novem- 
ber, when a loyal Governor was elected. In January, 1870, the Legislature 
ratified the Fourteenth amendment of the National Constitution, and in 
February Mississippi was re-admitted into the Union and the civil authority 
assumed control. 

The most valuable agricultural production of Mississippi is cotton. In 
1S80 that crop exceeded that of any other State in the Union, being 963,111 
bales. It also produces abundance of rice, Indian corn, oats, some wheat, 
and sugar. It has comparatively few manufactures. In 1882 there were 
within its borders 1231 miles of railroad in operation, which cost nearly $9,000 
000. The assessed value of the taxable property of the State, real and per- 
sonal, in 1880, was a little more than $100,000,000. 

The total expenditure of the State for public instruction was $679,475 in 
1880. There were 426,689 children of school age, of whom 237,065 were en- 
rolled in the public schools, with an average daily attendance of 156,824. 
There were four colleges and universities in the State. 

Mississippi derives its name from that of the great river, which is an 
Indian word signifying "Father of Waters." It is nicknamed "The Bayou 
.State," from the great number of its estuaries. 






(1720.) 

Illinois, one of the Central States of the Union, is in the 
upper valley of the Mississippi, between 30° 59' and 42° 
30' north latitude, and 87° 35' and 91° 40' west longi- 
tude. It embraces an area of 56,650 square miles. Its 
immediate neighbor on the north is Wisconsin. On the 
east is Lake Michigan and the States of Indiana and 
Kentucky, and on the west Iowa and Missouri. From the last two States it 
is separated by the Mississippi River. By the census of 1880 Illinois ranked 
fourth among the States in population, and first in the value of agricultural 
productions. 

The general aspect of the face of Illinois is a comparatively level surface. 
It consists in many parts of gently undulating prairies, covered with luxuriant 
grass, and an abundance of wild flowers of almost every description. Indeed 
the great landscape feature of Illinois is its beautiful prairies, stretching out 
like seemingly boundless lakes in almost every section of the Commonwealth. 
The State is a gently inclined plane sloping from Lake Michigan towards the 
Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The Grand Prairie is not more than 500 feet 
above the sea. At the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi the land is not 
more than 350 feet above the level of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the State 
IS drained by the tributaries of the Mississippi, which washes its entire west- 
ern border. 

The first European settlers in Illinois were Frenchmen from Canada, who 
followed the Sieur de la Salle into the wilderness beyond the great lakes in 
the 17th century. That adventurer, as we have observed in the sketch of 
Ohio, sailed through the chain of lakes in a vessel (the Griffon) which he built 
not far from the site of Buffalo. When he sent her back from Green Bay, 
laden with furs, he, with Father Hennepin, the Chevalier di Tonti, and 
about thirty followers, cruised along the west shore of Lake Michigan to its 
southern extremity, whence they made their way to the Kankakee and 



2o6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 

descended it to its mouth at a larger stream, in bark canoes. They descended 
that larger stream to Lake Pi-mi-te-o-my (now Lake Peoria), at the foot of 
which they found a large encampment of the Illinois nation of barbarians. 

La Salle named the river, of which Lake Peoria is an expansion, the 
" Illinois." There the adventurers spent the winter of 1679-80. Though 
they held friendly relations with the barbarians, it was a season of great 
anxiety, of fear, and to La Salle of disappointment, which almost amounted 
to despair, for circumstances convinced him that the Griffon, with her valua- 
ble cargo, was lost. This misfortune implied his ruin, yet he did not despair. 
He had received glowing accounts of the great river not far to the westward;. 




SHADRACH BOND, FIRST GOVERNOR OK ILLINOIS. 

and a little above where Peoria now stands, he began the construction of a 
fort, which was called Creve Coeur — " Broken Heart." Having secured his 
company in winter quarters, La Salle returned to his point of departure — a 
port on the site of Kingston, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, afterwards 
called Frontenac, leaving Di Tonti in command at Creve Coeur, That fort 
was the first seed of European civilization planted in Illinois. 

La Salle soon returned to the wilderness. Meanwhile Father Hennepin 
had gone down the Illinois River to the Mississippi, and explored the upper 
waters of the mighty stream to the P'alls of St. Anthony (see Minnesota). 
Creve Cceur was deserted, for a foray into that region by a band of Iroquois 
had caused Di Tonti and his men to seek safety among the Potawatomies 
near Chicago. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 207 

Early in 1682 La Salle and his followers, having constructed a large 
barge on the Illinois River, descended it to the Mississippi, went down that 
river to its mouth, and, as we have observed (see Loiiisiand), there took pos- 
session of the Mississippi Valley in the name of the King of France- 
Returning, La Salle left a part of his company behind to form trading sta- 
tions. They established posts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and one or two other 
places within the present domain of Illinois. Emigrants from Canada soon: 
joined these settlers, and these trading posts speedily became flourishing 
villages. So w^as begun the colonization of Illinois, about the year 1720. La 
Salle is justly regarded as the father of French colonization in the Valley of 
the Mississippi. 

The settlements .n Illinois had grown slowly but steadily for more than a. 
score of years, Avhen the Jesuits established missions at Kankaskia and 
Cohokia. Then the population most rapidly increased. The Peoria tribe 
desiring a mission among them, one was established on the site of Peoria in 
171 1. Military forts were also established in Illinois and at St. Louis; and 
towards the middle of the i8th century the French had erected a line of for- 
tified posts from Niagara to the Gulf of Mexico. The English, seated on the 
Atlantic slope, tried to rival and check the French by attempts to settle in 
the Ohio Valley 

By the conquest of Canada in 1760, and. by the treaty at Paris in 1763,. 
the English acquired possession of the French domains in North America. 
After the failure of his conspiracy in 1763, Pontiac took refuge among the 
Illinois Indians, where he was murdered. Illinois then had a population of 
about 3000. 

As we have observed (see OJdd), the United States established the vast 
north-western territory in 1787, which included Illinois. When the Indiana 
Territory was created, Illinois formed the western part of it. The Territory 
of Illinois was erected in 1809, and comprised the present State and that of 
Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota. 

The first most important movement toward the settlement of Illinois was 
made in 1773, when William Murray and others obtained from the Kaskaskia. 
and Cahokia native chiefs deeds for a vast domain in Illinois. These deeds, 
were pronounced legal by high English judicial authority. Other deeds were 
granted by Indian chiefs, and very soon English settlers appeared in that 
region. In 1765 the first English Governor of the undefined region was 
appointed. 



208 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

During the old war for American independence, Western Illinois became 
a theatre of stirring military events. The English at Detroit stirred up the 
Indians in the north-west against the French settlers and those from the 
Atlantic seaboard. At that juncture appeared George Rogers Clarke, a bold 
*' hunter of Kentucky," and a young Virginian who obtained permission to 
make a " campaign in Illinois," in the summer of 1778. He felt that he might 
count upon the co-operation of the French settlers there. With four com- 
panies of volunteers, chiefly Virginians, he went down the Ohio River to Fort 
Massac, where they landed, and pushed on through the wilderness towards 
Kaskaskia, which was garrisoned by British troops. On arriving near that 
post, unobserved, they halted until night, when orders were given that per- 
sons who could speak the French language should be sent in every direction 
to give notice to the inhabitants " that every man who should appear on the 
streets would be shot down." 

The expedition crossed the river in boats, and, directed by a soldier who 
had been made a prisoner, the fort and the town were speedily taken. 
Within two hours the inhabitants were disarmed without bloodshed. The 
expedition had come by land and water 1300 miles, a part of the way through 
a wilderness trodden by hostile barbarians. They pushed on to and captured 
Cahokia, fifty miles further up the Mississippi River, with equal ease. Clarke 
and his little force afterwards captured the British fort at Vincennes, now in 
Indiana. (See Indiana^ 

The white settlements in Illinois were much disturbed by Indian forays 
until after the treaty at Greenville, in 1795, when peace reigned until the 
ambitious Tecumtha, in imitation of Pontiac, endeavored to form a confeder- 
ation of the Indian tribes in the north-west for the extermination of the 
frontier settlements. 

In 1809, as we have observed, the western portion of Indiana was erected 
into the Territory of Illinois, at which time there were nearly 12,000 white 
inhabitants within that domain. The battle of Tippecanoe frustrated the 
plans of Tecumtha (see Indiana), and the barbarians were made to feel a 
wholesome fear of the military in that region; but when the war of 1812-15 
broke out soon afterwards, and they formed alliances with the British, they 
became bold and aggressive. At about the time when Detroit was surren- 
dered to the British (see Michigan'), in August, 18 12, the Indians became 
parties to a dreadful tragedy at Chicago, on the western shore of Lake Mich- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 209^ 

I'gan. It then consisted of Fort Dearborn, the home of a Canadian trader, 
and a few huts. 

When war was declared, in June, 1812, the garrison at Chicago consisted 
of a single company of United States regular soldiers, commanded by Captain 
Heald. The other ofificers were Lieutenant Helm, Ensign Ronan, and Sur- 
geon Van Voorhes. The wives of Heald and Helm were there. A few fam- 
ilies had removed to the protection of the fort, both French and Canadians. 
The surrounding Indians were Potawotamies, who were in alliance with the 
British. 

On the 7th of Auugst, 1812, a friendly Potawotamie chief — "Catfish" — 
arrived at Fort Dearborn with a despatch from General Hull at Detroit, con- 
taining the first news received at Chicago of the declaration of war. The 
letter announced the capture of Mackinaw, and directed Captain Heald tO' 
evacuate the fort, if practicable, and in that event to distribute all the United 
States property contained in the fort and the agency among the Indians of 
the neighborhood as a peace offering, and to repair to Fort Wayne. 

Catfish advised Captain Heald to remain in the fort, being amply supplied 
with provisions and ammunition ; but if the Captain decided to evacuate, to 
do so at once, before the barbarians could have time to gather their forces. 
" Leave the fort and the stores as they are," he said, " and let them make 
distributioi"^ themselves, and while the Indians are engaged in that business 
the white people may make their way to Fort Wayne in safety." 

Captain Heald did not heed this judicious advice, but declared that he 
should evacuate the fort in accordance with Hull's instructions. He did not 
consult his junior oflficers. These, when they heard of his determination, 
remonstrated against it, believing that the troops could not pass through the 
country of the hostile Indians with safety. He refused to listen to them, and 
prepared to assemble the Potawotamies and distribute the property among 
them. The soldiers began to murmur, and dissatisfaction prevailed through- 
out the garrison. The surrounding Indians became more unruly every hour, 
and yet Captain Heald, with fatal procrastination, postponed the assembling 
of the barbarians for almost three days. On the afternoon of the 12th the 
commander held a farewell council with them. His ofificers refused to join 
him in the council, for they had received intimations that treachery was 
designed. The chiefs were much agitated, and the squaws were greatly- 
excited. 

Captain Heald's attention was called to the impolicy of furnishing the 



210 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Indians with ammunition to be used against the white people. He was 
alarmed, and at evening he had the powder cast into a well, and the liquor of 
the garrison poured into the little stream close by the fort. The watchful 
and suspicious Indians had observed this perfidy, and were greatly excited 
thereby. 

On the morning of the 15th, the day appointed for the evacuation of the 
fort, there was positive evidence of the intention of the Indians to massacre 
the white people. The barbarians were overwhelming in numbers. When, 
at nine o'clock, the gate of the fort was thrown open, the march began. 
The band struck up the Dead March in Said. Mrs. Heald rode by the side 
of her husband, on horseback. Captain Wells, her uncle, a veteran Indian 
fighter, led the procession, followed by a band of friendly Miamis. 

At the Sand Hills, between the prairie and the beach (between Indiana 
and Michigan avenues, just south of North street, Chicago), the Potawota- 
mies, 500 in number, attacked the white people. The cowardly Miamis fled 
at the first onslaught. The troops fought desperately, but fully two-thirds of 
the white people were slain. Twenty-eight strong men had broken through 
the ranks of the enemy, and gained a slight eminence on the prairie. The 
barbarians did not follow. A parley ensued, and arrangements were made 
for a surrender of the white survivors as prisoners of war, to be redeemed by 
ransoms. The captors and the captives hastened to the fort. There nearly 
all the wounded men were killed and scalped, for the British commander at 
Maiden had offered a bounty for such trophies. 

In the conflict at the Sand Hills the women bore a conspicuous part. 
The wife of Capain Heald, who was an expert with the rifle, and was an ex- 
cellent equestrian, deported herself bravely. She received severe wounds. 
Though bleeding and faint, she managed to keep her saddle. An Indian 
raised his tomahawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and, 
with a sweet, melancholy smile, said in his native tongue — " Surely you will 
not kill a squaw!" The appeal was effectual and her life was spared. The 
wife of Lieutenant Helm had a severe personal conflict with a stalwart young 
Indian, who attempted to tomahawk her. She sprang on one side, and re- 
ceived the blow intended for her head upon her shoulder, when she endeav- 
ored to get hold of his scalping-knife that hung in a sheath on his breast- 
While thus struggling she was dragged from her antagonist by another 
Indian, who bore her, in spite of her desperate resistance to the margin of 
t\\Q lake and plunged her in, and at the same time she was held so that she 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 2ir 

should not drown. He was Blackbird, a chief friendly to her husband and 
her father (Mr. Kinzie). Taken to the prairie after the encounter, she there 
learned that her husband was safe. Mrs. Heald was also saved, as a prisoner 
of war, for ransom. 

The people of Illinois, having adopted a State Constitution, the Territory 
was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as an independent Common- 
wealth with Shadrach Bond as its first Governor, who held the position from 
1818 until 1822. It then had 35,220 inhabitants. In 1832 the troubles with the 
Indians culminated in the " Black Hawk war," which resulted in the removal 
of all the dusky barbarians from the State. 

The growth of the Commonwealth in population was remarkable. There 
the Mormons, persecuted in Missouri, seated themselves, and began building 
a temple at Nauvoo. Their conduct was so offensive to the people that 
they determined to drive them from the State. Joseph Smith, the founder 
of that body, and his brother Hiram, were murdered by a mob at Carthage 
jail late in June, 1844. In the autumn the Mormons, 20,000 in number, left 
the State and migrated to Utah. 

The growth of Chicago, the chief city of Illinois, in population and 
wealth, is one of the marvels of history. It was surveyed for a village in 
1830; in 1880, fifty years afterwards, it contained over 503,000 inhabitants. 

The cereal products of Illinois are greater in amount than those of any 
■other State in the Union. In 1880 it yielded 325,792,481 bushels of Indian 
corn; 51,110,502 bushels of wheat, and 63,189,200 bushels of oats. Nearly 
4,000,000 pounds of tobacco were raised, and over 6,000,000 pounds of wool. 
It had over 1,000,000 horses, 2,384,322 horned cattle, 1,037,600 sheep, and 
5,170,266 swine. 

In 1880 there were 14,549 manufacturing establishments, with $140,652,- 
066 capital invested in the business, and producing goods of the value of 
$414,664,673. In that year there were 9383 miles of railways in operation 
within the State — more miles than in any other State. 

In 1880 Illinois was out of debt. The assessed valuation of its taxable 
property, real and personal, was $786,616,394. 

The number of children of school age in Illinois in 1884 was 1,069,274, of 
whom 728,681 were enrolled in the public schools, with an average daily at- 
tendance of 485,625, The total expenditure for public schools was $7,536,682. 
There were 80,440 pupils in private schools. There were twenty-eight univer- 
sities and colleges, two State normal universities, and many normal schools. 




(1711.) 

Alabama is one of the Gulf States, lying between latitude 
30° 15' and 35° north, and longitude 84° 56' and 88" 48' 
west. It embraces an area of 52,250 square miles, and 
had a population in 1880 of 1,262,505, of whom 600,320, 
including 213 Indians, were colored. On its northern 
boundary lies the State of Tennessee ; on the east, 
Georgia and Florida ; on the south, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and on 
the west, Mississippi. 

The north-eastern part of Alabama is diversified by the outlying hills of 
the Alleghany Mountains, which here have their southern termination, and 
gradually form a fine rolling country, which covers the whole surface of the 
State to within fifty or sixty miles of the Gulf. The most important river in 
the State is the Alabama, formed by the junction of the Coosa and Talla- 
poosa rivers about ten miles above Montgomery, the State capital. 

When De Soto and his followers traversed the Alabama region, in 1540, 
they found the country well populated by a race of red-men, who possessed 
elements of civilization. They were evidently an offshoot of the Aztecs., 
They were worshippers of the sun, moon and stars. They were an athletic 
and vigorous race. The men were well-proportioned, active and graceful in 
all their movements. The women were smaller, exquisitely formed, and some 
of them very beautiful. 

The common men, in colder weather, wore a mantle about the size of a 
blanket, made of cloth wrought of the soft inner bark of trees, interwoven 
with hemp or flax. They wore them gracefully over the shoulder, leaving 
the right arm exposed. Around the loins was a short tunic, extending to the 
middle of the thighs. The richer men and nobles wore beautiful mantles 
made of feathers of every hue, exquisitely arranged on the skins of fur-bear- 
ing animals, with dressed deer-skin tunics wrought in colors, and mocassins 
and buckskins. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 213 

The women of the better sort, at the cooler season, wore a garment of 
cloth or feathers or furs, wrought like the mantle of the men. It was 
wrapped more closely around the body at the- waist, and fell gradually down 
to the knee. The rest of the body was left bare, except in the coldest 
weather, when they wore short mantles that fell from the neck to the hips. 
Their heads were always uncovered. Both sexes wore ornaments made of 
beautiful shells, the claws of beasts, or strings of pearls. It is related that an 
Indian queen, on the banks of the Savannah, took from her neck a magnifi- 
cent string of pearls, and wound it around that of De Soto. Sometimes they 
wore pearl pendants in their ears. 




DE SOTO, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY' OF ALABAMA. 

The theology or religious system of the people was very simple. Thejr 
regarded the Sun as the Supreme Deity, and venerated the moon, the planets, 
and some of the brighter stars. In their benedictions they would sing, " May 
the Sun bless you ! " " May the Sun guard you ! " or " May the Sun be with 
you ! " They had temples, in which were well-wrought wooden statues, some 
of them of persons who were entombed in the sacred place. Rich votive 
offerings of pearls, deer-skins and furs were seen in their temples, all dedi- 
cated to the Sun, the great god whom they worshipped. They seem not to. 
have had a Great Spirit in their system of worship. 

At the beginning of March the men of the community selected the skin< 
of the largest deer, with the head and legs attacked,, whkk tliey filled with a. 



214 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

variety of fruit and grain. It was sewed up, and appeared like a live creature 
in form. Its horns were garlanded with fruits and early spring flowers. 
Then the effigy was carried in a procession of all the inhabitants to a plain, 
and placed on the top of a high post. There, at the moment of the sun- 
rising, the people all fell upon their knees, with their faces toward the 
luminary, and implored the Sun-god to grant them, the ensuing season, an 
:abundance of fruit and grain as good as those which they then offered. 

Some of the social customs of these semi-barbarians were very attractive. 
We may consider only one, that of the marriage of a chief. He would send 
out some of his principal men to select from the daughters of the best fami- 
lies the youngest and prettiest of the marriageable ones, for his bride. 
The chosen one was painted and decorated in the most tasteful manner pre- 
paratory to the nuptials. She was covered from her waist almost to her 
knees with a tunic of rich feathers. Then she was placed in a sedan chair, 
the top of which was an arch of green boughs, festooned and garlanded with 
flowers. In that vehicle she was conveyed to the presence of her future lord 
on the shoulders of six noblemen, who were preceded by musicians and two 
men bearing magnificent feather fans, and followed by dancing girls and rela- 
tives of the bride. Arrived at the palace, she was received by the lords in 
•waiting, who conducted her to a seat by the side of her husband, on an 
elevated dais, when great pomp and ceremony were displayed by those in 
■attendance. 

If the weatlier was warm the young couple were constantly fanned by 
beautiful maidens, and were regaled with the unfermented juice of the grape 
in its season, or with a kind of sherbet made of orange juice at other times. 
-At near the sun-setting, the chief and his young wife walked out into an open 
field, followed by all the people, and at the last parting ray of the luminary 
they prostrated themselves towards the west, and invoked the blessings of 
the Sun upon themselves and their children. From that moment until the 
stars appeared the people indulged in music and dancing — the music of the 
reed and a sort of tambourine, and the dancing of young men and maidens — 
when the chief and his bride retired to their dwelling, there, with friends, to 
partake of a marriage-feast by the light of lamps. 

Such were the people — kind and hospitable, amiable and just — who in- 
habited the Gulf region when De Soto and his rough followers invaded their 
country in 1540, and made portions of their paradise a sort of pandemonium, 
for a while. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 215 

De Soto and his armed followers, on foot and on horseback, after ficrht- 
ing their way through Florida and Georgia, entered the beautiful and fertile 
Coosa country, in Alabama. Tidings of their treachery and cruelty had crone 
before them. On the borders of the Savannah River they had been hospita- 
bly entertained by an Indian queen, a young and beautiful maiden'who ruled 
over a large extent of country. She offered them her services; gave De Soto 
rich presents, and entertained the Castilians many days, when they departed 
westward in search of gold. De Soto requited the kindness of the maiden 
queen by carrymg her away, a prisoner, keeping her near his person as a 
hostage for the good behavior of her people. She finally escaped, and sent 
couriers throughout the Gulf region to proclaim the perfidy of the Spaniards. 

Early in 1540 De Soto pushed southward through the Alabama region, 
repaying hospitality with treachery and injustice at every step. The Span- 
iards came to the temporary residence of the " Black Warrior," Tuscaloosa, 
lord of many tribes, and feared by the people in the region between the 
Alabama and Mississippi rivers. He was haughty in demeanor, gigantic in 
stature, grave in aspect, and forty years of age. He was the head of the 
Mobilian tribes. De Soto invited him to journey with him a little distance. 
He reluctantly consented. Placed on a powerful horse, and with few atten- 
dants, he soon found himself a prisoner to the Spaniards, who held him as a 
hostage, De Soto continually riding by his side. They crossed the Alabama 
River at (present) Selma, and journeyed toward the sea. 

De Soto soon discovered signs which gave him uneasiness. Tuscaloosa 
was in continual, consultation with his principal attendants. He was also 
sending runners to his capital, Maubila, telling De Soto he was preparing for 
their honorable reception there. De Soto did not beHeve him, and took pre- 
cautions against treachery. 

De Soto and Tuscaloosa rode into Maubila together on a bright October 
morning, and were received in a great square, with music, songs, and the 
dancing of Indian girls. They dismounted, and when seated under a canopy 
of State, Tuscaloosa requested not to be held as a hostage any longer. De 
Soto hesitated, when the angry Emperor sprang to his feet, and with haughty 
demeanor walked into a dwelling near by. De Soto's interpreter was sent to 
invite him to return to breakfast with him. Tuscaloosa refused, saying, " If 
your chief knows what is .best for him, he will immediately take his troops 
out of my country." 

De Soto had scarcely recovered from his surprise when he was informed 



2i6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

that fully 10,000 warriors, followers of Tuscaloosa, well armed, were in the 
houses. A greater portion of the Spaniards were lagging in the woods, hunt- 
ing, in fancied security. De Soto, anxious to postpone an attack until his 
followers should arrive, approached Tuscaloosa with smiles and gracious 
words. The chief turned haughtily away, and mingled with his warriors. At 
that moment another chief rushed out, and denounced the Spaniards as 
thieves and robbers. One of the greatest soldiers of the expedition, angered 
by this insolence, cleft the chief with his sword from his head to his loins. 
Like bees from hives, the barbarians, made furious by this act, swarmed out 
from the buildings, and gradually pushed the invaders out of the gates of the 
town into the plain At that first encounter five Spaniards were killed and 
many more wounded — among them, De Soto. 

The Indians were soon driven back into the town with great slaughter. 
They drove back the Spaniards in turn by clouds of arrows and tempests of 
stones, hurled from their wall-towers and loop-holes. For three hours there 
was a fierce hand-to-hand fight. Meanwhile the lagging body of Spaniards 
had arrived. The Indians, driven into the city, closed and barricaded the 
gates. These were soon forced. The Spaniards rushed in. A dreadful car- 
nage ensued. Young women in large numbers fought side by side with the 
warriors, with equal bravery and skill. At length De Soto, shouting "Our 
Lady and Santiago ! " made a furious charge with horse and foot, making 
fearful lines through the ranks of fighting men and women. Houses were 
fired, and the combatants were shrouded in blinding smoke. 

As night closed in the contest ceased. Eighty-two Spaniards, the flower 
of the expedition, had perished, and it was estimated that 11,000 Alabamians 
fell in the struggle. The Spaniards remained near the ruined capital of the 
Mobilians. Foraging parties went out for supplies to Indian villages near, 
and captured many Indian maidens; and they learned from them that De 
Soto's squadron was in Pensacola Bay. 

Such was the introduction of Europeans to the natives of Alabama. 

For about a century and a half after this tragedy, no European's foot 
trod the soil of Alabama. In 1702, as we have observed (see Louisiana), 
Bienville transferred the French colony at Biloxi to Mobile. They landed at 
Dauphin Island, in Mobile Bay, where they constructed a fortified warehouse. 
Afterwards the greater part of the colony seated themselves on the shore of 
Mobile Bay, and called the settlement Mobile, after the tribe with whom De 
Soto fought at Maubila. Here was the seat of government for about nine 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 217 

years, when, in 171 1, they founded the town of Mobile, which is now the 
commercial metropolis of the State. The French made settlements on the 
Alabama River, among them (present) Montgomery, the political capital of 
the State. They also made treaties of friendship with the neighboring Indian 
tribes, but they were not exempted from wars with the natives. 

Alabama, with Mississippi, was transferred to the English by the treaty 
at Paris in 1763. In 1783 it became a part of the territory of the United 
States. It was at first attached to Georgia and South Carolina, but in 1798 it 
formed the eastern portion of the Mississippi territory. Speculators, who 
were organized under the titles of " the South Carolina Yazoo Company," 
*'the Virginia Yazoo Company," and "the Tennessee Company," contracted 
for immense tracts of land in Mississippi and Alabama, and some attempts at 
settlement were made. Trading posts had been established by the English 
and Americans, and became the nuclei of settlements and towns. 

It was upon the soil of Alabama that Aaron Burr was arrested on a 
charge of treasonable designs, in 1807, taken to Fort Stoddard, near the con- 
fluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, and sent to Richmond for trial. 

When the war of 18 12-15 broke out, a large portion of Alabama was 
occupied by the powerful nation of Creek Indians. Tecumtha (see htdiand) 
had been among them and stirred them up to hostilities against the Ameri- 
cans, and they soon began a fierce war. In the summer of 181 3 they fell 
upon Fort Mims, not far above the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
rivers. It was a strong, stockaded work, and the commander of the garrison 
believed it to be strong enough to resist any attack from the barbarians. To 
it many families had moved as a place of safety from the hostile Creeks. 

On a beautiful day in August, the 550 men, women and children in the 
fort were enjoying themselves, with a feeling of perfect security. A body of 
Creek warriors, led by Weathersford, a noted chief, attacked the post without 
warning. The garrison made a gallant resistance for three hours, but were 
nearly all slain. The Indians pressed into it, and at sunset 400 of the in- 
mates of Fort Mims lay dead. Not a white woman or child escaped. 

This massacre aroused the people of the whole South. General Jackson 
led troops against the Creeks, when several battles were fought. Notwith- 
standing the barbarians were encouraged and assisted by the British, they 
were finally overcome. With the battle at " Horse-shoe Bend," in 1 8 14, when 
the Creeks lost about 600 men, the war ended, and the result was the abso- 
lute destruction of that once powerful nation. Only a remnant was left. 



2i8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

After the Creeks disappeared, the region of Alabama was rapidly settled. 
" The flood-gates of Virginia, the two Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and 
Georgia were now hoisted," wrote an observer, " and the mighty stream of 
emigration poured through them, spreading over the whole domain of 
Alabama." It was erected into a Territory in 1818, with William W. Bibb 
as Governor. The territorial Legislature assembled at St. Stephens. In the 
summer of 18 19 Alabama was admitted into the Union as an independent 
State. .^ Its first General Assembly convened at Huntsville. Mr. Bibb was 
chosen first Governor of the new Commonwealth. 

Alabama was one of the largest slave-holding States of the Union. Its 
political leaders took strong ground in favor of Secession in i860. They 
were divided on the question of immediate " Secession " and " Co-operation.'* 
(See Mississippi}) At an election of members of a State Convention held late 
in December, the vote for "Co-operation" was about 11,000 more than for 
Secession. 

The Convention assembled at Montgomery on January 7, 1861. Every 
county in the State was represented. There was a powerful infusion of 
Union sentiment exhibited in that body. A committee of thirteen drew up 
an Ordinance of Secession. It was longer than any other already adopted, 
but of similar tenor. It was submitted on the loth. There was a minority 
report. Some members advocated a postponement of the question until after 
the 4th of March, with a hope of preserving the Union. A member from 
northern Alabama boldly declared his belief that the people of his section 
would not submit to any disunion scheme, when he and the people of his 
section were denounced as " tories, traitors and rebels." 

The final vote on Secession was taken on January 11, and resulted in 
sixty-one ayes and thirty-nine nays. The Convention favored the formation 
of a confederacy of slave-holding States, and formally invited the others to 
send delegates to meet those of Alabama on February 4, at Montgomery, for 
consultation on the subject. A Secession flag, which the women of Mont- 
gomery had presented to the Convention, was raised over the Capital. 

On the 4th of February, 1861, a Convention of delegates from six 
southern States assembled at Montgomery and formed a league called the 
" Confederate States of America." The Convention chose Jefferson Davis 
provisional President of the Confederacy, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice- 
President. A provisional Constitution was adopted, and the machinery of 
the Confederate Government was put in motion. Montgomery became its 



I 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES:. 2x9. 

capital, and so remained until the following summer, when the seat of 
Government was transferred to Richmond, Virginia. 

In the war that ensued Alabama suffered much. Several severe battles, 
occurred within its domain, notably the naval contest in Mobile Bay, the 
capture of Mobile in 1865, and the capture of Selma and other towns by 
General Wilson, who made destructive, raids through the State.. 

In June, 1865, a provisional Government for Alabama was appointed. In 
September a State Convention declared the Ordinance of Secession and the- 
State debt null; passed an ordinance against slavery, and provided for an; 
election of State officers, who were chosen in November. The Government 
thus constituted remained in force until superseded by military rule in 1867., 
In November of that year a Convention framed a new State Constitution,, 
which was ratified February 4, 1868. All requirements being complied with„ 
Alabama became entitled to representation in the National Congress. On 
July 14, 1868, the military relinquished to the civil authorities all legal con- 
trol. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were 
ratified by Alabama, the latter on November i6th, 1870. 

Cotton is the largest agricultural production of Alabama. It ranks sixth 
among the States in the production of Indian corn. In 1880, 699,654 bales, 
of cotton were produced, and 25,451,278 bushels of corn. Its manufactures 
are not large, textile fabrics being the chief product of its manufacturing 
industries. In 1880 there were 1852 miles of railway in operation within the 
bor.ders of the State. 

The assessed value of taxable property in Alabama in 1880 was $122,867,- 
228. The State debt was over $9,000,000. 

The State had, in 1880, a school population of 376,649, of whom 174,485 
were enrolled in the public schools. That year $430,131 was expended by 
the State for public schools. There were four universities and colleges, and 
forty-nine academies and seminaries. 

Alabama is a Creek word, signifying " Here we rest." 




IJ 




(1625.) 

jTVTaine is the largest of the New England States, embrac- 
ing an area of 33,040 square miles of territory. It is 
also the most easterly of the States of the Union. It 
lies between latitude 43° 4' and 47° 31' north, and longi- 
tude 66° 45' and 71° 6' west. On the north-west it is 
bounded by Quebec, Dominion of Canada; on the north 
"by Quebec and New Brunswick; on the south and south-east by the Atlantic 
Ocean, and on the west by New Hampshire. Part of the Isle of Shoals, near 
New Hampshire, belongs to Maine. In 1880 the population of the State was 
648,936, of whom 2084, including 625 Indians, were colored. 

The seacoast of Maine is generally low, flat, and at some points marshy 
for ten or twenty miles in the interior, and is deeply indented with numerous 
bays and inlets, some of them forming excellent harbors. The Appalachian 
chain of mountains, which extends through the United States to Alabama, has 
its origin in the Province of New Brunswick, crosses Maine in a south-westerly 
direction, and joins the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This chain is 
broken into moderately lofty peaks. Mount Katahdin, near the centre of 
the State, rises to an altitude of 5385 feet. High up on these mountains are 
several beautiful lakes. 

Mount Desert Island belongs to Maine. It is traversed by a range of 
thirteen granite peaks, one of these 2300 feet in height. It was settled by 
the French in 1608, who were driven away by the English in 1613, and settled 
by them in 1661. Maine is dotted with numerous lakes, some of which are 
very beautiful. 

The coast of Maine was undoubtedly discovered by Scandinavian voy- 
agers late in the loth century. Possibly Verrazani cruised along its coasts in 
1524, and Cabot in 1498. Gomez, a Spanish navigator, saw its shores in 1525, 
and in 1556 Father Thevet, a Roman Catholic priest, sailed in sight of its 
shores^ The first attempt to plant a European settlement on the coast of 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



221 



Maine was by De Monts in 1604, its shores having been trodden two years 
before by Bartholomew Gosnold. The French wintered near the site of Calais 
(1604-05) on the St, Croix River, and took possession of the river Kennebec. 
Captain Weymouth, an English navigator, was there in 1605, and kidnapped 
some of the natives; and in 1607 the Plymouth Company sent emigrants 
there to found a colony, but they did not remain long. They erected a fort 
and two or three buildings near the mouth of the Sagadahock River, on a 
small island. It is said that the colonists quarreled with the natives. The 
planters suffered much. Dissatisfied, they returned to England in 1608. 

In 1614 the famous Captain John Smith, in behalf of the Plymouth Com- 
pany, whose charter embraced the region between latitude 34° and 44° north, 




WILLIAM KING, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MAINE. 



landed on Muskegan Island, took possession of it, and thence explored the 
coast to Cape Cod. He gathered much information about the country and 
the inhabitants, and constructed a map of New England. In 1621 the Com- 
pany granted to Sir William Alexander the country east of the St. Croix 
River, and established that stream as the eastern boundary of Maine. 

Muskegan Island was settled in 1622, and Saco the next year. In the 
same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, having obtained 
a grant of the territory between the Merrimack and the Kennebec rivers, 
planted a colony at the mouth of the Piscataqua, the first permanent occupa- 
tion of the main land of Maine. (See Nczv Hampshire?) 

In 1629 the Plymouth Company , foreseeing its dissolution inevitable, 
parcelled out the territory in small grants. In the course of three years the 



222 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

coast had been thus disposed of as far east as the Penobscot River. East of 
that river was claimed by the French, and was a subject of dispute a long 
time. 

The Plymouth Company dissolved in 1635, when Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
took the whole region between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, received a 
formal charter for it from Charles I., in 1639, and named it the Province of 
Maine, in compliment to the Queen, who owned the Province of Maine in 
France. Gorges sent his nephew, William Gorges, as Governor of his domain, 
who established the seat of Government at Saco, where, indeed, there had been 
an organized Government since 1623, when Robert Gorges was Governor 
under the Plymouth Company. 

Gorges was appointed Governor-General of New England in 1639, and in 
1640 he sent his son Thomas to be his lieutenant, who established himself at 
Agamenticus (now York), which, in 1642, was incorporated a city called 
" Georgiana." There the first representative Government in Maine was estab- 
lished in 1640. On the death of Gorges in 1647, the Province, descending to 
his heirs, was placed under four jurisdictions. Massachusetts, fearing this 
sort of dismemberment of the colony might cause the fragments to fall into 
the hands of the French, made claim to the territory, under its charter. 

Many of the inhabitants of Maine preferred to be under the jurisdictioni 
of Massachusetts, and in 1652 a large number of the freeholders took the oath 
of allegiance to the Bay State. The latter province then assumed supreme 
rule in Maine, and continued it until the restoration of the Stuarts, in 1660, 
when Charles H., on the petition of the heirs of Gorges, sent over a commis-^ 
sion to re-establish the authority of the grantees. For a long time Massa- 
chusetts resisted. Finally, in 1667, the Bay State purchased the interest of" 
the claimants for $60,000. 

In 1674 the Dutch conquered the territory eastward of the Penobscot,, 
including that of Acadia and Nova Scotia; and in 1676, Cornells Steinwyck, 
a leading citizen of New York, was appointed Governor of the acquired terri- 
tory by the Dutch West India Company. Meanwhile the ravages and hor- 
rors of King Philip's war had been experienced in the region of Maine. In 
the space of three months one hundred persons were massacred. 

Then came disputes about the claims of the Duke of York to country 
between the Kennebec and St. Croix rivers, which, in 1683, had been consti- 
tuted Cornwall county. The Duke sent Edmond Andros to rule that region,, 
as Governor of New York and Maine. On the Duke's accession to the British. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 223 

throne as James II., he made Andros Viceroy of all New England. The New 
England charters were declared void, and Andros ruled as a petty tyrant 
until the revolution of 1688, when the political status of the Bay State was 
restored. Thenceforth the history of Maine was identified with that of 
Massachusetts. 

The Province of Maine suffered much from hostile operations of the 
combined French and Indians. In 1667 the young Baron de Castine estab- 
lished a fortified trading house at the mouth of the Penobscot River, where 
he married the daughter of a Penobscot Indian chief, and exercised much 
influence over the barbarians in that region. He taught them the use of fire- 
arms; and after he was made the bitter enemy of the English by their act of 
pillaging his trading establishment, he often joined the French and Indians 
in their attacks on the north-eastern frontier. With 200 Indians he assisted 
Colonel Iberville in the capture of Fort Wiliam Henry, which the English 
had built at Pemaquid. 

One of the most active men in Maine toward the close of the 17th cen- 
tury was William Phipps, who was a native of the province, and who, by his 
own energy in maritime life, had acquired fortune and distinction. The King 
had knighted him. In the spring of 1690 he was placed in command of a 
naval force consisting of eight war vessels, that made a descent on Acadie and 
captured Fort Royal, now Annapolis. In the same year Phipps was in com- 
mand of a fleet of thirty-four vessels, manned by 2000 New Englanders, that 
sailed for the St. Lawrence to assist in efforts to conquer Canada. Without 
charts or pilots he crawled cautiously around Acadie and up the St. Law- 
rence for about nine weeks. A swift Indian runner went from Pennaquid to 
Montreal in time to warn the French Governor of his design, and the latter 
was prepared to meet the hostile fleet on its arrival. The expedition was a 
failure. 

All through the colonial period, from the accession of William and Mary, 
until the Revolution, Maine suffered much from Indian forays, incited by the 
French on the eastern and northern borders. 

During the old war for independence the coast towns of Maine were 
harrassed by British cruisers. Falmouth (now Portland) was burned, and 
other towns were sorely smitten. 

After the Revolution there were frequent disputes between Massachu- 
setts and the " District of Maine," as it was called, the latter desiring a sepa- 
ration from the Bay State. Conventions to that end were held at Portland 



224 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

between 1784 and 1791, but nothing was accomplished until after the war of 
1812-15. During that war the coasts of Maine were scenes of conflict 
between the Americans and British, especially in the region between Passa- 
maquoddy Bay and the Penobscot River. 

Commodore Hardy, in command of a British blockading squadron, 
captured Eastport, and this act was followed by the appearance of another 
squadron bearing 4000 British troops, led by Governor Sherbrooke of Nova 
Scotia. They captured Castine in Penobscot Bay, also Belfast, and then went 
up the Penobscot River to Hampden, a few miles below Bangor, to capture 
the American corvette JoJin Adams, which, caught in that stream, had gone 
up the river for safety. The militia gathered, but fled when the British 
landed at Hampden. The commander of the Adams burned her to prevent 
her falling into the hands of the enemy. The invaders plundered the inhabi- 
tants and destroyed much property, when they returned to the sea, captured 
Machias, and then sailed for Halifax. 

After the war the people of Maine again took measures to effect a sepa- 
ration from Massachusetts, and to have the district take a place as an 
independent State of the Union. Massachusetts was now willing, wishing to 
offset the governing power of the Southern States. The people finally 
adopted a State Constitution, and on March 15, 1820, Maine was admitted to 
the Union as a State, with William King as first Governor. 

For more than half a century the Governments of the United States and 
Great Britain were involved in a controversy concerning the eastern bound- 
ary of Maine, which the treaty of 1783 did not accurately define. The dis- 
pute was settled by treaty in 1842, each party making concessions. 

Maine was twice invaded by Confederates during the Civil War. On the 
night of June 29, 1863, the officers and crew of a Confederate privateer 
entered the harbor of Portsmouth, captured the United States revenue cutter 
Caleb CusJiing, and fled to sea with her, hotly pursued by two steamers 
manned by armed volunteers. Finding they could not escape with the cutter, 
the Confederates blew her up, and, taking to their boats were soon made 
prisoners. At mid-day, July 18, 1864, some Confederates, led by a Missis- 
sippi Confederate Captain, came from St. John, New Brunswick, and entered 
Calais, to rob the bank there. Having been forewarned by the American 
-consul at St. John, the authorities were prepared for their reception. Three 
of the parties were arrested, when the remainder fled. 

During the Civil War Maine contributed to the National army 71,558 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 225, 

soldiers and sailors. Of these 8446 were killed in battle or died from wounds 
and sickness, and 6642 were mustered out for disabilities resulting from 
wounds or disease. 

In 1872-73 a colony of about 600 Swedes settled in Maine on 20,000 acres 
of land, on the Aroostook. They were aided by the State. They established 
schools, in which the chief study of the children is the English language, to 
fit them for citizenship. 

Maine is a very productive agricultural State. In 1880 it produced 
1,107,788 tons of hay, 8,000,000 bushels of potatoes, which are largely ex- 
ported; 2,205,575 bushels of oats, and a large yield of wheat and buckwheat. 
The great production of Maine is timber — also, of wood-work in various forms, 
and ship-building. It has extensive fisheries, and is the only State in the 
Union wherein lobster-packing is an industry. 

The estimated value of real and personal property in Maine, in 1886, was 
$235,978,716. The State debt was $7,405,557. It had 1013 miles of railroads 
in operation, which cost nearly $40,000,000. The foreign commerce '' om 
Portland is quite extensive, and the coast-wise trade is large. 

In 1880 there were 214,056 children of school age in Maine, of whom 
149,827 were enrolled in public schools. Its total expenditure for public 
schools was $991,297. Its largest city is Portland, with about 34,000 popula- 
tion in 1880. Its capital, Augusta, had 8665. 

Maine is called " The Pine-tree State." 








(1764.) 

Missouri, one of the Central States of the Mississippi Val- 
ley, lies between latitude 36° and 40 °3o' north, and lon- 
gitude 89° 2' and 95° 44' west. It is wholly west of the 
Mississippi River, and embraces an area of 69,415 square 
miles. In 1880 it ranked fifth among the States in popu- 
lation and seventh in the value of its agricultural products. 
Its population was 2,168,380, of whom 145,554, including ninety-one Chinese 
and 113 Indians, were colored. On its northern border is the State of Iowa; 
on the east the States of Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee; on the south 
Arkansas, and on the west the Indian Territory, Kansas and Nebraska. The 
Mississippi River washes its entire eastern shores. 

The Missouri River (which is really the Mississippi River), flowing from 
the north-west, divides the State into two unequal parts. The surface of the 
State, north of the Missouri River, is mostly level. South of that stream it 
is rolling, gradually rising in the south-west into a range of bold highlands, 
which extend across the State from north-east to south-west, with isolated 
peaks 500 to lOOO feet above their bases. 

Missouri was a part of the vast region of Louisiana, and was known as 
Upper Louisiana. Its soil was first trodden by Europeans when Marquette 
and Joliet visited it in 1673. La Salle's expedition became acquainted with 
it. French traders made their way thither, and in 17 19 they built Fort 
Orleans, at the mouth of the Osage River, about ten miles below Jefferson- 
ville, the present capital of the State. These adventurers discovered lead 
mines in the vicinity, and in 1720 began working them. The discovery 
brought many other adventurers, and little settlements were made at various 
points — at St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Saint Genevieve, and other places in 
that region. 

By the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the whole vast territory passed into the 
possession of the English. In 1755, Genevieve, its oldest town, was founded; 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 227 

iDut the most important, permanent and successful settlement was begun in 
1764, when Saint Louis was founded. In 1762 a fur company was organized 
.at New Orleans, for carrying on the fur trade with the western Indians. It 
was started by the Director General of Louisiana. A trading expedition was 
fitted out, and under the direction of Pierre Lagueste Laclede, the principal 
proprietor of the enterprise, it went to the Missouri region, and established 
its chief depot on the site of the city of Saint Louis, which name Laclede 
gave to that locality. There furs were gathered from the regions extending 
eastward to Mackinaw and westward to the Rocky Mountains. 

In 1775 St. Louis had become a famous depot of furs and a trading 
.station. It had then about 800 inhabitants; now (1888) its population is 



THOMAS H. BENTON, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

probably nearly 400,000. It felt a touch of war during the period of the 
Revolution. In 1780 a force of 1500 British and Indians from the lakes laid 
siege to it, and invested it for a week, killing nearly seventy of the inhabi- 
tants, when the brave George Rogers Clarke (see Illinois) came to its relief 
with a competent force, and drove the assailants away. 

Spain had taken possession of Louisiana, and retained it after the peace 
of 1783. The territory on the east banks of the Mississippi became the 
property of the United States, and citizens of the Republic crossed to the 
Spanish shore and built cabins there. The Spanish authorities forbade this 
trespass. This led to negotiations, which resulted in the free navigation of 
the Mississippi. Difificulties with the Spaniards continued. These were all 
«nded by the purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803, when the 



228 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

territory was divided. When, in 1812, Louisiana was admitted into the 
Union as a State, the name of the Upper District was changed to " Missouri 
Territory. " Emigration had been flowing in, and at that time the Territory 
had a population of over 35,000. 

In 1 81 7, when the population of Missouri was fully 60,000, the Territorial 
Legislature applied to Congress for leave to frame a State Constitution, 
preliminary to its admission into the Union as an independent State. Then 
began the most important debate on the subject of slavery ever before known 
in that body. 

On February 13, 1819, a bill was introduced into Congress to e-nable the 
Territory to enter the Union, when James Tallmadge, of New York, moved 
to insert a clause prohibiting any further introduction of slaves within its 
domain, and granting freedom to the children of those already there on their 
attaining the age of twenty-five years. After a vehement debate, lasting 
three days, the resolution was adopted — eighty-seven to seventy-six. 

As a companion to the Missouri bill, another was presented (February 
16) for the organization of the Territory of Arkansas, to which a provision 
was added, that slavery should not thereafter be introduced into any territory 
of the Union north of ^^6° 30' north latitude, the northern boundar)' of the 
proposed Territory. In the spirit of compromise other propositions were 
made, which would give up to slavery the State of Missouri and all south of 
that Commonwealth. 

This partition policy was warmly opposed by members from each section 
of the Union. They argued that slavery was either right or wrong, and that 
there could be no compromise. Extreme doctrines and foolish threats were 
uttered on both sides. Threats of dissolution of the Union were freely made. 
There was much adroit management by the party leaders, who used great 
dexterity in trying to avoid a compromise, for one party insisted upon Mis- 
souri entering, if at all, as a free-labor State; while the other party insisted 
that it should enter as a slave-labor State. 

But compromise seemed to be the only door through which Missouri 
might enter. By adroit management a compromise bill, proposed by John 
W. Taylor of New York, was carried (March 2, 1820) by a vote of 134 against 
42. John Randolph, of Virginia, denounced it as " dirty business," and gave 
to the northern members who voted for it the name of " dough-faces." Pres- 
ident Monroe hesitated to sign the bill, and the matter was allowed to go over 
until the next session. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 229 

In February, 1821, Henry Clay moved a joint committee to consider the 
expediency of admitting Missouri into the Union ; and if not expedient, 
what provision adapted to her actual condition ought to be adopted. Such 
committee was appointed, and acting upon its report a decision was finally 
reached by the adoption of a compromise (Feb. 27, 1 821) substantially as pro- 
posed by Mr. Taylor in 18 19, namely, that in all territory north of 36° 30' 
(the southern boundary of the State of Missouri) slavery should not exist, but 
should be for ever prohibited north of that line. Missouri was admitted as a 
slave-labor State. 

In the later debates on the famous " Missouri Compromise," there was 
much angry feeling displayed. Unwise men of the North and the South, 
uttered the cry of disunion. A member from Georgia said, prophetically : 
"A fire has been kindled which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, 
and which only seas of blood can extinguish." 

The " seas of blood " shed in the late Civil War did, alone, extinguish 
it. Missouri was admitted into the Union on August 10, 1821. One of the 
most distinguished citizens of that State was Thomas H. Benton, one of its 
first representatives in the U. S. Senate. He was an able and enlightened 
statesman. 

The Territory of Missouri was disturbed by the Indians of the upper 
Mississippi region, incited to hostilities by the British during the second war 
for independence (1812-15). They frequently committed depredations on 
the frontier settlements in Missouri. The people constructed several stock- 
aded forts for their protection. The Indians were supplied with new rifles 
and ammunition by the British. Some encounters occurred, in which the in- 
vading barbarians were generally worsted by the armed settlers 

From its entrance into the Union, Missouri rapidly advanced in popula- 
tion and wealth, until it became involved, through its political leaders, in the 
meshes of Secession and the horrors of Civil War. A State Convention was 
assembled at Jefferson City on February 28, 1861, and on the second day of 
its session it adjourned to Saint Louis, where it re-assembled on March 4, 
with Sterling Price as President. He had been elected a member of the 
Convention as an Unionist. He soon afterwards became one of the most 
active Confederate military leaders in that region of the Union. 

On the first day of the session, at Saint Louis, L. J. Glenn, an accredited 
commissioner from Georgia, was allowed to address the Convention. He 
urged the Missourians to join the Southern Confederacy; but public senti- 



'230 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

ment at Saint Louis, in and out of the Convention, was not congenial with 
the object of his mission. The population of the city was made up largely 
of New Englanders and Germans, who were loyal, while emigrants from the 
slave-labor States, especially from Virginia, composed the great body of the 
Secessionists. Glenn's remarks were greeted with hisses by spectators at the 
Convention, and he was officially informed that his mission was not agreeable. 
A Committee on " Federal Relations " reported against the Secession doc- 
trines, and made declarations of attachment to the Union. The report 
deplored any attempt to coerce the " seceding States " into submission, and 
the employment of the military force of the State to assist the National Gov- 
ernment. The Convention adopted the report, and adjourned to December 
following. 

C. F. Jackson, a co-worker with the Secessionists, had been inaugurated 
'Governor of Missouri in January, 1861. As he could not mould the action of 
the Convention to acquiescence in his views, he labored to that end with the 
Legislature. Determined to give the Secessionists control of Saint Louis, the 
strong Union city and the chief depository of the fire-arms of the State, he 
procured an act for the establishment of a metropolitan police in that city 
under five commissioners, to be appointed by the Governor. This was the first 
step towards measures which involved Missouri in the horrors of civil war. 

With the sanction of the Governor, an attempt was made in May by the 
Secessionists to seize the United States arsenal at Saint Louis, which was 
guarded by 500 regular troops, under Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a loyal sol- 
dier. For weeks before the call of the President for troops, in April, 1861, 
the Secessionists had been drilled in the use of fire-arms in a building in the 
city, for which purpose the Governor had furnished them with State arms. 
They received commissions from him, and were sworn into the military ser- 
vice of the State. After that call they drilled openly. They were closely 
watched by the Unionists, who also formed military companies and drilled in 
the use of fire-arms. The latter were denounced by the Secessionists as 
" outlaws " preparing to make war upon Missouri. At the close of April the 
President ordered Captain Lyon to enroll them into the military service of 
the United States, not exceeding in number 1000 men. The Governor had 
ordered militia companies to assemble near Saint Louis, and encamp for a 
week. 

The militia were encamped in the suburbs of Saint Louis. Lyon's 
volunteers occupied the Arsenal grounds. He soon discovered that the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 231 

Secessionist leaders, under the sanction of the Governor, were landing can- 
nons and mortars at the city, in boxes marked " marble." The Captain was 
satisfied that it was time for him to act with vigor. On May 9, by a quick 
movement, he surrounded the militia camp with a strong force and cannons, 
and demanded of the commander the immediate surrender of the men and 
munitions of war under him, giving him only thirty minutes to deliberate. 
An armed mob of Secessionists, hearing of this, rushed out of the city to help 
the militia. They were too late. The militia had surrendered, 1200 strong, 
with all their arms and ammunition. 

The Governor and Legislature made immediate preparations for war. 
Captain Lyon, commissioned a Brigadier-General, was made commander of 
the " Department of Missouri;" but the purse and the sword being in the 
hands of the Governor, the latter determined to wield the power of the State 
for the benefit of the Southern Confederacy. An ofificial proclamation, 
issued by the Lieutenant-Governor at the close of July, declared Missouri 
separated from the Union ; that the people were under the " military rule " of 
the " Confederate States," and that, by invitation of the Governor, General 
Pillow, of Tennessee, had already entered Missouri with troops. The Con- 
federate Congress at Richmond authorized the admission of Missouri as a 
member of the " Confederate States of America." During a greater part of 
the war, men claiming to represent Missouri accepted seats in the Confederate 
Congress. The Missouri Legislature passed an Ordinance of Secession on 
October 28. So Missouri became involved in the Civil War, which inflicted 
fearful miseries upon her people. ' 

A State Convention assembled at St. Louis on January 6, 1865, and 
framed a new State Constitution, which provided for the emancipation of the 
slaves. It was ratified by the people in June. In 1869 the Legislature rati- 
fied the Fifteenth -^.mendment of the National Constitution, and Missouri was 
re-admitted into the Union after a season of great suffering. The State had 
furnished to the Union army during the war from its loyal citizens 108,773 
soldiers. 

Missouri is one of the great grain-growing States of the Union. In 1880 
it had 17,806 manufacturing establishments, in which $130,000 were invested, 
yielding products valued at over $300,000,000. There were 1,750,000 tons of 
coal mined in Missouri in 1880, and 95,000 tons of pig-iron were produced. 
In 1882 it had 42 11 miles of railways in operation, which, with equipments, 
cost $239,530,162. 



232 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

The assessed valuation of taxable property in Missouri in 1880 was 529,- 
218,474. 

The State makes liberal provision for public instruction, expending for 
public schools, in 1880, $3,092,332. It then had 723,484 children of school 
age, of whom 486,000 were enrolled in the public schools. There were then 
three normal schools in Missouri, and fourteen universities and colleges.. 
Saint Louis is its largest city. Kansas city had 55,785 inhabitants in 1880; 
JefTerson city, its capital, had only 5,271. 

Missouri is an Indian word, signifying " Muddy Water," a term applied 
to its great river. 






Arkansas, one of the South-western States of the Union and 

of the Mississippi Valley, lies between latitude 33° and 36° 

40' north, and longitude 89° 40' and 92° 42' west. Its area 

is 53,850 square miles, and it is embraced by the States of 

Missouri on the north ; Tennessee and Mississippi on the 

east, from which it is separated by the Mississippi River; 

Louisiana on the south, and Texas and the Indian Territory on the west. 

The population of Arkansas in 1880 was 802,525, of whom, including 195 

Indians and 133 Chinese, 210,994 were colored. 

The eastern part of Arkansas for about 100 miles back from the Missis- 
sippi, is low and flat, with lakes, bayous and swamps. The whole region is 
subject to overflow, excepting occasional bluffs. The Ozark mountains, en- 
tering the State from Missouri, form a low range of hills in the north-west 
part of the State, never exceeding 2000 feet in height. The Ouachita Hills 
in the west and the Black Hills in the north are the only other considerable 
elevations. The Red River, clustered with historic associations of the Civil 
War, flows through the south-western part of the State, and is navigable 
throughout its entire course within the Commonwealth. 

Arkansas was discovered by De Soto in 1541, who traversed the Gulf 
region from his entrance into Florida to the Mississippi River, which.he found 
full to the brim. He and his followers, the latter reduced to a few, crossed 
that stream and landed near the site of Helena. Pushing westward, in a mad 
search for gold, he penetrated to the borders of the (present) Indian Terri- 
tory. After spending a year in that region "prospecting" for the precious 
metals, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi, and at the mouth of the Red 
River De Soto died, and was buried in the turbid flood of the Father of 
Waters. 

Arkansas was next visited by Marquette and Joliet in 1673, who, at the 
jnouth of the Arkansas River, learned that the Mississippi flowed into the 



234 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Gulf of Mexico instead of the " South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, as had beem 
conjectured. With this information they returned to the Lake region. 

Being a part of the vast French domain of Louisiana, Arkansas was; 
early settled temporarily by French traders and adventurers at different 
points. Crozat, who received a grant of the whole domain early in the- 
eighteenth century (see Z(?;/wzV/;/rt'), established a trading-post at Natchitoches,, 
on the Red River; and John Law, the magnificent gambler and speculator,, 
undertook to plant a colony of Germans on a tract of land twelve miles square 
on the Arkansas River. 

After the admission of Louisiana into the Union, in 1 8 1 2, Arkansas formed 
a part of the Missouri Territory, and so remained untiL 1 8 19, when.it was> 




JOHN LAW, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF ARKANSAS. 

erected into a separate Territory with its present name. The first Territorial 
Legislature convened in 1820 at Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, sixty- 
miles from its mouth — a place settled by the French as a trading-post in 
1685. Not long afterwards the seat of Government was removed to Little 
Rock, the present capital of the State. 

The population of Arkansas had increased rapidly. In 1830 it numbered 
over 30,000. A territorial Convention at Little Rock, in 1836, framed a 
State Constitution, and on June 15, that year, Arkansas was admitted into 
the Union as an independent State with James S. Conway as its first Governor. 
The people were prosperous and happy until the Secession movement in i860, 
put in motion by the political leaders in South Carolina and Georgia, dis- 
turbed the public mind in Arkansas and elsewhere.. The people of, that 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES., 235 

State were warmly attached to the Union ; but, unfortunately, the Governor 
and most of the poHtical leaders were disloyal, and they spared no efforts 
to obtain the passage of an Ordinance of Secession. 

For the purpose of effecting a revolution, a State Convention of dele- 
gates assembled at the capital (Little Rock) on March 4,. 1861. It was com- 
posed of seventy-five members, of whom forty were staunch Unionists, and 
it was evident that a Secession ordinance could not be passed. The friends, 
of that measure then proposed a plan that seemed fair. A self-constituted, 
committee reported to the Convention an ordinance providing for an election 
to be held on the first Monday in August, at which the legal voters of the 
State should decide by ballot for " Secession " " or Co-operation." If a 
majority should vote for " Secession," that fact should be considered as in- 
structions to the Convention at its next session to pass an ordinance to that 
effect; if for "Co-operation," then measures were to be used, in conjunction 
with the border slave-labor States " yet in the Union," for the settlement of 
existing difificulties. 

The next session of the Convention was fixed for August 17. The above- 
named proposition seemed so fair, that it was agreed to by unanimous vote, 
when the Convention was adjourned, subject to the call of the President, 
who was known as an Union man. 

Taking advantage of the excitement caused by the attack on Fort Sum- 
ter in April, and President Lincoln's call for troops to suppress the rising in- 
surrection, the Governor of Arkansas (Rector) and his disloyal associates, 
adopted measures for arraying Arkansas among the seceding States. To the: 
President's call upon Arkansas for one regiment, Governor Rector responded:: 

" In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas to subjugate 
the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand 
is only adding insult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth are free- 
men, not slaves, and will defend, to the last extremity, their honor, their lives, 
and their property against Northern mendacity and usurpation." 

These defiant words were followed by immediate concurrent action. 
In violation of the pledge of the Convention, that the whole matter should 
be determined by the people in August, the President of the Convention was. 
induced by the Governor to call that body together on the 6th of May. 
Seventy delegates were present. An Ordinance of Secession, already pre- 
pared, was presented to it at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the hall of 
the House of Representatives, in which the meeting was held, was crowded 



236 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

by an excited multitude. It was moved that a vote on the Ordinance should 
be taken, without debate. 

The President, a " mild-mannered " man, evidently overawed by the aspect 
of the crowd before him, when the question was put, and decided in the nega- 
tive by a considerable majority, declared that it was passed. Then a vote on 
the Ordinance of Secession was taken, and a majority appeared against it, 
when the President, who seems to have become a plastic instrument in the 
hands of the Secessionists, immediately arose, and in the midst of the cheers 
of the people, vehemently urged the Unionists to change their votes to " aye " 
immediately. " It being evident," wrote an eye-witness, " that a large num- 
ber of the crowd in the room were prepared to compel them to do so," the 
terrified Unionists complied, with one exception — Isaac Murphy — who was 
compelled to fly for his life. In 1864 the Unionists of Arkansas rewarded 
Murphy for his fidelity by electing him Governor of the State. 

In this way the Arkansas Ordinance of Secession was adopted by unani- 
mous vote. Then the Convention authorized the Governor to call out 60,000 
men, if necessary, for military duty. The State was divided irito two military 
divisions. The Convention also passed an ordinance confiscating all debts 
due from citizens of Arkansas to persons residing in free-labor States, and all 
the personal property belonging to such persons in Arkansas at the time of 
the passage of the Ordinance. 

Measures were immediately taken to attach to the Secession cause, by 
persuasion or coercion, the powerful Indian tribes residing in the Territory 
adjoining Arkansas, who were about 40,000 in number. Jefferson Davis, 
President of the Confederacy, ordered three regiments of these Indians to be 
recruited, and commissioned Albert Pike, a native of New England, but long 
-a resident of Arkansas, to make a treaty with them to that effect. The three 
regiments were raised, and under Pike, who was commissioned a Brigadier- 
General, they fought the National troops at the battle of Pea Ridge, among 
the Ozark Mountains, in Arkansas. So it was that Arkansas was placed in 
the attitude of an enemy of the Republic, of which it had been a constituent 
part only twenty-five years. 

On the 30th of October, 1863, a meeting of loyal citizens, representing 
about twenty counties, was held at Fort Smith, to take measures for re-or- 
ganizing the State Government. In January following a Convention, composed 
of representatives of forty of the seventy-five counties in the State, assembled 
at Little Rock, and framed a loyal Constitution, which was ratified by a vote 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 237 

of the people in March, i8'34 Members of the Legislature were elected, and 
in April a State Government was organized. In 1867 military rule was estab- 
lished in Arkansas, which, with Mississippi, constituted a military district. 

On January 7, 1868, a new Constitution was framed by a Convention at 
Little Rock, which was ratified by a small majority in March. On June 22 
Congress declared Arkansas entitled to representation in that body, when the 
administration of the Government was transferred from the military to the 
civil authority. The people of the State had suffered much during the Civil 
War. 

The chief agricultural productions of Arkansas are cotton, Indian corn, 
wheat, oats and tobacco. In 1880 it produced 22,295 tons of hay. The cot- 
ton crop that year yielded 608,256 bales. There were harvested 1,269,715 
bushels of wheat, 24,156,417 bushels of corn, 2,219,822 bushels of oats, and 
970,226 pounds of tobacco. The total value of the principal crops was $88,- 
000,000. Much live stock is raised in Arkansas. Its total value, in 1880, was 
•estimated at $20,472,425. 

Arkansas is becoming a manufacturing State. In 1880 there were 1200 
manufacturing establishments, employing a capital of about $3,000,000. The 
value of the products was estimated at nearly $7,000,000. There were 
•948 miles of railroads in operation in the State. 

The assessed valuation of the real and personal property in the State in 
1880 was $86,349,354. It expended for public instruction that year $382,537. 
There were 2768 public schools, with 108,236 pupils. There were 237,000 
children of school age in the State, and there were five universities and col- 
leges and a number of normal schools. 

Arkansas is an Indian word, meaning" Bow of Smoking Waters." It has 
also been called "The Bear State," from the number of these animals found 
there formerly. Its largest town is Little Rock, the capital, which had a 
population of 13,138 in 1880. 



^I 







(1670.) 



Michigan is one of the North Central States of the Union,, 
and is divided by the Strait of Macl<:inaw into an upper 
and lower peninsula. The Upper Peninsula is bounded 
on the north by the dividing line between the United 
States and the British possessions; on the south by Lake 
Huron, the Strait of Mackinaw, Lake Michigan, and the 
State of Wisconsin ; and on the north-west by Lake Superior. The eastern 
boundaries of the two peninsulas are the north-eastern channel of the Strait 
connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, the St. Clair 
Lake, the Detroit River and Lake Erie. The southern boundary of the 
Lower Peninsula is a part of the States of Ohio and Indiana, and of the 
western, Lake Michigan. 

The State is nearly surrounded by lakes, from which circumstance it 
derives its name — our Anglicized form of an Indian word which signifies the 
"Lake Country." The State contains an area of 58,915 square miles, and a 
population, in 1880, of 1,636,937, of whom 22,377, including 7249 Indians, 
were colored. The Commonwealth lies between latitude 41° 42' and 48° 22'' 
north, and longitude 82° 26' and 90° 30' west. 

The Southern Peninsula may be characterized as a vast undulating plain.. 
The water-shed is nearer Lake Huron than Lake Michigan, and the country 
slopes gently toward both. The Upper Peninsula has a rugged and moun- 
tainous aspect, and abounds in vast mineral wealth. The climate of both sec- 
tions, tempered by the surrounding lakes, is less severe in winter than that of 
any other portion of the country in the same latitude. 

Michigan was discovered and first settled by French traders and mission- 
aries. So early as 1610 Detroit was visited by P>enchmen. In 1630 French 
missionaries established a station on Lake Huron, and in 1641 some Jesuits 
reached the Falls of St. Mary. In 1660 a mission station was founded on Lake 
Superior within the bounds of the Upper Peninsula. A mission was, estab- 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 239 

lished at Sault-Ste. -Marie in 1668, by Marquette and other Jesuit fathers; 
and in 1671 he founded another Jesuit mission oh the main land in the Upper 
Peninsula, north of the island of Mackinaw, where he built a chapel and dedi- 
cated it to St. Ignatius. He also laid the foundations of a fort. 

The Jesuits built their first chapel on the soil of the Lower Peninsula, on 
a bay of Lake Huron. It was dedicated to St. Joseph, and they called it 
" the cradle of the church." These missionaries were so successful in their 
efforts, that nearly all the Hurons become converted to Christianity. 

The French Government, desirous of fostering the fur trade, sent soldiers 
in 1677 to garrison trading stations and to protect the missionaries; and the 




STEVENS THOMPSON MASON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN. 

cross and the lilies of France were soon spread throughout a large portion of 
the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, south of the great lakes. 

In 1701 Detroit was founded by a little French colony, led by the Sieur 
de la Motte Cordillac, who was appointed Governor of the community. 
They erected a fort called Pontchartrain, and from time to time the colony 
was increased by emigrants from Montreal and Quebec. 

When in 1760 Canada was conquered by the English, the latter took 
possession of the forts at Detroit, Mackinaw, and at other places in the 
French dominion, much to the disgust of the Indians, who had become attached 
to the French as allies in war, and their spiritual guides. They disliked the 
English because they had been their enemies. Among the barbarian leaders 
in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, who en- 
deavored to confederate the Indian tribes in an effort to exterminate the 



240 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

English. He said: "If the French must go, no other white nation shall 
occupy our land." 

The fort at Detroit was garrisoned by a few English troops in 1762. 
Pontiac feigned friendship for the English and gained their confidence. 
Under the pretext of holding a friendly council with the commander of the 
fort, he entered that little fortress on a bright May morning in 1763, with 
about 300 followers, each having weapons concealed under his blanket. Hav- 
ing been warned of danger, the commander averted it that time by postpon- 
ing the council for a few days. When the barbarians retired the gates of the 
fort were closed against them, and for more than a year Pontiac laid siege to 
the fortress. 

At Fort Mackinaw similar treachery was practised with success. A 
company of ball-players seized the commander, who stood outside the fort 
watching their sport, when squaws furnished the Indians with hatchets, which 
they carried under their blankets. Then the Indians rushed through the open 
gate of the fort and murdered many of the soldiers. 

An unwise movement was made at the fort at Detroit in July. A force 
of 240 men went out from the fort at night, and attempted to surprise Pon- 
tiac at his camp, not far north of the present city of Detroit. The wily chief 
Avas on the alert. He went out to meet his foes and furiously assailed them. 
'They were compelled to make a precipitate retreat, leaving twenty of their 
comrades dead, and bearing away forty who were wounded. The commander 
of the English was slain, and his scalp was his slayer's trophy. 

Michigan, being included in the bounds of Canada, was not the scene of 
any stirring events during the old war for independence. Although it was 
claimed to be included in the territory ceded by Great Britain by the treaty 
•of 1783, it was not finally surrendered until 1796. Then it was a part of the 
North-western Territory, established in 1787 (see Ohio). When this territory 
"was divided, in 1800, the eastern portion, which included Michigan, was called 
Indiana Territory (see Indiana), and General William Henry Harrison was 
appointed Governor. 

In 1805 Indiana Territory was divided, and Michigan was erected into a 
separate Territory. William Hull, a meritorious of^cerof the Revolution, was 
appointed Governor, and retained that position until 1812. Nineteen days 
before he entered upon his duties, Detroit was destroyed by fire. Two years 
.afterwards a new town was laid out, on a handsome and extensive plan, ac- 
vcording to which the present fine city was built. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 241 

When, in June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great 
Britain, Governor Hull was commissioned a Brigadier-General, and put in 
chief command of the forces in the north-west. He was instructed to invade 
Canada, an undertaking which resulted in disaster to Michigan Territory. 
Hull doubted the policy of invasion and protested against it, but obeyed 
orders. 

Early in July, 1812, Hull crossed the Detroit River with his whole force, 
and took possession of the western portion of Canada, with the intention of 
attacking Fort Maiden, eighteen miles below. Sir Isaac Brock, Governor of 
Upper Canada, hastened, with such forces as he could speedily gather, tO' 
repel the invasion. Hull was very cautious, and hesitated to move forward. 
This caution was increased by the news that a large force of British and In- 
dians had captured the fort on Mackinaw Island ; also that Fort Dearborn, 
the site of (present) Chicago, was menaced by hostile Indians. (See Illinois}) 

Brock arrived at Maiden on August 13. Tecumtha and his warriors were 
on an island opposite that post. Brock held a conference with them on the 
following morning, and gave them pleasure by telling them that he had come 
to assist them in driving the Americans from their hunting grounds north of 
the Ohio. Meanwhile Hull, alarmed by the defeat of an escort of prisoners 
destined for the fort at Detroit, had abandoned Sandwich, recrossed the river 
and taken a position of defense at Detroit under the shelter of the fort. 

Brock, reinforced at Maiden, and joined by Tecumtha and his thousand 
dusky followers, marched to Sandwich, and there planted a battery of heavy 
guns, which, from that elevated shore, commanded the fort and town of 
Detroit. The American artillerists begged permission to open fire on the 
battery, and Captain Snelling asked permission to cross over in the night and 
capture the British works. Hull would not allow any demonstration against 
the enemy, and the latter, perceiving their advantage, prepared for an assault 
on the American works. 

Hull had been deceived by letters, intended to be intercepted, showing 
large and immediate reinforcements coming to Brock's army from the north. 
The militia in that army had been dressed in the scarlet uniforms of the Brit- 
ish regulars, and were so displayed by marching and counter-marching that 
they appeared like a numerous and regularly disciplined army. Hemmed in 
on every side, as he thought, his provisions scarce, no prospects of receiving 
reinforcements and supplies from Ohio, the fort thronged with trembling 
women and children, and decrepit old men of the village and the surrounding 



242 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

country, who had fled to the fort for protection, Hull humanely determined 
to surrender the fort rather than increase the danger of slaughter by the bar- 
barians, exasperated by a defense which might be futile. 

On August 15, Brock sent a summons to Hull for an immediate surrender 
of the post, in which was a covert threat of letting loose the bloodthirsty 
Indians in case of resistance. Hull's whole effective military force there did 
not exceed 1,000 men. He kept the flag that bore the summons waiting fully 
two hours, for his innate bravery and patriotism bade him refuse and fight, 
while his fear of dreadful consequences to his army and the people, bade him 
surrender. 

Hull's troops were confident of their ability to hold the fort and defeat 
the enemy, and Hull finally refused to surrender. Active preparations for 
defense were made. The British opened a cannonade and bombardment from 
their elevated camp, which was kept up until near midnight. The firing was 
returned with spirit. Early the next morning the British crossed the river 
and landed, without opposition, a little below the village, while Tecumtha 
and 700 warriors, who had crossed two miles below, took post in the woods 
on the left. Their right was protected by a war vessel in the river. 

The soldiers outside of the fort prepared to meet the foe. When the lat- 
ter had approached to within 500 yards of the American line, Hull sent an 
imperative order for his soldiers to retreat within the overcrowded fort. The 
infuriated soldiers reluctantly obeyed. While the enemy were preparing to 
storm the works, Hull, without consulting any one, hoisted a white flag. A 
capitulation was soon agreed upon. At noon on August 16, 1812, the fort, 
the garrison, and the Territory of Michigan were surrendered to the British, 
with arms of every kind, ammunition, stores, and an armed brig. 

This surrender produced intense indignation throughout the Republic, 
and the people of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky flocked to the standard of 
General Harrison the next year, with a determination to recover Michigan. 
Four thousand Kentuckians under General Shelby joined Harrison. The 
gallant Commodore Perry, co-operating with him, gained a splendid victory 
on Lake Erie in September. The command of Lake Erie secured, Harrison, 
with a strong force, invaded Canada. Landing below Maiden, late in Septem- 
ber, he drove the British from that post and pursued them to the interior, 
where, near the banks of the Thames, on the 2d of October, he signally de- 
feated the enemy. Tecumtha was killed in that battl ,\ 

This victory secured all that Hull had lost, and more. It bioke up the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 243 

Indian confederacy in the north-west, " Such a victory," said a member of 
the House of Representatives in his place, " would have secured to a Roman 
general, in the last days of the Republic, the honors of a triumph." 

The public lands in Michigan were first offered for sale in 18 18, from 
which time its main growth in population and wealth may be dated. Colonel 
Cass was appointed Governor after its recovery. In 1819 the Territory was 
authorized to send a delegate to Congress. In 1823 a Legislative Council 
of nine members was appointed by the President of the United States, from 
eighteen persons elected by the people of the Territory, and they and the 
Governor constituted the Government. A Constitution was adopted in 1835, 
a State Government was elected, and on June 15 that year Michigan was 
admitted to the Union, conditionally, as an independent State. It was not 
formally declared a State by act of Congress until January 26, 1837. The 
■delay was occasioned by disputes with Ohio concerning the southern boundary 
of Michigan. Its admission in 1835 had been made on condition that it 
should accept the claims of Ohio. A new Constitution was framed and rati- 
fied in 1850. The seat of Government was removed from Detroit to Lansing 
in 1847. 

The action of Michigan was highly patriotic during the Civil War. It 
furnished to the National army 90,747 soldiers, of which number 14,823 per- 
ished in battle or by sickness. 

Michigan (especially its Lower Peninsula) is a famous agricultural State. 
In 1880 its husbandry produced 32,461,452 bushels of Indian corn; 35,532,543 
bushels of wheat; 18,190,793 bushels of oats; and 10,924,111 bushels of pota- 
toes. In wool it ranks third among the wool-producing States. 

Michigan is specially rich in minerals, the Upper Peninsula with copper 
and the Lower with coal. The copper mines near Lake Superior are among 
the richest in the world, the copper belt being 120 miles in length, and from 
two to six miles in width. The coal is bituminous. Salt of excellent quality 
is found near Saginaw Bay. 

Michigan is rich in livestock. In 1880 it had 378,778 horses; 891,631 
horned cattle; 2,189,389 sheep; and 965,000 swine. Its people are extensively 
engaged in manufactures, especially in products from timber. In 1880 it man- 
ufactured 12,425,385 bushels of salt, and its copper mmes yield annually over 
$9,000,000 in value. The total value of her manufactured products in 1880, 
was $150,715,000. Her lake fisheries are extensive. 

In 1880 there were 3607 miles of railroads in operation in Michigan, cost- 



244 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



ing$ 1 36,000,000. The assessed valuation of taxable property, real and personal, 
in 1 88 1, was $810,000,000. In 1880 the State expended for public schools $3,- 
112,468. There were 506,221 children of school age, of whom 362,489 were 
enrolled in the public schools. There were nine- colleges and universities. 
Detroit is its largest city, having 133,269 inhabitants in 1880, its capital, 
Lansing, having 9779. 

Michigan has been nicknamed " The Wolverine State, "from the abundance 
formerly of wolverines, a small carnivorous animal of the glutton species. 




(1565.) 




Florida is mostly a vast peninsula between the Gulf of, 
Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and projects farther 
south than any other State of the Republic. It lies be- 
tween 24° 30' and 31° north latitude, and 79° 48' and 87° 
38' west longitude. It embraces an area of 58,680 square 
miles. Its population in 1880 was 269,493, of whom 
126,888 were colored, including 180 Indians. On its northern borders lie the 
States of Georgia and Alabama; on the south is the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Strait of Florida; on the east is the Atlantic Ocean; and on the west is the: 
Gulf of Mexico and the Perdido River. 

The whole State of Florida is nearly level, with no elevation more than 
200 feet above the sea. Its southern half is only a few feet above tide-water.. 
The land in Florida may be designated as high hummock, low hummock, 
savanna and pine lands. The high hummocks are timbered with live and 
other oaks, magnolias and laurel. On the low hummocks live and water oaks 
abound. The " Everglades " cover an area of 160 miles in length and sixty 
in breadth. They appear to be a vast, shallow lake, with innumerable islands, 
of all sizes. The water is filled with long, rank grass, and the islands occa- 
sionally present a huge pine tree and a palmetto tree. The central portion 
of the peninsula is somewhat elevated, being a water-shed, and seldom attain- 
ing an altitude of more than 170 feet above the ocean. 

It is supposed by some that Florida was seen by Europeans before the 
year 1500; but the first known discoverer was John Ponce de Leon, an old 
Spaniard, Governor of the Island of Porto Rico, who, in the early spring of 
1 5 12, sailed northward in quest of a fabled fountain, the waters of which 
would transform old age into youth, and ugliness into beauty. The fra- 
grance of flowers on a west wind lured the navigators, and they landed on a. 
beautiful shore on Easter Sunday, at the site of (present) St. Augustine.. 
Partly on account of the profusion of blossoms, the hoary Spaniard called. 



246 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



the place Florida, and penetrated its wilds in a fruitless search for the magic 
"fountain. He had formally taken possession of the country in the name of 
his sovereign. In 15 14 he was made Governor of the " Island of Florida." 
He did not attempt to take possession until 1521, when he and his followers 
were driven back to their ships by hostile natives. The leader of the Castil- 
-ians was slain. 

Attempts at settlement were made by other Spanish adventurers before 
1528, when Pamphilo Narvaez landed at Tampa Bay, with 440 men. Fol- 
lowing the cruel example of the Spaniards in Cuba, in their treatment of the 
barbarians, he aroused the fierce anger of those of Florida. He dreamed of 
-finding cities burdened with gold, but he found little but exasperated ene- 




M. P. MOSLEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA. 



mies. Treachery met his cruelty at every point. The swift arrows of the 
barbarians diminished the number of his followers daily, and he attempted 
to flee from the country with a remnant in boats. His men died of starva- 
tion, day after day, on the waters of the Gulf, and finally a " norther " dis- 
persed his little flotilla, and Narvaez was never heard of afterwards. De 
Vaca, the " Secretary " of the expedition, was the only one who escaped and 
returned to Spain. 

De Soto explored Florida, thoroughly, in search of gold, and perished on 
the banks of the Mississippi in 1542 (see Arkansas). He did not plant a col- 
ony. That important act was performed by Admiral de Coligni of France, 
who, in 1562, sent a company of Huguenots, or French Protestants, to found 
an asylum from persecution in the wilds of America. Led by John Ribault, 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 247 

the immigrants, few in number, landed at the mouth of St. Mary's River, in 
Florida, and were kindly received by the natives. The French were delighted 
with everything they beheld — the climate, the beauty of the flowery country, 
birds in gay plumage and sweet song, and " people of the finest forms and 
kindest natures." They set up a stone column, and took possession of the 
•country in the name of the King of France. A few days later they sailed 
northward to the South Carolina coast. 

After the bitter Civil War in France, between the Protestants and 
Roman Catholics, Coligni sent three ships, with emigrants, in the sprino- of 
1564, who planted a colony on the bank of the St. John's River, in Florida. 
There were too many " gentlemen," who would not soil their hands with 
labor. Finally, some of the accompanying soldiers and sailors, in two of the 
vessels, sailed for the West Indies and became pirates. Threatened with 
starvation, the remainder of the colonists had resolved to return to France, 
when Ribault appeared with seven ships, laden with supplies and a fresh 
■colony of men, women and children, at near the close of 1565. 

A Spanish naval expedition, underMenendez, sent to destroy the Hugue- 
nots, soon appeared on the coast. They proceeded to found a settlement 
and build a fort, which they named St. Augustine. Thence the Spaniards 
marched overland, and massacred a greater portion of the Huguenots on the 
St. John's. Some of them were hanged on trees, over whom was placed the 
inscription : 

" Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." 

A fiery French Roman Catholic — De Gourges — proceeded to avenge this 
outrage. He sold his property to others, meaning to fit out an expedition 
to Florida. He arrived in the spring of 1568, and, joined by the natives, 
attacked the forts on the St. John's occupied by Spaniards. They were cap- 
tured and every Spaniard was slaughtered excepting a few, who were hanged 
on the same trees on which the Huguenots were suspended. Over them was 
placed the inscription : 

" Not as Spaniards and Mariners, but as Traitors, Robbers and 

Murderers." 

The Huguenot colony disappeared, but the Spaniards made a permanent 
settlement at St. Augustine. It remained the sole settlement in that region 
for more than a century, when, in 1696, Spaniards formed a settlement at 



248 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Pensacola and one or two other places. The EngHsh, who laid claim to. the 
north-western portion of the peninsula, made frequent inroads upon the 
Spanish settlements. 

In 1702 an expedition from South Carolina attacked Fort St. Mark, at 
Pensacola; and subsequently the Georgians, led by Oglethorpe, made war 
upon them there and at other places. (See Georgia.) 

By the treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain ceded the whole of Florida to Great 
Britain, in exchange for the Island of Cuba, which the latter had recently 
conquered. The territory was now divided into East and West Florida, the 
Appalachicola River being the dividing line. Settlers from South Carolina 
went into the territory, and emigrants from Italy, the Islands of Minorca and 
Majorca in the Mediterranean, and Greece, were induced to settle there. By 
these emigrants the colony of New Smyrna was founded by Dr. Trumbull, of 
Charleston, in 1767. They numbered about 1 500. They were settled on a tract 
of 60,000 acres, about sixty miles south of St. Augustine, where they were 
engaged in the cultivation of indigo and the sugar-cane. Trumbull reduced 
them to slavery, and kept them in subjection for a while by troops, the Eng- 
lish Governor of the territory being his business partner. On the arrival of a. 
new Governor, nine years after the founding of the settlement, the petition 
of the poor settlers was heard and heeded, when they were released from 
the cruel tyranny. Nearly two-thirds of the colonists had then perished.. 
The survivors went to St. Augustine. 

During the old war for independence, the trade of the southern colonies 
was seriously interfered with by privateers fitted out in Florida by the Brit- 
ish, who also incited the Indians in that region to make war on the Americans. 
In 1778 the British General, Prevost, invaded Georgia from Florida, and cap- 
tured Savannah. The Spaniards invaded West Florida, and in May, 1781,. 
seized Pensacola, and occupied a considerable portion of the province. 

By the treaty of 1783, Florida was retroceded to Spain, and the western 
boundary was defined, when a greater portion of the inhabitants emigrated 
to the United States. The cession of Louisiana by France to the United 
States in 1803, gave the latter a claim to the country west of the Perdido> 
River, which now comprises the extreme southern end of Alabama. The 
United States Government took possession of it in 181 1, when some irritation 
ensued. 

In the second war for independence with Great Britain, the Spaniards at 
Pensacola favored the British, and allowed an expedition to be fitted out 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 249 

there against the Americans. They also encouraged the hostility of the 
Seminole-Creek nation against Americans. General Jackson led an army into 
Florida, without the advice of his tardy Government, and in November, 18 14, 
with 3000 troops, he captured Pensacola and the forts there. A British 
naval force in the harbor fled in haste, and the Creeks were alarmed and 
scattered. 

Pensacola was again taken by General Jackson in 18 18, with Fort St, 
Mark, but they were restored to Spain. Diplomatic negotiations resulted in 
the cession of Florida by Spain to the United States in February, 1819, on 
the extinction of the various American claims for spoliation, for the satisfac- 
tion of which the United States agreed to pay to the claimants $5,000,000. 
The boundary between Florida and Louisiana \vas adjusted. There was great 
delay in the Spanish ratification of the treaty, and it did not take place until 
1821, the ratified treaty being received by the President in February that 
year. 

Emigrants from the Southern States now flocked into Florida, and the Ter- 
ritory was organized in 1822 and begun to prosper, in spite of many obstacles. 
The powerful Seminole Indians, made up of two bands of the Creek nation, 
occupied the best lands in the Territory, and had fiercely resisted the white 
people from the beginning of their intrusion on the domain of the barbarians. 
The war made upon them by General Jackson, in 18 18, had intensified their 
hatred of the white people, and in 1835 the Seminoles, guided by Micanopy, 
their chief sachem, and led by their principal chief, Osceola, began a distress- 
ing warfare upon the frontier settlements of Florida. 

The immediate cause of the outbreak was an attempt by the National 
Government to remove the Seminoles to the wilderness beyond the Mississippi 
River. In May, 1832, some of the Seminole and Creek chiefs, in council, agreed 
to emigrate. Other chiefs, and the great body of the nation, refused to com- 
ply with the terms of the treaty which had been made. 

In 1834 President Jackson sent a military force to Florida to make a 
forcible removal of the Seminoles, if necessary. Osceola, eloquent and brave, 
stirred up the nation to resistance. One day the insolent bearing and offen- 
sive words of Osceola caused the commander of the troops to put him in irons 
for a day. The dusky warrior's wounded pride called for vengeance, and a 
war begun which lasted about seven years. By bravery, skill, strategy, and 
treachery, Osceola overmatched United States troops sent against him, and 
commanded by some of the best ofificers in the service. 



250 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Osceola struck the first blow in December, 1835. With all the cunning 
of a Tecumtha, and the heroism of a Philip, he began the war by an act of 
perfidy. While professing loyalty to treaty stipulations, his followers were 
engaged in murdering the unsuspecting white inhabitants on the borders of 
the Everglades, which furnished a secure hiding-place for the Indians. Major 
Dade, with one hundred soldiers, on his way from Fort Brooke, at the head 
of Tampa Bay, to join another body of troops, fell into an ambuscade, when 
he and all his followers, excepting four, were massacred. The four men 
afterwards died from the effects of the encounter. On the same day, Osce- 
ola and a small war-party stealthily attacked the commanding general (W'iley 
Thomson) and five others, who were dining, and killed them all. Osceola 
scalped the General with his own hand. 

The Creeks helped their brethren, the Seminoles, by attacking white 
settlers within their own domain. Being successful, they extended their 
forays into Georgia, attacking mail-carriers on horseback, stage-coaches on 
the land and steamboats on the rivers. They finally assaulted villages, and 
thousands of men, women and children were compelled to fly in terror from 
their homes. 

General Winfield Scott, then in command in the South, prosecuted the 
war against the Creeks with so much vigor, that they were speedily subdued ; 
and during the summer of 1836, thousands of their men removed to lands 
west of the Mississippi River. 

Hostilities with the Seminoles continued. Finally, in the spring of 1837, 
several chiefs appeared before the commander of the troops in Florida, and 
signed a treaty which was intended to secure peace and the departure of the 
Seminoles to the home prepared for them beyond the great river. The wily 
Osceola caused this treaty to be violated and the war was renewed. 

In October, 1837, Osceola and seventy warriors appeared at the camp of 
General Jesup, under the protection of a flag, to hold a friendly conference. 
Jesup determined no longer to trust the perfidious chief. The coliference 
was held in a grove of magnolias, in a dark swamp. As the chief arose to 
speak, Jesup gave a signal, when two or three of the soldiers rushed forward, 
and, seizing Osceola, bound him with strong cords. He made no resistance, 
but several of his excited followers drew their gleaming hatchets from their 
belts. Jesup's troop restrained them, and they were dismissed. Osceola was 
sent a prisoner to Charleston, where he was confined in Fort Moultrie. 
There he died of fever in January, 1839. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 251- 

Although the capture of Osceola was a serious blow to the Seminoles, 
they continued to fight for their country under other leaders, notwithstand- 
ing almost 9,000 troops were in their territory at the close of 1839, ^^^ peace 
was not permanently secured until 1842, when the Seminoles were persuaded 
to emigrate to the country west of the Mississippi. The whole body of those 
remaining in Florida removed in 1858. 

On March 8, 1845, Florida was admitted into the Union as an indepen- 
dent State. The danger from Indian forays being removed, it quite rapidly 
grew in population and wealth, until the Secessionists of the Commonwealth 
plunged it into the vortex of Civil War in 1861. Its political leaders were 
among the earliest in the Union to make seditious utterances and perform 
disloyal acts. Her representatives in Congress were anxious for Secession, 
and forward in assumptions of sovereignty for their little State. 

A Convention was held at Tallahassee, the State capital, on January 3,. 
1861. The members numbered 169, about one-third of whom were " Co- 
operationists " (see Mississippi). The Legislature of Florida, prepared to co- 
operate with the Convention, assembled at the same place on the 5th. On 
the loth the Convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 
sixty-two against seven. It was declared, in the preamble, that " all hopes of 
preserving the Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the 
slave-holding States," had been " fully dissipated." It was also declared that 
by the ordinance Florida had become a " sovereign and independent nation.'" 

Though the State was declared " out of the Union," its representatives, 
in Congress did not leave their seats there for some time afterwards. Their- 
reason for remaining was avowed to be to prevent the passage, by their votes, 
of force, loan and volunteer bills, "which would put Mr. Lincoln in immedi- 
ate condition for hostilities; " also, by remaining in their places until the 4th 
of March, they " might keep the hands of Mr. Buchanan tied, and disable 
the Republicans from effecting any legislation which would strengthen 
the hands of the incoming administration." 

The Legislature authorized the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of 
$500,000, and defined treason against the State as holding of ofifice under the- 
National Government, and punishable with death. The Governor of the State 
(Perry) had already made arrangements, before the passage of the Ordinance 
of Secession, for the seizure of the forts, navy-yard at Pensacola, and other 
property of the United States, within the borders of Florida. The people of 
the Commonwealth suffered much during the war that ensued.. 



-252 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

On July 13, 1865, William Marvin was appointed provisional Governor 
of Florida, by the President of the United States, and on the 28th of Octo- 
ber a State Convention assembled at Tallahassee and repealed the Ordinance 
'of Secession. For a while the State was under military control, A new 
Constitution was ratified by the people in May, 1868; and after the adoption 
of the Fourteenth amendment to the National Constitution in June, Florida 
was re-admitted to the Union, which it had first entered as a State only 
twenty-three years before. 

Florida produces every kind of cereal, cotton, rice, sugar, potatoes and 
tobacco. Its chief fruit production is oranges, of which a vast quantity is 
raised. 

There were 550 miles of railroads in operation in Florida in 1880. The 
■ assessed valuation of real and personal property was $40,030,000. In 1880 
there were 31,477 pupils in average attendance on the public schools. 

The most populous town in Florida in 1880 was Key West, containing 
•9890 inhabitants. Its capital (Tallahassee) had 2494. Florida is sometimes 
(.called " The Peninsula State." 





(1692.) 

'Altogether the largest in superficial area of any of the 
States is Texas, a south-western Commonwealth which 
was annexed to the Union in 1845. It lies between 
latitude 25° 15' and 36° 30' north, and longitude 93" 
27' and 106° 43' west. Its area is 265,780 square miles. 
On its northern border is the Indian Territory and New 
Mexico; on the east is Arkansas and Louisiana; on the south-east is the Gulf 
of Mexico; and on the south-west the Republic of Mexico, from which it is 
separated by the Rio Grande. The population of Texas in 1880 was 1,591,- 
749, of whom 394,512 were colored, including 992 Indians and 136 Chinese. 

Texas displays every variety of surface and soil. Stretching back from 
forty to sixty miles from the Gulf coast, there is a belt of low land, much of 
it barren, or productive mainly of thickets of cactus and other prickly shrubs. 
Beyond this is a "prairie belt," of rich, gently rolling land, extending 150 or 
200 miles further into the interior. In the west and north-west is a mountain 
region and a great table-land, the latter being in some places over 2000 feet 
above the sea. The mountain region in the west is composed of spurs of the 
Rocky Mountains. The great American Desert penetrates northern Texas 
fully sixty miles. 

La Salle (see Louisiana), having inadvertently passed the mouths of the 
Mississippi, whither he was bound on his return from France, with a company 
■of emigrants, in 1684, landed at the entrance to Matagorda Bay. The emi- 
_grants there debarked. The storeship' containing most of the supplies was 
wrecked, and the unfaithful navigator in charge of the ships (four in number) 
deserted La Salle, leaving him only a small vessel. 

The emigrants cast up a defense, which La Salle called Fort St. Louis. 
They attempted to till the soil. The barbarians there were hostile, and killed 
some of the settlers. Others perished from disease and hardship. They made 



254 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



some explorations of the adjacent country. At the end of a year, of the col- 
onists, who numbered 280 on their arrival, only forty were living. 

Leaving one-half of these colonists, including women and children, La 
Salle, at the beginning of 1688, set out to return to Illinois, with fifteen com- 
panions. A revolt broke out among them, and they murdered La Salle and 
his nephew. Nearly all of those left at Fort St. Louis were massacred, and 
the survivors were made prisoners by Spaniards sent to drive out the French. 
So ended the first white settlement on the soil of Texas. 

In 1690 a Spanish Jesuit mission was established on the site of Fort St. 




J. PINKNEY HENDERSON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF TEXAS.. 



Louis, and another was soon established at Nacogdoches. In 1691 Spanish 
troops were sent to protect the mission at Fort St. John, but the persistent 
hostility of the Indians, and menaces of starvation, caused the post to be 
abandoned in 1693. 

In 1714 the French again attempted to found settlements under the direc- 
tion of Crozat (see Louisiana). He sent Captain de St. Denis to effect a 
settlement on the Rio Grande. St. Denis was taken prisoner by the Gov- 
ernment of Coahuila, but, marrying a daughter of the commandant of a Span- 
ish mission, he was instrumental in introducing three Spanish missions into 
Texas. Twenty years afterward St. Denis removed a French colony from 
the Red River into Texas. The Spaniards protested, but without effect. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 255 

The Spaniards were dominant in Texas. They gave it the name of 
" New Phihppines," and appointed a Governor-General. The Indians per- 
sistently opposed the people of both nations who came among them, and 
slaughtered them, until, in 1765, there were not more than 700 white people 
in Texas. , 

After the cession of Louisiana to the United States in 1803, contentions 
arose concerning its western boundary. These were amicably adjusted in 
1806 by General Wilkinson and the Spanish commander, who established the. 
territory between -the Sabine River and Arroya-Honda as neutral ground.. 
In the same year revolutionary movements, incited by Aaron Burr, began 
in that region, and many skirmishes occurred, chiefly brought on by invasions 
of Americans. The Spanish lost in a conflict near San Antonio, in 181 3, about 
1000 men; in another conflict, the same year, a force of about 2500 Ameri- 
cans and revolted Mexicans perished. Only 100 of the whole party escaped. 
The Spaniards sought vengeance, and massacred about 700 peaceable citizens 
of San Antonio. So ended the first effort for Texan independence of Mexican 
rule. 

The Sabine River was established as an eastern boundary of Texas by a 
commission in 18 19. But dissatisfaction caused incessant disputes, and the 
territory was almost deserted. In 1820 Moses Austin, a New Englander, liv- 
ing in Missouri, received from the Spanish authorities of Mexico a grant of 
land in Texas. On his death his son, Stephen, received a confirmation of the 
grant in 1823, when emigrants from the United States flocked into Texas in 
great numbers. These were chiefly from the slave-labor States. A thousand 
families were soon there. The Spanish rule soon became so oppressive to 
the American colonists that, in 1827, some of them engaged in a revolution, 
and were compelled to flee to the United States. 

In 1830 Bustamente, who had made himself Dictator of Mexico, issued a 
decree forbidding the people of the United States to enter Texas as colonists. 
The American settlers in Texas then numbered about 20,000. Coahuila had 
been annexed to Texas. The Rio Grande separated them. A convention of 
the Americans, held in 1833, determined to separate from Coahuila. They 
prepared a State Constitution, and requested Santa Afia, then at the head of 
the Mexican Government, to admit them as a separate State of the Mexican 
Republic. Colonel Stephen F. Austin, representing the American colonists, 
went to the city of Mexico, where Santa Ana detained him until 1835, during 
which time, keeping the Texans quiet by promises of compliance with their 



256 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

desires, he prepared to occupy the country with his own troops. Perceiving 
this, the Texans created a Committee of Safety, which assumed governmental 
powers. 

The Texans now armed themselves and prepared for revolution. On 
October 2, 1835, the first skirmish between Texans and Mexicans occurred. 
Others followed. On November 9, a provisional Government was established 
by a delegate Convention called the " Consultation." A Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor were appointed. At the same time Samuel Houston, of 
Tennessee, who had settled in Texas, was chosen Commander-in-chief of 
the Texan forces, and Austin was sent a commissioner to the United States. 
On December 10, San Antonio de Bexar was captured, and the entire Mexican 
force was driven out of Texas. On the 20th a Declaration of Independence 
was adopted and issued at Goliad by Captain Philip and others. 

Santa Afia, astonished by these rapid revolutionary movements, set out 
from Mexico with an army of 7500 men for the recovery of Texas. In Feb- 
ruary, 1834, he invested the Alamo, a strong fort near San Antonio, then gar- 
risoned by about 170 men, under Captain M. B. Travis. Four thousand 
Mexicans beleagured it for eleven days, when they carried it by storm, and 
•on March 6 the whole garrison was murdered by order of Santa Aiia, only 
■one woman, a child, and a servant were saved. "Remember the Alamo!" 
was the Texan war-cry after that. The Mexicans had lost in the attack 
1600 men. 

On March i, a Convention issued a Declaration of Independence, and 
vchose David G. Burnet provisional President. The garrison at Goliad were 
jnassacred in cold blood on the 27th, and successive defeats created a panic 
.among the Texans. Houston, meanwhile, had fallen back to San Jacinto, 
where, with about 800 troops, he gave battle to about twice that number, led 
by Santa Ana in person, on April 21, 1836 Houston was successful. The 
'defeated Mexicans fled in dismay. In the pursuit of them 630 were killed, 
208 were wounded, and 739 made prisoners. Among the latter was President 
Santa Afia, who had lost a leg. His force was annihilated. Texas had 
achieved its independence. 

In September, 1836, Samuel Houston was elected President of the new 
Hepublic, which adopted as its ensign a single star. In March, 1837, the 
United States acknowledged the independence of Texas, and it took its place 
among sovereign nations. Other governments soon afterwards acknowledged 
its independence. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 257/ 

The people of the slave-holding States of the Union were anxious to have 
Texas annexed to the United States ; and such, also, was a prevailing desire 
among the people of that little Republic. The proposition when formally 
made, seven or eight years after the birth of the Texan Republic, was gener- 
ally opposed by the free-labor States, as it would increase the area and poli- 
tical strength of the slave power, and, probably, lead to war with Mexico. 
The matter was persisted in by the South, and, with the sanction of President 
Tyler, a treaty to that effect was signed at Washington on April 12, 1844. 
It was rejected by the Senate in June following. 

The project of annexation was presented at the next session of Congress, 
in the form of a joint resolution. It had been made a leading political ques- 
tion at the presidential election in the fall of 1844, when James K. Polk,, 
known to be in favor of annexation, was elected President. The resolution 
was adopted on March i, 1845, ^'"''^ received the assent of President Tyler 
the next day. On the last day of his term of office he sent a message to the 
Texan Government, with a copy of the joint resolution of Congress in favor 
of annexation. This resolution was considered by a Convention in Texas, 
called for the purpose of framing a new State Constitution. That body ap- 
proved the measure, and on July 4, 1845, Texas was admitted into the Union 
as an independent State. 

Texas, the only real " sovereign State " which had entered the Union, 
became involved in the Secession movements at an early day. The venera- 
ble Governor Houston opposed these movements with all his might, but in 
vain, for an organization known as " Knights of the Golden Circle," pledged 
to effect disunion, wielded a powerful influence in that State. Among those 
knights were many members of the Texan Legislature, and active politicians 
all over the State. Sixty of these irresponsible persons, in January, 1861, 
called a State Convention to meet at Austin on the 28th of that month ; and 
a single member of the Legislature actually issued a call for the assembling 
■ of that body at the same time and place. The Legislature, by a joint reso- 
lution, declared the Convention a legally constituted body. Governor Hous- 
ton protested against the assumption of any power by the Convention, except 
to refer the matter of Secession to the people. 

On the appointed day the Convention assembled in the hall of the House 
of Representatives, under the chief management of John H. Reagan, who 
became Postmaster-general of the Southern Confederacy. A commissioner 
from South Carolina was there to assist in the management. Not one half 



258 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

of the 122 counties in the State were represented. On the first of February,. 
1861, an Ordinance of Secession was adopted by a vote of 166 against seven. 
Its tenor was similar to those adopted by other conventions. The Conven- 
tion abrogated, in the name of the people of Texas, the Ordinance of 
Annexation, and decreed that the Ordinance of Secession should be submitted 
to the people, but at a day so early that the people had no opportunity to 
discuss it. They appointed a Committee of Safety, and delegates to the 
General Convention at Montgomery, Alabama. 

The Committee of Safety was immediately organized, when it appointed 
two of its members commissioners to treat with General Twiggs, then in com- 
mand of National troops in Texas, for the surrender of his army, and the 
public property under his control to the authorities of Texas. This service 
Twiggs gladly performed. The Committee so managed the votes cast by 
the people on the Secession Ordinance, that there seemed to be fully 23,000 
majority in favor of it, when it is asserted, on competent authority, that a 
very large proportion of the people were opposed to it. Governor Houston, 
in an address to the people of his State, severely denounced what he called 
the " usurpation " of that Convention. 

The annexation of Texas led to a war with Mexico, begun in 1846, and 
ended by treaty in February, 1848, when Texas embraced an area of 376,163 
square miles. In 1850 that State ceded to the United States all territory 
beyond its present limits, on consideration of receiving $10,000,000 in bonds,, 
with the proceeds of which the State debt was paid. 

In 1867 Texas and Louisiana were constituted a military district, and 
placed under military rule, under General Sheridan. On December 7, 1868, 
a State Convention adopted a Constitution, which was ratified by the people 
in 1869, and at the same time a Governor and Legislature were chosen. In 
February, 1870, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the National 
Constitution were ratified by the Legislature, and on March 30 Congress 
decided that Texas was entitled to representation in that body. In April the 
military government was transferred to the civil authorities. 

The leading staple agricultural productions of Texas are cotton, corn 
and grass. It is also the most extensive cattle-raising State in the Union. 
In 1850 it had 805,606 horses; 132,447 mules and asses; 4,084,605 cattle; 2,- 
411,633 sheep; and 1,950,371 swine. Its cereal crops were Indian corn, 
29,065,172 bushels; wheat, 2,567,737 bushels; oats, 4,893,359 bushels; and 
much rye and barley. The cotton crop yielded 805,284 bales. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



259 



Texas is becoming an extensive manufacturing State, especially of cotton 
textile fabrics. There were 5344 miles of railways in operation in the State 
in 1880, which cost $142,654,627. The assessed value of taxable property, real 
and personal, was in 1880, $303,202,424. 

The number of children of school age, from eight to fourteen years, in 
Texas in 1880, was 230,577, of whom 186,786 were enrolled in the public 
schools. Total expenditure for public instruction that year was $782,785. 

Texas, it is supposed, derives its name from an ancient tribe of Texas 
Indians, who inhabited the Valley of the Rio Grande. The name is said to 
be the root of that of Tol-Tezas, Toltecs, Az-Tezas, Aztecs, etc. The com- 
monwealth is called " The Lone Star State." 





(1833.) 

m. One of the most fertile States of the Union is Iowa, which 
lies between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and lati- 
tude 40° 36' and 43° 30' north, and longitude 89° 5' and 
96° 31' west. It is a central State of the Upper Missis- 
sippi Valley. Its northern boundary is the State of Min- 
nesota; its eastern the States of Missouri and Illinois, from 
which it is separated by the Mississippi River; on the south by Missouri, and 
on the west by Nebraska and Dakota, from which it is separated by the Mis- 
souri River. The area of Iowa is 56,025 square miles. By the census of 
1880 it ranked ten among the States in population, the number of inhabitants 
then being 1,624,615, of whom 1005 were colored, including 466 Indians. 
The State census, taken in 1885, gave Iowa 1,754,000 inhabitants. In the 
value of its agricultural products it ranks fourth among the States. 

The face of Iowa may be designated as a fine, rolling country. Notwith- 
standing within the State is the great water-shed between the Mississippi 
and Missouri rivers, the highest land in the Commonwealth — Table Mound 
— does not rise more than 500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. In the north- 
western part of the State is a rugged region called by the French " Coteau 
des Prairies." Its entire eastern border is washed by the Mississippi, and its 
entire western border is washed by the Missouri. The great water-shed is 
near the centre of the State. 

Iowa was originally a part of the vast region of Louisiana ceded to the 
United States in 1803 (see Lonisiajia). The first settlement there was made 
by a Frenchman named Julian Dubuque, who, in 1788, obtained a grant of a 
large tract of land, including the site of the present city of Dubuque, and the 
rural lands around it — one of the richest lead regions known. There Dubuque 
built a fort, worked the lead mines, and traded with Indians until his death, 
in 1 8 10, when his colony was driven away by the barbarians. Dubuque had 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



26^1 



married an Indian woman, had taught the natives how to work the lead' 
mines, and had become a famous chief among them so early as the year 1800.. 

After Dubuque's death the Indians abandoned the mines, and the region- 
was not again occupied by white people until 1833, when the first permanent 
settlement on the present domain of Iowa was made. In 1830 some unau- 
thorized miners came to the Dubuque mineral lands to work them, but were 
restrained by a few United States troops, placed there by Captain Zachary 
Taylor, who was in command of a post at Prairie du Chien. The troops 
remained there until 1832, when the Black Hawk War broke out. That was 
originated in this wise: 

Hostilities between the Indian tribes in the North-west continually pre- 




ANSELL BRIGGS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF IOWA. 



vailed. The warlike Sioux or Dakotas occupied the country west of the 
Mississippi, in the region of Iowa. A party of Chippewas from the east side, 
visiting Fort Snelling, on the west side, were killed or wounded by Sioux. 
The commander of the garrison captured four of the murderers and delivered 
them to the Chippewas, who instantly shot them. ' The exasperated Sioux 
thirsted for vengeance. The Sioux chief. Red Bird, and his companions, slew 
several white people. General Atkinson, in command in the Northwest, cap- 
tured the chief, who soon afterwards died in prison, when Black Hawk, a fiery 
chief of the Sacs and Foxes, in present Wisconsin, and an ally of the Sioux, 
at once began hostilities against the white people. 

Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi, when General Atkinson took the- 



•262 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

"field against him. In July cholera seized the troops, and slew all but nine of 
the 208 of the United States force. After two severe battles the Indians 
were subdued, and Black Hawk was made a prisoner. (See Wisconsin.) 

Treaties were then made, by which the United States obtained large 
tracts of valuable lands from the Sacs and Foxes, as indemnity for the ex- 
pense of the war. The tract included a large part of (present) Iowa, extend- 
ing nearly 300 miles north of the Missouri River. It is known as the " Black 
Hawk Purchase." Very soon other lands were purchased, and the present 
limits of Iowa were cleared of Indian titles. 

In 1833 Burlington was founded, and Dubuque was re-inhabited by white 
people. In 1835, many members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, emi- 
grated to Iowa, and settled the town of Salem. In 1834, all that part of the 
-Missouri Territory north of the State of Missouri, and west of the Missis- 
sippi, was placed under the jurisdiction of Michigan. Wisconsin Territory 
■was organized in 1836, and Iowa was made a district of it, with the seat of 
'Government for the whole Territory fixed at Burlington. The district at 
that time contained a population of over 10,000. 

The Territory of Iowa was organized in 1838, and given a separate Gov- 
■ernment. A flood of emigration had been flowing in, and at that time the 
Territory had a population of 23,000. Two years later there were 43,000 in- 
ihabitants there. This flood of emigration was chiefly from New England and 
JMew York. Now the Territorial Legislature made formal application to 
'Congress for the admission of Iowa into the Union as a State. An enabling 
■act was passed, and in October, 1844, a Convention framed a Constitution 
for the proposed State. 

On March 3, 1845, ^^i act was passed by Congress for the admission of 
Iowa as a State, simultaneously with the State of Florida, but upon the con- 
dition that the people of the Commonwealth, at a subsequent election, should 
assent to a restriction of its limits, in conformity with the general area of 
other Western States. The people, by a majority of nearly 2000 votes, 
refused to agree to these restrictions, and Iowa remained a Territory until 
the following year. 

The people of Iowa, after mature deliberation and discussion, assented to 
the proposed restriction, and in January, 1846, the Legislature formally ex- 
pressed the acquiescence of the inhabitants. Congress then authorized them 
to assemble another Convention to frame a new Constitution. It was held 
an May. A Constitution then adopted was submitted to Congress, and ap- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 263 

proved in June following, and on December 28th, 1846, Iowa became a State 
of the Great Republic with Ansell Briggs as its first Governor. 

Burlington had remained the capital of the Territory of Iowa until 1839, 
when it was removed to Iowa City, at the head of the navigable waters of the 
Iowa River. On the admission of the Territory as a State, the seat of Gov- 
ernment was removed (1857) to Fo^'t Des Moines, on the Des Moines River, 
in Polk County, in the central southern part of the State, where it still remains. 

The Territory taken from Iowa by the restriction imposed by Congress 
was named Dakota. The first election was held in October, 1846, and the 
first meeting of the State Legislature took place in December, the same 
year. 

Iowa, lying west of the Mississippi River, with a population of almost 
700,000, and with a loyal administration, was quick to perceive the needs of 
the National Government in i86i,in its struggle then begun with its enemies, 
and was lavish in its aid. Its loyal Governor, Kirkwood, after the call of 
President Lincoln at the middle of April, for 75,000 men to suppress the 
rising rebellion, summoned the Legislature to meet in extraordinary session 
on May 15. In his message to that body the next day the Governor said : 

" In this emergency Iowa must not and does not occupy a doubtful posi- 
tion; for the Union as our fathers formed it, and for the Government they 
formed so wisely and so well, the people of Iowa are ready to pledge every 
fighting man in the State, and every dollar of her money and credit ; and I 
have called you together in extraordinary session for the purpose of making 
that pledge formal and effective. 



* 



" I feel assured the State can readily raise the means necessary to place 
her in a position consistent alike with her honor and her safety. Her territory, 
of great extent and of unsurpassed fertility, inviting and constantly receiv- 
ing a desirable emigration; her population of nearly three-quarters of a mil- 
lion of intelligent, industrious, energetic and liberty-loving people; her very 
rapid past and prospective growth ; her present financial standing, having a 
debt of about one-quarter of a million dollars, unite to make her bonds among 
the most desirable investments which our country affords." 

These were brave words for the Governor of a State lying side by side 
with Missouri, a slave-labor State, whose Chief Magistrate and Legislature 
were then taking desperate measures to array that Commonwealth against 
the life of the Republic (see Missouri) ; while Nebraska, as yet a thinly popu- 



264 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

lated territory, was its western neighbor, and little able to defend it from 
invasion. 

The Legislature of Iowa was as loyal and patriotic as its Governor, and 
earnestly co-operated with him. It voted a war loan of $600,000, and con- 
tracted a debt of $800,000. Secession movements were watched with much 
solicitude by its rulers and people. When the President called for troops, 
Iowa was one of the earliest to respond. Her troops were among the earli- 
est in the field, and during the Civil War she furnished to the National army 
over 75,000 soldiers. More than 20,000 were furnished during the first year 
of the war. 

Iowa is a great grain-growing State, ranking second in the production of 
Indian corn. The census of 1880 showed the yield of corn that year to have 
been 275,014,247 bushels. There were 31,154,205 bushels of wheat, 50,610,591 
bushels of oats, 4,022,588 bushels of barley, and 1,518,605 bushels of rye, har- 
vested that year. Iowa has also an immense number of farm animals. In 
1880 it had 792,322 horses, 2,612,034 cattle, 455,359 sheep, and 6,034,316 
swine. The latter were about 1,000,000 in excess of any other State in the 
Union. It had attained a high rank for the production of butter and cheese. 

The assessed valuation of the taxable property in Iowa, in 1880, real and 
personal, was $398,671,251. Its debts, local and State, amounted to $7,962,- 
767. 

There were in Iowa in 1880 railroads in operation to the extent of 5235 
miles, costing $89,236,500. Its expenditures and general provision for public 
instruction were liberal. In 1880 there were in the State 586,556 children of 
school age (from five to twenty-one years), of whom 426,000 were enrolled in 
the public schools. The State expended that year for its public schools 
$4,347,119. There is a State university at Iowa City, and a State Agricul- 
tural College, and there were, in 1880, seventeen other colleges. 

Iowa is an Indian word, signifying " The Beautiful Land." Its fictitious 
name is " Hawkeye State," said to have been that of an Indian chief, who 
was a terror to voyagcurs to its borders. 




(1669.) 

OuiSCONSiN, as the French spelled the name as pronounced 
by the Indians — Wees-kon-san— is one of the north-western 
States of the Mississippi Valley, lying between latitude 42° 
27' and 47° north, and longitude 86° 53' and 92° 53' west. 
It embraces an area of 56,040 square miles, and had a pop- 
ulation in 1880 of 1,315,497, of whom 5870 were colored, 
including 3 161 Indians. It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, and 
north-east by the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; on the east by Lake Michi- 
gan, south by Illinois, and west by Iowa and Minnesota, from which it is 
separated by the Mississippi River. 

The surface of Wisconsin is an elevated rolling prairie. It has two water- 
sheds — one in the north-west, where a ridge known as the Iron Hills, the high- 
est in the State, divides the waters flowing into Lake Superior from those 
flowing into the Mississippi River. Another ridge crosses the south central 
part of the State; and a third ridge traverses the south-eastern portion, and 
separates the waters flowing into Lake Michigan and Green Bay. The afflu- 
ents of the Mississippi drain four-fifths of the State. The greater part of the 
soil of the Commonwealth is arable land, and much of it is very fertile and 
easily cultivated. 

Wisconsin was the theatre of the early operations of French missionaries 
and traders in the region of the Great Lakes in the seventeenth century. So 
early as 1639 a small French settlement was begun on the site of the present 
town of Green Bay, at the southern extremity of Green Bay, an arm of Lake 
Michigan. It was soon afterwards broken up, but on the same spot Claude 
Jean Allonez, an ardent Jesuit missionary, after laboring several years among 
the natives on the borders of the St. Lawrence River, planted a missionary 
station. He was one of the earliest explorers of the Lake region. His mis- 
sion at Green Bay became a flourishing trading station also. The mission 
was for the conversion of the Fox, Miami, and other Indian tribes in (present) 



266 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



Wisconsin. Allonez sought to make the mission established by Marquette 
at Kaskaskia another permanent field of labor, but when the energetic La 
Salle, the bitter enemy of the Jesuits, appeared at Green Bay, in 1679, Allonez 
retired. (See Illinois^ 

La Salle arrived at Green Bay in the summer of 1679, where he tarried 
some time getting furs, with which to freight his vessel, the Griffon, on her 
return voyage, expecting to apply the proceeds to the payment of his credit- 
ors, who were seriously pressing him. The loss of the vessel and its valuable 
cargo embarrassed him, but his indomitable will and energy conquered all 
difificulties, and he afterwards discovered the mouth of the Mississippi and. 
planted the first white colony in Texas. (See Texas.) 




NELSON DEWEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN. 



Wisconsin continued to be occupied by French missionaries and traders- 
until 1763, when the whole domain claimed by the French passed into the 
possession of the English, and the territory continued to be governed by the 
laws of Canada until after the Revolution, when, by the treaty of 1783, the 
region north-west of the Ohio was ceded to the new Republic of the United 
States. Soon afterwards Wisconsin became a part of the North-west Terri- 
tory, organized in 1787. 

The British Government gave up that region with great reluctance, and' 
retained possession of military posts there until several years after it had 
made the treaty with the United States, which called for their surrender. 
There were other provisions of the treaty not complied witli by the British,, 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 267- 

which caused great irritation in the pubHc mind in America. Finally, in April,, 
1794, a motion was made in the lower House of Congress to suspend all com- 
mercial intercourse with Great Britain until the treaty should be fully exe- 
cuted on her part, especially in the surrender of the Western posts. 

This motion, if adopted, would inevitably lead to war. To avert such a. 
calamity, President Washington sent John Jay to England as envoy extraor- 
dinary to arrange the matter amicably. It was done, and in 1796, or thirteen 
years after the signing of the treaty of peace, the western posts were given up 
to the United States. 

In 1809 Wisconsin was included in the Territory of Illinois, as it was then 
defined. It continued to form a part of that Territory until 1818, when 
Illinois entered the Union as an independent State. Then Wisconsin was 
placed under the jurisdiction of the Government of Michigan. 

In 1821, Rev. Eleazar Williams, the reputed Dauphin or crown-prince of 
France, arrived at Green Bay with a delegation of Oneida Indians, to treat 
with the barbarian chiefs of that region — the Winnebagoes and Menomonees 
—for a cession of lands whereon to make a home for themselves and others, 
of their tribe who might join them. There Williams afterwards married a 
half-breed, and there he held his memorable interview with the Prince de 
Joinville, son of King Louis Philippe of France. At that interview the young 
Prince acknowledged Williams to be the Dauphin, and presented a document 
which he urged the missionary to sign. It was a formal abdication of the 
throne of France in favor of Louis Philippe, whose throne rested on an un- 
stable foundation. In 1822 a rude place called " Shanty Town," (in Brown 
County), not far from Green Bay, was made a seat of justice. A court-house 
and jail were erected, the first built between Lake Michigan and the Pacific 
Ocean. 

The settlers at Green Bay were chiefly French Canadians and half-breeds, 
who were simple in their habits, kind and polite in deportment, many of them 
cultivated in a remarkable degree, and presenting a society attractive to set- 
tlers. Wisconsin soon possessed many thriving settlements, planted by bold 
pioneers who bravely faced the dangers from Indian hostilities and the priva- 
tions of a home in the wilderness. 

The principal events in the history of the " Black Hawk War " occurred 
within the western limits of the present State of Wisconsin. This war has 
been alluded to in our sketch of the State of Iowa, in which some of its scenes, 
were enacted. 



'268 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

On the 1st of August, 1832, a severe battle was fought at the Bad Axe 
River, between Black Hawk, the famous Sac chief, and 400 followers on the 
land, and United States troops who were on the steamer Warrior, w^hich had 
been sent into the river. Twenty-three of the Indians Were killed, but not 
one of the troops. After the fight the Warrior returned to Prairie du Chien. 

The contest was renewed the next morning by Black Hawk, who attacked 
troops under General Atkinson. The Indians were defeated and dispersed, 
with aiconsiderable loss of killed and wounded. Thirty-six of their women 
and children were made prisoners. Eight of the troops were killed, and 
seventy-seven were wounded. Black Hawk was pursued over the Wisconsin 
River, and at a strong position the fugitive chief made a stand with about 
300 men. After a sharp battle for three hours. Black Hawk, having lost 
one-half of his warriors and his second in command, fled. He was finally 
captured by a party of friendly Winnebagoes, and delivered to General Steele 
at Prairie du Chien. 

Treaties were now made, and a large tract of land was ceded to the 
United States as indemnity. (See Iowa.) Black Hawk, his two sons, and six 
principal chiefs, were held as hostages. The chief and his sons were taken to 
Washington to visit the President of the United States, and then they were 
shown some of the principal cities at the North and East, to impress them 
with the greatness and power of the American people. 

In 1836 Michigan was erected into a State, and Wisconsin was organized 
as a separate Territory. From that period may be reckoned the beginning 
■of the rapid increase in population and wealth in Wisconsin. The first frame 
house had been built in the Territory in 1825. In 1827 the first printing was 
•done there and the first steamboat appeared on Lake Michigan. In 1831 the 
first cession of lands to the United States was made by the Indians. The 
first newspaper appeared in 1833. In 1884 the first mail was carried from 
Green Bay to Chicago, then a little village, and the first survey of public lands 
took place near Green Bay. The remaining lands of the Indians in Wiscon- 
sin were ceded to the United States, when it became a Territory, in 1836. 
There were then fully 5000 white people in the Territory. A flood tide of 
emigration set in in 1838 and 1839, ^"^^ ""^ ^^4^ it was estimated that 60,000 
persons had settled in the Territory, which at first included a part of the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the whole of Minnesota and Iowa, and that 
part of Dakota lying east of the Missouri and White Earth rivers. 

The first Territorial Legislature assembled at Belmont, in Iowa County. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 269 

In 1838 Madison, situated on an undulating isthmus between Lake Mendota 
and Lake Monona, 210 feet above Lake Michigan, was made the permanent 
seat of Government. At that time there was only one log-house at the future 
capital, where, in 1885, there was a population of over 12,000. 

A Convention held at Madison late in 1846 framed a State Constitution, 
which was approved by Congress, but rejected by the people. It was ratified 
by the people the next year; and on May 29, 1848, Wisconsin entered the 
Union as an independent State of the Republic. Nelson Dewey was chosen 
its first Governor. Its population then was about 300,000. In 1849 ^ portion 
of the State was taken to form a part of the Minnesota Territory. 

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Wisconsin contained about 800,- 
000 inhabitants, and in politics it was Republican by fully 20,000 majority. 
Its Governor, Alexander W. Randall, was thoroughly loyal ; and that State 
was among the first, in the North-west, to declare itself unalterably for the 
Union. The Legislature, with a large Republican majority in both branches, 
convened at Madison on the loth of January, 1861, when the Governor, in 
his message, said : 

" The signs of the times indicate, in my opinion, that there may arrive a 
contingency in the condition of the Government under which it may become 
necessary to respond to the call of the National Government for men and 
means to sustain the integrity of the Union, and thwart the designs of men 
engaged in an organized treason." 

That call came on April 15, when the Governor's Guard immediately 
volunteered, and volunteer companies formed in all parts of the State. An 
extraordinary session of the Legislature was called. It met in May. The 
Governor urged the immediate equipment of six regiments of volunteers, 
the purchase of cannons, and the appropriation of $1,000,000 for the purposes 
of the war. The Legislature responded heartily and fully, by authorizing 
the execution of the measures recommended by the Governor, and more. By 
the close of the year, Wisconsin had sent into the field 24,000 soldiers. The 
whole number of soldiers contributed to the National army by the State dur- 
ing the war was 96,1 18. 

Indian corn, oats and wheat are the three principal agricultural products 
of Wisconsin. The State census in 1885 showed that the produce of corn 
that year was 37,718,304 bushels; of oats, 43,047,416 bushels; and of wheat, 
21,033,000 bushels. It also produced 11,505,290 bushels of barley, 2,075,537 
bushels of ry£, 465,443 bushels of buckwheat, 590,000 gallons of sorghum 



2/0 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST, 



molasses, and 20,594,625 pounds of tobacco. Of farm animals it had 398,132: 
horses and mules, 1,543,899 cattle, 1,429,137 sheep, and i,i96,2CX) swine. The 
wool clip that year was 6,174,527 pounds. 

In 1880 Wisconsin had 7674 manufacturing establishments, employing a, 
capital of $73,821,802, and yielding products to the value of $128,255,480. 
There were in operation in the State, in 1884, 6310 miles of railroads, which 
cost $478,000,000. Several of these are trunk lines. The assessed valuation 
of taxable property in Wisconsin in 1885 was $488,139,614. The lake and 
river commerce of the State is quite extensive. 

There were 483,227 children of school age (four to twenty years) in Wis- 
consin in 1880, of whom 299,514 were enrolled in the public schools. The 
total expenditure for public schools that year was $2,163,345. There were 
eight universities and colleges in the State. 

Milwaukee is the commercial metropolis and the largest city in the State, 
its population in 1885 being 158,509. The name of Wisconsin is of Indian 
derivation, and signifies " Wild, rushing Water." Such was the aboriginal 
name of the Wisconsin River, and was appropriate to that stream. It is 
sometimes called " The Badger State," from the great number of badgers, 
formerly found there. 




fflO^II 




(1769.) 

The largest of the Pacific States is California, lying be- 
tween latitude 32° 28' and 42° north, and longitude 114° 
30' and 124° 45' west. On its northern border is the 
State of Oregon; on its eastern Nevada, and the Ter- 
ritory of Arizona; on the south is Southern California; 
and on the west it is washed by the waters of the Pacific 
Ocean — a coast line 700 miles in extent. The average width of California is 
about 200 miles. It contains an area of 158,360 square miles, and in 1880 
contained a population of 864,694, exclusive of tribal Indians, of whom 97,513 
were colored, including 75,132 Chinese, 86 Japanese, and 16,277 Indians. 
There are about 7300 tribal Indians in the State. 

The State of California embraces a most remarkable region of country, 
its topography largely consisting of two mountain ranges, more than 100 miles 
apart, running through the whole length of the State from north-west to 
south-east, with a broad and mostly fertile valley lying between. The face of 
the country is generally very rugged, being largely covered with mountains. 
The Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Mountains, which bound the Great Valley 
of California on the east, is composed of a series of ranges, aggregating in 
width seventy miles. The high peaks are almost entirely covered with snow. 
One of them. Mount Whitney, rises to the height of 15,000 feet. The coast 
range, which bounds the valley on the west, also consist^ of a series of chains, 
collectively about forty miles in width, lying in confusion, and extending in 
Southern California across the State. One of the peaks. Mount Shasta, 
attains an altitude of 14,440 feet. 

Besides the Great Valley there are many smaller ones, some of them 
very fertile, others barren and made deadly by mephitic vapors. The most 
picturesque and famous of these valleys is the Yosemite. 

East of the Sierra Nevada is a series of lakes, which extend nearly the 
whole length of the State — some of them alkaline, others salt, and others 



-272 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



pure and sweet water. One of the latter is Tahoe Lake, the deepest and most 
elevated sheet of water on the continent. In the south-eastern portion of the 
State are deep depressions, evidently the beds of lakes and estuaries of the 
ancient world, from 400 to 600 feet below the level of the sea. There are two 
important navigable rivers in the State, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and 
numerous smaller ones. 

In the year 1542 Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Rodriguez de Ca- 
brillo, a Portuguese navigator, in search of the " Strait of America," supposed 
to lead from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. He sailed up the Pacific 
coast to latitude 44°, discovering the coast of California and a part of the 
Oregon coast. The Peninsula of Lower California was probably discovered 




PETER G. HURNETT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. 

'eight years earlier by Hernando de Grijalva, whom Cortez sent to the Pacific 
coast on an errand of discovery in 1534. There the earliest settlements in 
California — old California — were made in 1683. 

In 1578 Sir Francis Drake, while on a plundering expedition against the 
Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America, pushed northward 
to latitude 44°, and discovered the coasts of Upper California and Oregon. 
He entered the Bay of San Francisco, where he landed, and gave the name 
of New Albion, or New England, to the country. But he did not plant a 
settlement. That act was left for monks of the order of St. Francis to per- 
form nearly 200 years later, who founded a mission at San Diego, on the 
south-west corner of New or Upper California in 1768. These monks founded 
.another mission on the site of San Francisco in 1776, and gave it that name. 

These Franciscans made their mission stations very comfortable. The 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 273. 

buildings were made of adobe, or sun-dried blocks of clay. The habitations- 
for the priests, the store-houses, mechanic-shops, offices, granaries, and places 
for the instruction of Indian youths, were all made commodious and comfort- 
able. Around these missions were soon clustered, in their conical-shaped 
huts, numerous Indians, sometimes numbering a few hundred, and at other 
times several thousands. At each mission were a few soldiers, furnished by 
the Spanish Government, as a protection against hostile Indians. 

These missions finally extended nearly all over the territory, and for 
many years the government of California, temporal and spiritual, was under 
the control of the monks of the Order of St. Francis. One mission was 
bounded by another. They did not require so much land for agriculture or 
pasturage, but they appropriated the whole, and persistently opposed the 
settlement of lands between the mission stations, by individuals. 

The general products of these missions were cattle, horses, sheep, Indian 
corn, beans, and peas. In the southern portion of the Territory they raised 
grapes and olives in abundance, made wine, and carried on a profitable trade 
with foreign vessels that came to their ports for hides and tallow. 

From the year 1800 to 1830, these missions were at the height of their 
prosperity. Each one was a mission principality, with its hundred thousand 
acres of land, and an average of 20,000 cattle. All the Indian population 
were subjects of the priests, tilling their lands for them, and reverencing 
them as almost demi-gods. The Mexican Government finally became jealous 
of them, as they rapidly increased in wealth and power, and in 1833 the 
authorities began a series of restrictive measures, which, in little over ten 
years, ruined the missions — the initial civilization of California. In 1845 
they were obliterated. Their property was sacrificed at auction sales. 

The policy of the priests, who held absolute sway, was to discourage 
immigration. The Bishop was the supreme civil, military, and religious ruler 
of the province. The inhabitants were gathered around forts, or presidios,. 
or in villages [ptieblos), which grew up amid the missions. There were four 
presidios in California, namely, at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and 
San Francisco ; and the chief villages were Los Angelos, San Jose, and Bran- 
ciforte. Later emigrants from the United States established one on the Bay 
of San Francisco, which has since grown into a magnificent city, containing 
fully 230,000 inhabitants. 

The revolution in Mexico in 1822 began working the decay of Spanish 
ecclesiastical power in California. When it was utterly exterminated, twenty 



274 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

years later, the Californians, restive under the Mexican yoke, made efforts to 
achieve their independence. Emigrants from the United States flocked into 
the territory. They were generally a hardy, enterprising and liberty-loving 
people. A quarrel broke out between them and the Mexican authorities in 
1846, and the Mexican commander attempted to expel the Americans from 
the province. 

Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont, who had just explored the Sierra 
Nevadas, with about sixty men, was then at Monterey. He had been opposed 
by a Mexican force under General Castro. He now armed all of the Ameri- 
can settlers in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. At Sonoma Pass they 
captured a Mexican post and garrison (June 15), with nine cannons and 250 
muskets, and then advanced upon Sonoma. There they defeated Castro and 
his troops. The Mexican authorities were driven out of that region of the 
country; and on July 5, 1846, the American-Californians proclaimed them- 
selves independent of Mexico, and placed Fremont at the head of public 
affairs. 

At this juncture Commodore Sloat, in command of the Pacific squadron, 
bombarded and captured Monterey, and on the 9th Commodore Montgomery 
took possession of San Francisco. Commodore Stockton arrived on the 15th 
with news of the declaration of war against Mexico by the United States. In 
that war the command of the "Army of the West " was given to General 
Stephen W. Kearney, of New Jersey, with instructions to conquer New 
Mexico and California. 

Aft*er a march of 900 miles over the Great Plains and among the moun- 
tain ranges, Kearney arrived at Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, without 
opposition. Having taken possession of the country, he pushed on toward 
California. He soon met an express from Stockton and Fremont, informing 
him that the conquest of California was already achieved. Kearney then 
sent the main body of his troops back to Santa Fe, and with one hundred 
men pushed on to Los Angelos, near the Pacific coast, where he met Stock- 
ton and Fremont. With these gentlemen he shared in the honors of the im- 
portant events which finally completed the conquest and pacification of Cali- 
fornia. 

Fremont, the real conqueror and liberator of California, claimed the right 
to be Governor. He was supported by Stockton and the people. Kearney, 
his superior ofificer, denied his right, and at Monterey he assumed the ofifice 
of Governor himself, and proclaimed (February 8, 1847) ^^e annexation of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 275 

■California to the United States. Fremont, who refused to obey General 
Kearney, was ordered to Washington to answer for his disobedience. He 
was deprived of his commission. President Polk, who regarded him as one 
of the best ofificers in the army, offered to restore it, but Fremont refused to 
accept it ever afterwards, and went to the wilderness again and engaged in 
explorations. 

By the terms of the treaty of peace, signed at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, on 
February 2, 1848, Mexico ceded the territory of California to the United 
States for the sum of $15,000,000. The white population was then about 15,- 
000. In the same year and month, gold was found on the property of Cap- 
tain John A. Sutter, who had emigrated to California in 1838. A man named 
Marshall, employed by Captain Sutter, while digging a mill-race five miles 
up the American fork of the Sacramento River, discovered the precious metal. 
It was soon afterwards found in other places, and during the summer of 1848 
rumors of the discovery reached the United States. The President alluded 
to it in his annual message to Congress in December, and early in 1849 thou- 
sands of gold-seekers were on their way to California. Around Cape Horn, 
across the Isthmus of Panama, and over the central plains and vast mountain 
ranges of the Continent, men went by hundreds, and gold was found in every 
direction in California. Gold-seekers from Europe and Asia flocked to the 
Pacific shores, and the dreams of the early Spanish adventurers of El Do- 
rado seemed to be realized. 

The emigration to California in 1849 was marvellous. -^^ ^^^ ^^^ of that 
year nearly a quarter of a million of people had been added to the population. 
It is said that " a more reckless, daring, and dangerous body of men never 
collected in any part of the world." An organized government became an 
absolute necessity. The military Governor, General Riley, called a Conven- 
tion to meet at Monterey on September i, 1849, ^^ consider the subject of a 
State Constitution. The Convention, after a session of six weeks, framed and 
adopted a Constitution. Before the meeting of the Convention, the people 
of California, in a delegate Convention at San Francisco, had voted against 
the admission of the slave-labor system into that country. The Constitution 
now adopted excluded that system from that inchoate State. When it was 
presented to Congress, and permission was asked for California to enter the 
Union as an independent State, a bitter discussion of the slavery question was 
aroused. 

Under this Constitution representatives in both Houses of Congress were 



276 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

elected. The people, gratefully remembering their liberator, John Charles 
Fremont, chose him and William M. Gwynn, their first representatives in the 
United States Senate, and Edward Gilbert and J. H. Wright, members of the 
House of Representatives. The Senators carried the Constitution with them 
to Washington, and in February, 1850, presented a petition for the admission 
of their State. 

The article forbidding slavery in the new State immediately elicited viru- 
lent debate, and a bitter feeling in the slave-labor States against the people 
of the free-labor States. The Union, so strong in the hearts of the whole 
people, was shaken to its centre. It was evident that some compromise 
should be effected for the sake of peace and harmon}^ Henry Clay, who was 
a peace-maker at the time of the Nullification movement, (see South Caro- 
lina), now offered (April, 1850) a joint resolution to appoint a committee of 
thirteen, composed of six Northern members and six Southern members, who 
should choose the thirteenth, to consider the subject of a Territorial Govern- 
ment for California, New Mexico and Utah, with instructions to report a plan 
of compromise embracing all the questions then arising out of the subject of 
slavery. Mr. Clay was made Chairman of the Committee. 

On the 8th of May, 1853, Mr. Clay presented a plan of compromise, con- 
sisting of a series of resolutions intended to be a pacification. The act pro- 
posed was called the " Omnibus Bill." It provided for the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a State ; for fixing the boundary of Texas; declared the inexpedi- 
ency of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, so long as it existed 
in Maryland ; proposed a fugitive slave law, and declared that Congress had 
no power to interfere with the inter-State slave trade. 

In July the Bill as a whole was rejected, excepting the proposition to es- 
tablish the Mormon Territory of Utah. Then the provisions of the Omnibus 
Bill were taken up separately. In August the Senate passed a bill for the 
admission of California as a free-labor State, and another for a Territorial 
Government for New Mexico. In September the famous Fugitive Slave law 
was adopted, and another for suppressing the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia. All of these bills were adopted by the House of Representatives 
in September, and became laws by receiving the signature of President Fill- 
more. California was admitted as a State on September 9, 1850. Peter G. 
Burnett was chosen its first Governor. 

So lawless was a large class of the population of the State at this time, 
that nothing but the swift operations of " Vigilance Committees " could en- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 277- 

sure order and safety. The first " Vigilance Committee " at San Francisco- 
was organized in 185 1. These Committees finally assumed the powers and 
functions of judges and executioners, but under proper regulations. This- 
tribunal became "a terror to evil-doers." Dangerous men of every kind were 
arrested, tried, hanged, transported or acquitted. In 1856 the Vigilance 
Committee of San Francisco surrendered its powers to the regularly consti- 
tuted civil authority. Then California pressed on in its bounding career of 
prosperity, until now it rivals some of the Atlantic States. Owing to its iso- 
lated position it did not furnish any troops to the National army during the 
Civil War. 

California has become one of the great agricultural States of the Union.. 
In 1880 it produced 29,017,707 bushels of wheat; 2,000,000 bushels of Indian 
corn; 1,384,271 bushels of oats; 12,463,561 bushels of barley; 4,636,343; 
bushels of potatoes, and 1,135,180 tons of hay. The total value of these 
agricultural crops, aside from its fruits, was over $100,000,000. These figures 
must now (1888) be materially increased to represent the actual productions, 
of California. Grapes are cultivated to an enormous extent. In 1880 it had 
60,000,000 vines of choicest variety. Its raisins are the finest in the world,, 
California can supply the whole American continent with grapes, raisins, and 
wine. 

The gold and silver mines of California have been marvellously produc- 
tive. From 1848 to 1880, the value of these metals, mined in that State, and 
deposited at the mints, was $703,736,520. Of this amount $702,058,970 was. 
gold. Yet this statement, made by the Directors of the Mint, does not give 
the full amount of the production. It is estimated to have been, within that 
period (thirty-two years), in round numbers, $1,130,000,000. 

California is beginning to be an extensive manufacturing State. The- 
total value of the products of its manufactures in 1880 was $116,218,973. It 
then had within its borders 2212 miles of railways in operation. These 
have since been greatly increased. The assessed valuation of the real and 
personal property in the State was $584,578,000. 

There were, in 1880, about 157,000 children of school age enrolled in the 
public schools, for the support of which the State expended that year over 
$3,011,000. 

From the ports of San Francisco and San Diego, California carries on 
quite an extensive foreign commerce, while its inter-State revenue by rail- 
ways and steamers is still greater. Lines of river steamers ply between its; 



278 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



coast and Alaska and intermediate ports, the Mexican coast, Panama, Chili, 
and Sandwich Islands and Japan. 

The origin of the name of California is attributed to a Spanish romance, 
said to have been published twenty-five years before Grijalva's discovery, in 
which is described an island " on the right of the Indies," abounding in gold 
and pearls, and peopled by black women without any men among them, 
whose queen was named Calafia. The country was called California. It also 
bears the name of " The Golden State." 





(1846.) 

Minnesota is one of the north-western States, at the 
head of the Mississippi Valley. It lies between lati- 
tude 43° 30' and 49° north, and longitude 89° 20' and 97° 
5' west. On the north it is bounded by British America; 
on the east by Lake Superior and the State of Wiscon- 
sin ; south by Iowa, and west by the Territory of Da- 
kota. The area of Minnesota is estimated at 83,365 square miles. Its popu- 
lation (which is rapidly increasing) numbered 780,773 in 1880, of whom 3889, 
including 2300 Indians, were colored. In the State census of 1885 the popu- 
lation is recorded as 1,117,798, an increase of over 237,000 in five years. 

The face of the State of Minnesota is undulating. It has no mountain 
ranges, or even high hills, yet it is the water-shed of that part of the conti- 
nent of North America lying east of the Rocky Mountains. It lies about 
midway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and between Hudson's Bay 
and the Gulf of Mexico — an elevated plateau, with " a system of lakes and 
rivers ample for an empire." It has a climate possessed by no other State. 
It is confidently asserted that it is "the healthiest in the world." Lake 
Itaska, in the northern part of the State, is the principal source of the Mis- 
sissippi, whence its waters flow a distance of 2400 miles to the Gulf of 
Mexico. It flows 797 miles through the State of Minnesota (measured by its 
sinuous course), 134 of which form its eastern boundary, and is navigable for 
large steamboats to St. Paul; and above the Falls of St. Anthony, 150 miles 
further, for smaller boats. 

Probably the first Europeans who trod the soil of Minnesota were two 
Huguenots, Sieur Groselliers and Sieur Radisson, who, in search of a north- 
west passage to China, passed through this region in 1659. Abandoning the 
enterprise, they returned to Montreal the next year, with sixty canoes laden 
with skins of fur-bearing animals. The apparition of this richly freighted 
flotilla excited the Frenchmen at old Hochelaga, and many were induced to 



28o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

go to the wilderness beyond the Great Lakes in search of peltries. This was 
the beginning of the French fur-trade, which afterwards interfered with the 
Hudson's Bay Company, To secure the trade which the English were seeking 
to monopolize Daniel Greysolon du Luth, a native of Lyons, proceeded from. 
Quebec in September, 1678, with twenty men, and formed a trading station at 
the extreme western end of Lake Superior, near where the city of Duluth, in 
Minnesota, now stands. That city, the site of which was a forest in 1869, was 
named in compliment to this enterprising Frenchman, it is supposed. Some say 
it was named for John du Luth, possibly a kinsman of the former, who, in 1769,, 
built a hut there. Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, accompanied 




HENRY H. SIBLEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA. 

La Salle and Di Tonti to the Lake country and beyond in 1678. La Salle 
left Hennepin a little below Peoria in Illinois, to prosecute discovery. With 
two others he descended the Illinois River to the Mississippi in a canoe, and 
ascended the great river to the Great Falls. At the beginning of this voyage 
Hennepin had invoked the aid of St. Anthony of Padua, and he gave his 
name to the great cataract of the Mississippi — the Falls of St. Anthony. 
There he carved the arms of P'rance, on a huge beech tree. 

Hennepin and his companions were captured by a party of Sioux in the 
summer of 1680, but were rescued by Duluth and his men. Nicholas Perrot, 
who came to Canada from France, and became an Indian trader, was in Min- 
nesota with some associates in 1689. They built a fort on Lake Pepin, an ex- 
pansion of the Upper Mississippi, and formally took possession of the country 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 281 

in the name of Louis XIV. of France. Le Sueur built another fort in 1695 on 
an island in the Mississippi, just below the mouth of the St. Croix River, after 
which French fur-traders flocked into that region. Le Sueur built another 
fort on the Minnesota River in 1700, but no efforts were made to colonize the 
country by those traders or by the missionaries. 

Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who was a Captain in the 
French and Indian war, attempted to explore the vast region in America 
which was obtained from the French by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. He 
penetrated to the western extremity of Lake Superior in 1766, crossed the 
territory afterwards called Minnesota, and during two years traversed the 
great wilderness about 7000 miles. 

In 1783 Minnesota was a part of the region transferred, by treaty, that 
became a remote portion of the North-west Territory established in 1787. 
In the year 1800 that part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi was em- 
braced in the Territory of Indiana. In 1805 the United States Government 
purchased a tract of the Indians on the west side of the great river for mili- 
tary purposes, and there Fort Snelling was built (1819, 1820), garrisoned, and 
became a centre of active trade with the Indians. The National Congress, 
in 1 8 16, had passed a law for excluding foreigners from the fur-trade in that 
region. 

The traders with the Indians, accustomed to the unrestricted freedom of 
forest life, were quite unruly for a while, refusing to comply with the regula- 
tions of the civil and military governments which good order demanded, but 
the evil was remedied in time. 

In 1820 General Lewis Cass organized an expedition to explore portions 
of the Upper Mississippi. In this exploration he was engaged many months. 
Another exploring expedition traversed that region in 1821, led by Major S. H. 
Long, who had been engaged in explorations of the country between the 
Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains since 18 18. The object of this latter 
exploration was the discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. For the 
same purpose, Henry R. Schoolcraft led a party of explorers, and succeeded 
in establishing the now unquestioned fact, that Lake Itaska is the principal 
source of that mighty stream. 

At that time a small colony of Swiss had settled near the site of 
present St. Paul, and some lumbering operations had begun by some 
Americans on the St. Croix River — by the "universal Yankees." Some 
parties from Maine, engaged in the lumber trade in their State, purchased 



282 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

extensive tracts of pine forest lands in Minnesota, and were content to wait 
until the necessary population of Iowa, Southern Minnesota, and other por- 
tions of the Upper Mississippi Valley, should create a demand for building 
purposes. Then they built saw-mills on the St. Croix, at the Falls of St. An- 
thony, at Minneapolis, and other points ; and very soon the forest, hitherto 
undisturbed by the workmen's axe, became resonant with the sounds of labor. 
From that time the growth of the lumber industry in Minnesota has been 
most marvellous. In 1838 the Indian titles to all lands east of the Mississippi 
were extinguished. The town of St. Paul was founded in 1842, a few miles 
below the Falls of St. Anthony, on the east bank of the Mississippi, at the 
head of navigation, and 2082 miles from its mouth. The first house Avas built 
there that year. The place derived its name from a Roman Catholic Chapel 
(St. Paul's) built there the year before for the use of converted Indians. A 
town plot was surveyed and recorded in 1847. Two years later it was incor- 
porated as a village, and it was made a city in 1849, '^^^ which year Minnesota 
was created a Territory. At that time the population of the Territory was. 
between four and five thousand. 

In 1 85 1 the Indian titles to the lands between the Mississippi and the 
Red River of the North, which washes a large portion of its western boun- 
dary, were extinguished. Emigration then flowed in with a steady and ever- 
increasing volume. At the end of eight years the number of inhabitants was. 
1 50,000. 

In 1857 the people of Minnesota applied to Congress for its admission 
into the Union. On February 29 an enabling act for its admission was passed,, 
and on May li, 1858, it was admitted as an independent State of the Re- 
Dublic. Henry H. Sibley was chosen its first Governor. 

The Governor (Alexander Ramsay) and people of the young State were- 
not only intensely patriotic, but very energetic in everything, and determined 
to uphold the Republic at all hazards w^hen the spirit of Secession sought tO' 
undermine it. Its Legislature assembled at St. Paul on January 29, 1861, 
and passed a series of patriotic and judicious resolutions by an almost unani- 
mous vote. They declared that : 

1. They regarded Secession upon the part of any State as amounting di- 
rectly to revolution, and precipitating Civil War, with all its sad train of con- 
sequences. 

2. That the people of the State of Minnesota reiterate their inalienable- 
devotion to the Constitution of the United States, and tliat,. if its provisions. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES., 283. 

were strictly observed, it would, in its own words, " insure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to posterity." 

3. That they had heard with astonishment and indignation of the recent 
outrages perpetrated at Charleston, South Carolina, firing upon an American 
steamer sailing under the flag of the United States; and expecting the Na- 
tional Government to make every possible effort to uphold the Union, and 
assert its supremacy; and to check "the work of rebellion and treason " they 
tendered to the President of the United States for that purpose whatever of 
men and money might be necessary, to the extent of their ability ; and 

4. That they would " never consent or submit to the obstruction of the 
free navigation of the Mississippi River, from its source to its mouth, by any 
power hostile to the National Government." 

The President's call for 75,000 men at the middle of April was responded 
to with ardor by the people of the State. The troops of Minnesota were 
among the earliest and bravest in the field ; and during the war that St^te 
furnished to the National army and navy 25,034 men. At the close of i8"6i 
the Governor, in his message, said: "The State now sends to the protection 
of the Union a greater number of men than the whole population in 1850." 

While Minnesota was thus nobly supporting the cause of the Republic,, 
her own territory was invaded by treacherous barbarians. At midsummer, 
1862, bands of warlike Sioux — a nation who had ceded all their lands to the 
white people in Minnesota — made open war upon the frontier settlers of that 
State. It is not positively known by what special motives or under what 
particular influence they were impelled ; and the suspicion that they were in- 
cited to hostilities by emissaries of the Confederates, with a hope of thereby 
causing a large number of troops fighting the insurgents to be drawn away to 
defend their own homes, rests only upon conjecture. It is probable that the 
Sioux were impelled by their own savage and cowardly instincts to fall upon 
the defenseless settlers while so many of the stalwart men of the State were, 
absent. A Sioux chief, named Little Crow, a most saintly-mannered savage 
in civilized costume, was the most conspicuous leader in the inauguration of 
this war, by the butchery of the white inhabitants at Yellow Medicine, New 
Ulm, and Cedar City, in Minnesota, in August and September, and at out- 
posts beyond. It is said that he was urged to these deeds against his better 
judgment, if not against his conscience. 

For nine days the fierce barbarians besieged Fort Ridgeley. They also- 



284 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

besieged and once assaulted Fort Abercrombie; and in that region they 
murdered about five hundred of the scattered inhabitants, who were mostly 
defenseless women and children. General H. H. Sibley was sent with a body 
of militia to suppress this outbreak of Indian malice and eagerness for 
plunder and blood, but he found the barbarians too numerous to allow them 
to suffer more than temporary disasters here and there. He attacked a large 
force of Indians under Little Crow at Wood Lake, and drove them into Da- 
kota, with a loss of 500 of their number made prisoners. These were tried 
by court-martial, and 300 of them were found guilty and sentenced to be 
hanged. Their execution was stayed by the President of the United States. 
Finally, thirty-seven of them were hanged at Markota in February, 1863. 
They were the worst offenders. The remainder were released. 

But the " Sioux War " was not ended until the following summer, when 
General Pope took command of the Department, picketed the line of settle- 
ments in the far North-west with 2,000 soldiers, and took vigorous measures 
to disperse hostile bands. In January, 1863, General Sibley moved westward 
from Fort Snelling, and General Sully went up the Missouri River to co- 
operate with him. Both fought and drove the barbarians at different places, 
and finally scattered them among the wilds of the eastern spurs of the Rocky 
Mountains. Little Crow was shot while picking blackberries near Hutchin- 
:son in Minnesota. His skeleton is preserved among the collections of the 
Minnesota Historical Society. 

The agricultural products of Minnesota are already immense. In 1880 
it was reckoned the fifth of the great wheat-growing States of the Union. 
In that year it produced 34,601,000 bushels of wheat, 14,831,741 bushels of 
Indian corn, 23,382,158 bushels of oats, and 2,972,965 bushels of barley. It 
had, in 1880, abundance of farm animals, 257,282 horses, 659,000 cattle, 267,598 
•sheep, and 381,415 swine. Its wool clip was 1,352,124 pounds. 

Minnesota is not yet a heavy manufacturing State, excepting the lumber 
trade. In 1880 it had 3493 manufacturing establishments, which yielded that 
year products valued at $76,000,000. In the same year there were 472,280,- 
000 feet of lumber sawed. At Minneapolis and elsewhere, the manufacture 
of flour is an industry of enormous extent. 

The assessed valuation of real and personal property in Minnesota in 
1880 was $258,028,687. In 1882 it had 3391 miles of railroad in operation 
within its borders, which cost over $207,000,000. 

In 1880 Minnesota expended $1,622,919 for the support of its public 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 285 

schools, in which 180,248 cbaldren were enrolled. The whole number of chil- 
dren of school age (five to twenty-one years) was about 273,000. It had six 
universities and colleges. 

Minnesota is really one of the most beautiful States in the Union, and it 
promises to be one of the most populous and wealthy of the commonwealths 
of the Republic. It has no rival — scarcely a peer — as to climate and fertility 
of soil. Its people seem to appreciate their blessings, and are assiduous in 
promoting not only their material interests, but intellectual and esthetic 
tastes. The city of St. Paul, its capital (having a population of about 112,000 
in 1885), has recently (1888) acquired a tract of fifty acres, beautifully located 
on the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Minnehaha River, to which it 
is proposed to add more land for the creation of a public park, thus securing 
a drive of more than seven miles in extent. The bank of the great river is 
here over 100 feet in height, and clothed with the primeval forest. Citizens 
-of Minneapolis, a city of marvellous growth at the Falls of St. Anthony, ten 
miles above St, Paul, which had in 1885 a population of over 120,000, propose 
to s.ecure the land immediately opposite, including the Falls of Minnehaha, 
and thence to the Mississippi, for a similar purpose. It has already beau- 
tiful parks and drives along the margin of the river. 

Minnesota is an Indian word, signifying "Sky-blue Water" — a name 
they gave to the St. Peter's River. It has been nicknamed " The Gopher 
State," from the abundance of burrowing animals found in that Common- 
wealth. 






(1811.) 

The most northerly of the Pacific States is Oregon, lying 
between latitude 42° and 46° 18' north, and longitude 
1 16° 33' and 124° 25' west. It embraces an area of 96,- 
030 square miles, and in 1880 contained a population of 
174,768, of whom 11,693 were colored, including 9510 
Chinese and ,1694 Indians. It is bounded on the north 
by Washington Territory; on the east by Idaho Territory; on the south by 
the States of Nevada and California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. 

The Cascade and Blue ranges divide Oregon into three parts — Western, 
Middle and Eastern. The eastern part of the State is largely an elevated 
plateau, broken by mountain ranges. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, that 
traverse California, pass northward through Oregon ; but after entering the 
latter State they are known as the Cascade Mountains. Near the southern 
boundary of the State, a branch called the Blue Mountains extends north- 
easterly through the Commonwealth into Washington and Idaho territories. 
The coast range, which runs generally parallel with the ocean shore in Cali- 
fornia, in Oregon consists of a series of highlands, running at right angles 
with the shore, with valleys and rivers between these highlands running in 
the same direction. The Cascade Mountains are an average of no miles 
from the coast. Those of the Coast range are everywhere covered with for- 
ests to their summits. 

The highest peaks of the Cascades are Mount Hood, 11,225 feet; Mount 
Pitt, 11,000 feet; and Mount Jefferson, 10,200. 

Western Oregon generally presents arable and fertile lands. The 
Willamette Valley, between the Coast and Cascade ranges, is about 150 
miles in length and from thirty to forty miles in width, contains 5,000,000 
acres of mostly unusually productive land, and contains the principal towns 
of the State, and nearly two-thirds of its population. The largest river in 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



287 



Oregon is the Columbia, the entrance to which — a large bay — furnishes the 
best harbor on the coast. 

The first known European visitor of the coast of Oregon was Francis 
Drake, the great English circumnavigator of the globe, who penetrated to 
latitude 44° in 1578. It is related that a German pilot in the employ of 
Spain, named De Tuca, went further up the coast. The Spanish Admiral,. 
Fonta, visited the Oregon coast in 1640, and subsequent navigators made 
maps of that region as far north as latitude 55°. There is no account of 
the landing on these shores of any of these navigators. Spain claimed the 




SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF OREGON. 

country as its own, and by treaty in 1790 she gave Great Britain some fishing 
and trading rights in the vicinity of Puget's Sound. 

On May 7, 1792, Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, in the ship Columbia, 
discovered a great river that emptied into the Pacific Ocean, and explored its 
lower portion. To this stream he gave the name of his ship. This (the 
Columbia) river forms a greater portion of the dividing line between Oregon 
and Washington Territory. 

After the purchase of Louisiana, Congress, on the suggestion of Presi- 
dent Jefferson, authorized an exploration of the country between the Missis- 
sippi and the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Jefferson had long desired such an explo- 



288 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

ration. So early as 1792 he proposed it to the Philosophical Society of Paris, 
and Michaud, the traveller and botanist, actually undertook the task under 
the auspices of the French Government. The Revolution caused an aban- 
donment of the enterprise. 

President Jefferson now appointed Captain Merriwether Lewis, his 
private secretary, and William Clarke, brother of George Rogers Clarke (see 
Illinois), to lead an exploring party across the continent. They departed 
from St. Louis, with forty men, in May, 1804, going up the Missouri River 
to (present) Council Bluffs, where they held a council with the Indians. 
They pushed on to the Yellowstone River regions, discovered the hot springs 
and the " Garden of the Gods," and arrived at the great Falls of the Missouri 
in June the following year. They crossed the great mountain ranges, found 
the headwaters of the Columbia River, and passing down the Pacific slope of 
the mountains, arrived at the mouth of the Columbia at the middle of Novem- 
ber, 1805. They had passed through a great number of tribes of barbarians, the 
most friendly of whom were the Nez Perces. They wintered in sight of the 
Pacific Ocean, and retraced their steps in the spring of 1806. After an 
absence of two years and four months, they reached St. Louis September, 
1806, having solved a great geographical and topographical question. 

In the year 181 1 John Jacob Astor and others, who formed the Ameri- 
can Fdar Company, established a trading-post and built a fort at the mouth of 
the Columbia River. Mr. Astor had been engaged in the fur trade since 
1784, and had accumulated a large fortune, for that period. He furnished 
all the capital for the American Fur Company. He aimed to establish and 
monopolize the fur trade between the Pacific coast of North America and 
China. The fort and trading house were intended to form the nucleus of a 
permanent colony of white people. The traders and their employees there 
formed the first white settlement planted on the soil of Oregon. 

In the summer of 181 2 war broke out between the United States and 
Great Britain. It led to the ruin of the hopes of Mr. Astor and his associates, 
of forming a vast fur-trade establishment on the Pacific coast, for the British 
fur traders, their rivals, found in this exigency a fair pretext for making 
efforts to obtain possession of Astoria, by force, if necessary. In the 
summer of 1813, representatives of the " British North-west Company " visited 
Astoria. News of the declaration of w^r had reached that post in January. 
The visitors now informed the agent of the " Pacific Fur Company," as Mr. 
Astor had named his association, that a privateer had been despatched from 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 289 

London, with instructions to seize Astoria, and all its possessions, it being' 
reported to the Lords of the Admiralty that it was an important colony 
founded by the United States Government. These agents remained long, 
hoping for the arrival of the privateer, and deepening the impression of im- 
minent danger on the mind of the agent of the Pacific Fur Company. 

Expecting the arrival of this war-ship to seize the property at any 
moment, the agent finally listened favorably to a proposition by the repre- 
sentatives of the North-western Company, to buy the whole establishment. 
A bargain to that end was made, and the papers were signed, in October, 
1813. The price was almost a nominal one. The shrewd visitors took pos- 
session immediately; and hauling down the American flag, ran up the British 
ensign, to the chagrin of every American resident there. The name of 
Astoria was temporarily changed to that of Fort George. The post soon 
afterwards passed into the possession of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Having thus procured a lodgment on the Columbia River, the British 
claimed the whole country drained by its tributaries. The United States, by 
the acknowledged right of discovery, claimed that region as well as British 
Columbia, in which that river had its rise. A serious controversy then began 
between the United States and Great Britain. In 1818 a treaty was concluded 
between the two nations, which provided that the citizens of each should 
jointly occupy the region for ten years. This was renewed for an indefinite 
period, each party having the right to end the agreement at any time by 
giving twelve months' notice to the other. 

Meanwhile emigration to Oregon from the United States began in 1832. 
In 1834 Dr. Marcus Whitman and Rev. Mr. Spaulding led a missionary 
colony into that region, and established stations 150 miles apart in the region 
of the Willamette River, the principal tributary of the Columbia River. 
These were the first permanent colonies properly of white people in Oregon. 
The wives of these missionaries were the first white women seen there, and 
their children were the first of European blood who breathed the air of 
Oregon. Other emigrants soon followed. 

In 1839 the United States gave Great Britain notice that it should end 
the operation of the treaty within a year, and preparations were made for the 
occupation of the country by American citizens. Then Great Britain claimed 
the whole territory to latitude 54° 40' north, which included the whole of 
Oregon and the present Washington Territory. The United States offered 
to compromise by drawing the northern line of its possessions along the 



290 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

parallel of 49° 40'. The British persisted in their claim, and during the can- 
vass for President of the United States, in 1844, "Texas" and "Oregon" 
became a part of the battle-cry of the Democratic party. 

At the Democratic National Nominating Convention, held at Baltimore, 
they had declared, by resolution, " that our title to the whole of the territory 
of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to 
be ceded to England or to any other power; and that the re-occupation of 
Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas [which was claimed as a part of 
Louisiana, purchased from France] at the earliest practicable period, are 
great American measures, which this committee recommend to the cordial 
support of the democracy of the Union," 

The former proposition was popular at the north, and the latter propo- 
sition was popular at the south. There was much excitement during the 
canvass, and the war-cry of " Fifty-four Forty, or Fight ! " was often heard 
until after the elections. A conservative and peaceful spirit finally prevailed, 
and a compromise with Great Britain was effected. The northern boundary 
of our Republic was fixed at the parallel of 49° by a treaty concluded in 1846. 
In 1848 Oregon was created a Territory, and including the present Territory 
of Washington; and in 1849 i^^ ^^^^ Territorial Legislature met its first 
appointed Governor, Joseph Lane. George Abernethy had been provisional 
Governor from 1845 ^o 1849. 

In March, 1853, the Territory of Oregon was divided into two nearly 
equal parts, and the northern half was erected into a Territory named Wash- 
ington, which took all of the domain north of the Columbia River. The 
population of Oregon, which had been drawn upon by the attraction of 
California mines, had so rapidly increased that in 1857 a popular Convention 
framed a State Constitution, and application was made to Congress for its 
admission as a State. That act was performed on February 14, 1859, when 
John Whittaker was chosen the first Governor. 

As a rule the increase in population in Oregon has been rather tardy 
as compared with other Western States. Since the opening of railroads in 
the Willamette Valley, and the discovery of gold in Eastern Oregon, its 
growth has been much more rapid. Some of the Indian tribes, who are so 
numerous in Oregon, and were sometimes hostile, were a restraint upon im- 
migration. 

The last Indian war of much importance was that begun with the Modocs 
in 1872. These Indians had showed hostile feelings towards the white peo- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 291 

pie for more than twenty years. A treaty had been made with them in 1864, 
providing for the setting apart for them 708,000 acres of land in Southern 
Oregon. Some of the tribe had settled there; others, led by a chief known 
as " Captain Jack," a conspicuous warrior, preferred to remain where they 
were, but suddenly consented to go. Troubles with other Indians caused the 
Modocs to leave the reservation and begin anew their depredations. 

It was finally determined to compel the Modocs to go to their reserva- 
tion, when the Indians, under the immediate leadership of Captain Jack, 
broke out into open war late in 1872, and in one day eleven citizens were 
murdered. In January, 1873, a severe engagement occurred between the 
United States troops and the barbarians, who were strongly intrenched 
among rocks and vast lava-beds. All attempts to dislodge them were futile, 
and a peace commission was appointed to confer with them. That commis- 
sion reported (March 3, 1873) that the Modocs had agreed to surrender their 
arms and go to their reservation. 

On the following day the commissioners were compelled to report that 
the Indians had changed their minds, rejected all propositions for their 
removal, and refused to go to the reservation. Then another peace commis- 
sion was created, composed of General Canby, Rev. Dr. Thomas and others. 
They found the Modocs, under the influence of Captain Jack, very insolent 
in their bearing, and showing unmistakeable signs of hostile feeling. Finally, 
on the iith April, 1873, while the commissioners were engaged in a council 
with the barbarians. General Canby and Dr. Williams were murdered by 
them, the Indians stealing upon them in the most cowardly manner. 

This treachery caused the Government to make the most vigorous war 
upon the Modocs, and before June they were driven from the lava-beds and 
w^ere completely subdued. Captain Jack, deserted by most of his followers, 
was finally captured, with several participants in the murders. The Chief 
and three of his companions were hanged. 

Oregon, especially its western portion, is a promising agricultural State. 
In 1880 it produced 7,480,000 bushels of wheat 4,385,650 bushels of oats, 920,- 
977 bushels of barley, 126,862 bushels of Indian corn, and considerable rye 
and buckwheat. It has numerous farm animals, and promises to be a great 
wool-growing State. In 1880 it had 124,107 horses, 416,242 cattle, 1,083,162 
sheep, and 156,222 swine. The wool-clip amounted to 5,718,526 pounds. 

The salmon fisheries of Oregon are very valuable. There were 1,615,761 
of these fishes packed, in 1880, valued at $2,786,000. Its manufactures are 



292 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

becoming quite extensive. Its principal industry is flouring grain and in the 
works of lumber. In 1880 there were 1744 manufacturing establishments in 
Oregon, the value of the aggregate products of which was $13,342,130. 

In 1880 there were 689 miles of railroads in operation in Oregon, which 
cost $29,794,000. The assessed value of property in the State, real and per- 
sonal, was $52,522,000 in 1880. 

The number of children of school age in 1880 was 59,615, of whom 37,437 
were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended for public instruc- 
tion that year $314,885. There were eight universities or colleges. 

The name of Oregon is derived from the Spanish for " Wild Thyme," 
which is abundant there. 

The largest town in Oregon is Portland, on the Willamette River. In 
1880 it had 17,577 inhabitants. The next largest town is Astoria, which had 
a population of 2803. Salem its capital, had 2,538. 




i 

mMimMm. 




(1861.) 

Geographically, Kansas is the Central State of the: 
Union, and is one of the central tier of Western States- 
It lies between 37° and 40° north latitude, and 94° 38' 
and 102° west longitude. On the north it is bounded 
by Nebraska, on the east by Missouri, on the south by 
the Indian Territory, and on the west by Colorado. 
There are 38,080 square miles of area embraced within its territory, and its. 
population, in 1880, was 996,096. With Kansas, as with all other States — the 
Western or newer ones especially — there should be great additions made to 
their census to be accurate now (1888). 

The whole State of Kansas slopes gently from the foot-hills of the Rocky 
Mountains, near its western border, to the Missouri River, The general sur- 
face is undulating prairie, or, more properly speaking, a rolling prairie. 
There are no mountains in the State, but there are high lands in almost 
every part, especially in its eastern portion and along its western border.. 
Near the Arkansas River, in the south-west, is an elevation 3000 feet in 
height, and at another part in the western portion hills rise to over 3000 feet. 
The north-west border of the State is washed by the Missouri River. 

The portion of Kansas lying east of the looth meridian was a part of 
Louisiana, purchased from France, and was at first included in one of the 
territories into which that domain was divided. It seems to have been first 
visited by Europeans in 1719, when M. Du Tisne, a French officer, and some 
companions, explored a portion of it. Lewis and Clarke passed up the Mis- 
souri River on its borders in 1804, on their way through the wilderness to the 
Pacific Ocean (see Orcgoii). In 1827 the National Government built a fort 
on the Missouri River within the borders of Kansas, and named it Leaven- 
worth, around which a settlement grew; but until 1854 Kansas was mostly 
occupied by the barbarians. By the terms of the " Missouri Compromise " 



294 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

•(see Missouri), made in 1820, slavery was forever forbidden in the territory 
north of the northern boundary of Missouri, or latitude 36° 30' north. 

The region of Kansas was early known to be one of great fertility. 
Across it was the great pathway to Utah, in the heart of the Continent, and 
to the Pacific Ocean. The people of the Eastern States, who had begun to 
settle there, became anxious that the Indian reservations that spread over its 
eastern part should be bought by the National Government and thrown open 
to white settlers. Petitions to that effect were presented to Congress, and in 
December, 1852, a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives to 
organize the '* Territory of the Platte," by which indefinite name the Kansas 
region was then distinguished. 




CHARLES ROBINSON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF KANSAS. 

This matter was referred to the Territorial Committee, which reported a 
bill in February, 1853, to organize the "Territory of Nebraska." These terri- 
tories were north of the prescribed limit of the slave system. Southern mem- 
bers of Congress at once endeavored to provide for opening the new Territory 
to their peculiar labor system. Those from the free-labor States opposed the 
movement. Finally, in January, 1854, Senator Douglas of Illinois introduced 
■a bill for dividing the district into two Territories, to be called respectively 
Kansas and Nebraska. He also offered a bill to repeal the restrictive portion 
of the Missouri Compromise respecting slavery, and leave the question of 
free and slave labor to be decided by the settlers in those Territories. 

This movement created the most intense feeling of antagonism between 
the people of the free-labor and slave-labor States. The land was shaken by 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 295 

'the most violent controversies in and out of Congress. After long and bitter 
discussions in both Houses of Congress, the bill was passed, and received the 
signature of President Pierce, on May 31, 1854. From that moment the 
question of Slavery agitated the nation until it was abolished in 1863. It was 
one of the most influential causes which brought about the formation of the 
Republican party the same year, the prime aim of which was the abolition or 
restriction of the slave system. 

The vital question was now presented to the people of the United States 
— " Shall the domain of the Republic become the theatre of all Free labor or 
all Slave labor, with the corresponding civilization of such conditions as a 
consequence ?" This was a trumpet call to the " irrepressible conflict" 
between Freedom and Slavery, which now began. 

Kansas, being a more fertile territory than Nebraska, attracted the 
greater number of settlers, and it became the arena of the first great skir- 
mishes in the conflict. Believing that the Northern people, governed by their 
commercial interests, would yield to those of the South, as heretofore, the 
former made no special efforts to settle the new territories; but political 
leaders in Missouri, having resolved that Kansas should be made a slave-labor 
State, when they saw immigrants flocking into Kansas from North and East, 
took vigorous measures to stay the tide of emigrants from these States. An 
adventurous spirit was aroused in the North. The free-labor people acted at 
•once, and within a few months after the Territories were organized, the town 
of Lawrence was founded by one hundred families from New England. 
Other settlements were soon planted by a similar class of citizens, and the 
population rapidly increased. 

Alarmed by these movements, and perceiving that the new settlers, by 
the ballot-box, would soon again acquire political domination in the new 
Territory, the friends of the slave-labor system proceeded to organize physi- 
cal forces in Missouri to counteract this moral force. Combinations were 
formed under various names — " Social Band," " Friends of Society," " Blue 
Lodge," " Sons of the South," and others. Already a powerful organization, 
under the title of the " Emigrant Aid Society," had been formed in Boston, 
with the sanction of the Massachusetts -Legislature, immediately after the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Southern societies above men- 
tioned were formed to counteract the New England association. 

At a meeting held at Westport, Missouri, early in July, 1854, it was re- 
solved that associated Missourians should be ready, at all times, to assist 



296 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

when called upon to do so by pro-slavery citizens of Kansas, in removing 
from the Territory by force every person who should attempt to settle there 
under the auspices of the " Emigrant Aid Society." And now both parties 
proceeded to plant the seeds of their respective systems of civilization in the 
virgin soil of Kansas. They founded towns, the pro-slavery men establishing 
theirs in the vicinity of the Mississippi River. 

Immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill hundreds of 
Missourians went to Kansas, selected a tract of land and put a mortgage 
upon it, for the purpose of establishing a sort of pre-emption title to it. At 
a public meeting they adopted the following: 

" Resolved — That we will afford no protection to an abolitionist as a set- 
tler in this Territory; that we recognize the institution of Slavery as already 
existing in the Territory, and advise slave-holders to introduce their property 
as soon as possible." 

A. H. Reeder having been appointed Governor of the Territory of Kan- 
sas by the President of the United States, he arrived there in October, 1854, 
and took measures for the election of a Territorial Legislature. With the 
close of the election m the following March, the struggle for supremacy 
between the friends and opposers of the slave system began most vigorously. 
The pro-slavery men had an overwhelming majority in the Legislature, for 
hundreds of Missourians had gone over the border and voted. And when,, 
in November, 1854, a delegate to Congress was elected, several hundred of 
the nearly 2900 votes cast were put in by Missourians. At the election of 
the Legislature, 6218 votes were polled, while there were only 1410 legal 
voters in the Territory. Most of that excess was furnished by Missouri. 
Fully 1000 men came from Missouri, fully armed, with rifles, muskets and 
pistols, two cannons, and tents, who were led by Claiborne F. Jackson, who, 
.as Governor of Missouri, in 1861, plunged that State into the vortex of Civil 
War. (See Missou?-i.) They encamped around the little town of Lawrence, 
and in like manner every poll in the Territory was controlled. 

A reign of terror now began in Kansas. All classes of men carried 
deadly weapons. The illegally chosen Legislature met at a point on the bor- 
der of Missouri, and proceeded to enact stringent laws for upholding slavery 
in the Territory. These Governor Reeder vetoed, and they were instantly 
passed over his veto. He became so obnoxious to the pro-slavery party that 
President Pierce removed him at their request, and sent another more ac- 
ceptable to them to fill his place. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 297 

In September, 1855, the actual settlers in Kansas held a Convention, and 
resolved not to recognize the laws of the illegally constituted Legislature as 
binding upon them. They refused to vote for a delegate to Congress at a 
Convention ordered by that Legislature, and they called a delegate Conven- 
tion to assemble at Topeka in October. At that Convention ex-Governor 
Reeder was elected to Congress by the legal voters. Another Convention 
assembled at the same place a few days later, framed a State Constitution, 
which made Kansas a free labor State, and asked for its admission to the 
Union as such. 

Now the strife between Freedom and Slavery was transferred to the 
J^Jational capital. Reeder made a contest for a seat in Congress with the del- 
egate chosen by the illegal votes. Meanwhile elections had been held in 
Kansas under the legally adopted new State Constitution. The pro-slavery 
party in the Territory became disheartened and perplexed, when President 
Pierce relieved and strengthened them by a message, on January 24, 1856, 
in which he declared that the action of the legal voters in Kansas in fram- 
ing a new Constitution was rebellion. 

All through the ensuing spring violence and bloodshed prevailed in the 
unhappy Territory. Perceiving that the actual settlers were determined to 
maintain their rights, armed men flocked into the Territory from the slave- 
labor States, and attempted to coerce the inhabitants into submission to the 
laws of the illegally chosen Legislature. Finally, Congress sent thither a 
committee of investigation. A majority reported, in July, 1856, that every 
■election had been controlled by citizens of Missouri, and that the State Con- 
stitution was the choice of the majority of the people of Kansas. 

The canvass for a new President of the Republic soon absorbed the 
attention of the nation, and Kansas had peace, for a while. James Buch- 
anan, the Democratic candidate, was elected. When he took the chair of 
state, he favored the pro-slavery party, and his strong support gave them 
renewed strength in Kansas. The newly formed Republican party came to 
the aid of the anti-slavery people there, and the opposing parties worked 
with great energy for the admission of Kansas as a State, but with opposite 
■ends in view. 

Early in September, 1857, the pro-slavery party, in Convention at 
Lecompton, framed a State Constitution, which contained a clause providing 
that the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory " shall in no man- 
ner be interfered with," and forbade any amendments of the instrument until 



298 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

1864. It was submitted to the votes of the people in December, but by the- 
terms of an election law, passed by the illegally chosen Legislature, no one 
might vote against that Constitution, The vote must be for " The Constitu- 
tion zvitJi Slavery," or "The Constitution zvithout Slavery." In either case a. 
Constitution that cherished and perpetuated slavery would be voted for. 

At an election for a Territorial Legislature, meanwhile, the friends of 
free labor had been successful. They had chosen their delegate to a seat in 
Congress. The legally elected Legislature ordered the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection, when it was 
rejected by over 10,000 majority. Notwithstanding this expression of the 
popular will, the President sent the rejected Constitution to Congress, with a 
message, in which he recommended its acceptance and ratification, and, 
referring to an opinion expressed by Chief Justice Taney, said: 

"It has been solemnly adjudged by the highest tribunal known to our- 
laws, that slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the 
United States. Kansas is, therefore, at this moment, as much a slave State 
as Georgia or South Carolina." 

The Senate of the United States accepted the Lecompton Constitution, 
but the House of Representatives decided that it should be again submitted 
to the legal voters of Kansas. It was done, and it was rejected by over 
10,000 majority. The political power in Kansas was now in the custody of 
the friends of Freedom, but they had to endure a further struggle to main- 
tain and exercise it. 

Early in April, 1856, armed men from Southern States, led by a colonel' 
of militia, arrived in Kansas and were taken into the pay of the Government 
by the United States Marshal, who armed them with Government muskets.. 
They besieged Lawrence in May, when the inhabitants, under a promise of 
safety to persons and property, were induced to give up their arms to the 
Sheriff. The invaders immediately entered the defenseless town, destroyed 
a printing-ofifice and a hotel, and plundered dwellings and stores. Elsewhere 
the free-labor men, furnished with arms from the free-labor States, were 
forced into bloody collisions at several places. Emigrants from free-labor 
States passing through Missouri were turned back by armed parties. In 
August the acting Governor declared the Territory of Kansas in a state of 
rebellion. He, with a notorious invader from Missouri, attacked Ossawato- 
mie, where several persons were killed and wounded and thirty houses were 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. . 299 

burned. The place was defended by a small band under the (afterwards) 
famous John Brown. 

This reign of lawlessness and violence was checked by the new Governor, 
J. W. Geary, who, in September, ordered all armed men in the Territory to 
lay down their weapons. In defiance of this order, about 2000 Mis- 
sourians, led by a member of the Missouri Legislature, marched to attack 
Lawrence, but the Governor, with United States troops, persuaded them to. 
desist. At the close of the year peace was restored to Kansas. Lawrence 
had been twice besieged, and Potawatomie, Ossawatomie, and Leavenworth 
had been partially destroyed. Four Constitutions had been successively 
voted upon in the space of four years. 

The present (1888) Constitution of Kansas, adopted by a Convention at 
Wyandotte July 5, 1859, ^""'^^ ratified on October 4, the same year. On 
January 29, 1861, the Territory was admitted into the Union as a Free-labor 
State, with Charles Robinson as its first Governor. It was zealously loyal to 
the Union during the Civil War, and furnished to the National army more 
than 20,000 soldiers. It was several times invaded by raiding parties from the 
Confederate army west of the Mississippi. One of these parties sacked and 
burned Lawrence. 

Kansas is rapidly growing in population and wealth. Nearly all its soil 
is very fertile. In 1880 it produced 105,729,325 bushels of Indian corn, 17,- 
324,141 bushels of wheat, and 8,180,385 bushels of oats. In corn production 
it ranks sixth in the Union. In 1880 it had 430,907 horses, 1,451,000 cattle, 
499,571 sheep, and 1,787,969 swine. 

Kansas is quite rapidly developing manufacturing industries. Its bitu- 
minous coal-fields cover 17,000 square miles. It had, in 1880, 3439 miles of 
railroads in operation within its borders, which cost $64,123,872. The 
assessed valuation of real and personal property in the State was $16,891,689. 

In 1880 there were 348,647 children of school age in Kansas, of whom 
231,434 were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended for com- 
mon schools $1,819,561. It has a State university, an agricultural college, 
and six other colleges. 

Kansas is an Indian word, signifying " Smoky Water." It is called " The 
Garden of the West." 







(1863.) 



West Virginia is one of the Central States of the Union, 
lying between latitude 37° 6' and 40° 40' north, and longi- 
tude 2y° 40' and 82° 35' west. Its area is 24,780 square 
miles, and its population in 1880 was 610,457, o^ whom 
25,920 were colored, including 29 Indians. The State is 
bounded on the north-west by Ohio, on the north-north- 
east and east-north-east by Pennsylvania and Maryland, on the east-south- 
east and south by Virginia, and on the south-west by Virginia and Kentucky. 
The general topographical aspect of West Virginia is that of a hilly 
country with fertile valleys. Of the latter the Shenandoah Valley is the most 
extensive and productive. The north-east part of the State is crossed by the 
Alleghany Mountains. West of them are ranges supposed to be a prolonga- 
tion of the Cumberland Mountains. The valley between these ranges and 
the Alleghanies is elevated from 1200 to 2000 feet above the sea. The 
scenery of the whole State is grand and beautiful. That about Harper's 
Ferry is unsurpassed in picturesqueness. There are no considerable lakes. 
Its streams flow into the Ohio River. 

West Virginia formed the west and north-west portions of Virginia — the 
" Old Dominion " — until the latter adopted an ordinance of Secession in the 
spring of 1861. The members of the Secession Convention for this region of 
the Commonwealth were nearly all Unionists. Before the adjournment of 
that Convention, the inhabitants of the hilly and mountain region, where the 
slave population was comparatively small, had met at various places to con- 
sult upon public affairs. At the first of these (at Clarksburg, April 22, 1861) 
a member of the Convention (J. S. Carlisle) offered a series of resolutions 
calling an assembly of delegates of the people at Wheeling on May 13. They 
were adopted. Similar Conventions were held elsewhere. At Kingwood, in 
Preston county, on May 4, a Convention declared that the separation of 
Western from Eastern Virginia was essential to the maintenance of their 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 301 

liberties. They also resolved to elect a representative to the National Con- 
gress. 

These bold declarations were echoed from several points. About 400 
delegates met at Wheeling on the appointed day. The chief topics of dis- 
cussion were on the division of the State and the formation of a new one 
composed of forty or fifty counties of the mountain region. There was re- 
markable unanimity of sentiment in the Convention against longer submit- 
ting to the control of the slaveholders of the State; also of love for the Union. 
It condemned the Qrdinance of Secession, and called a provisional Conven- 
tion to assemble at the same place on June 11, if the obnoxious ordinance 




ARTHUR J. BOREMAN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WEST VIRGINIA. 

should be ratified by the people. A Central Committee was appointed, who 
issued an address to the people of North-western Virginia. 

These proceedings thoroughly alarmed the Secessionists. Expecting an 
armed revolt in Western Virginia, the Governor ordered a military com- 
mander of State troops at Grafton to seize arms at Wheeling, cut off tele- 
graphic communication between that city and Washington, and to destroy 
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad if troops from Ohio or Pennsylvania should 
attempt to take possession of it. 

The Convention met at Wheeling on June 11. Arthur J. Boreman was 
chosen president. A committee was appointed to draw up a Bill of Rights. 
All allegiance to the Southern Confederacy was totally denied, and it was 
declared that all officers in Virginia who adhered to it were suspended and 



302 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

their offices vacated. They condemned the Ordinance of Secession, and 
called upon all citizens who had taken up arms for the Confederacy to lay 
them down. They adopted measures for a provisional Government, and for 
the election of officers for six months. 

This was not secession from Virginia, but purely revolutionary. On 
June 17 they adopted a declaration of independence of the old Government 
of Virginia. It was signed by fifty-six members present. On the 20th there 
was a unanimous vote in favor of a separation of Western from Eastern Vir- 
ginia; and on the same day a provisional Government was organized by the 
appointment of Francis H. Pierrepont, Governor; Daniel Polsley, Lieutenant- 
Governor; and an Executive Council of five members. 

Governor Pierrepont immediately notified the President of the United 
States of insurrection in Western Virginia, and asked aid to suppress it. He 
raised $12,000 for the public use, pledging his own private fortune for the 
amount. A Legislature was elected, and met at Wheeling on the first of July,, 
when John S. Carlisle and Waitman T. Wylley were chosen to represent " the: 
restored Commonwealth " in the Senate of the United States. 

These movements were not intended for Western Virginia alone, but fof 
the whole State. Governor Pierrepont said — " It was not the object of the 
Wheeling Convention to set up a new Government in the State, or separate, 
or other Government than the one under which they had always lived." 

But circumstances altered the case. On the 20th of August, 1861, the 
Convention re-assembled and passed an ordinance for the organization of a 
new State, which was submitted to the people and by them ratified. At a 
session of the Convention in November following, the name of " West 
Virginia " was given to the new State. A Constitution was framed, which 
the people ratified on May 3, 1862. The Governor convened the Legislature 
the 6th of the same month, which passed an act giving its consent to the 
formation of a new State. It forwarded to Congress this consent, together 
with an official copy of the Constitution adopted by the people, with a request 
that the new State might be admitted into the Union. 

In December following Congress passed an act for the admission of West 
Virginia to an equal position with the other States. It was approved by the 
President on December 31. Certain c(Miditions were required to be complied 
with by the new Commonwealth before absolute admission. This was dul}' 
performed, and on April 20, 1 863, the President of the United States pro- 
claimed that West Virginia was an independent State of the Union. Its in- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 303 

auguration took place at Wheeling on June 20, with imposing ceremonies. 
Arthur J. Boreman was chosen its first Governor. 

_ The inherent energies of the people of West Virginia were displayed in 
a remarkable degree from the birth of the Commonwealth. During the war^ 
in the midst of which its nativity occurred, the State furnished fully 30,000' 
troops to the National army, yet the people were much divided in sentiment.. 
and a large number of men enlisted in the Confederate army. The State was 
repeatedly invaded by the Confederates, especially in the regions bordering 
on the old State. The Kanawha Valley was the scene of several severe 
battles early in the war, but at the later period the State was exempt from 
hostilities. 

Since the war West Virginia has been prosperous, and its re'sources have 
been rapidly developed. Its river and railway commerce is very large. In 
1884 it had 148 steam vessels employed in freight and passage traffic, and 
there were over 700 miles of railroads in operation within its borders. 

The principal crops of West Virginia are Indian corn, wheat and oats. 
In 1880 it produced 14,090,609 bushels of corn, 4,000,000 bushels of wheat, 
1,908,505 bushels of oats, and considerable rye, buckwheat and barley. To- 
bacco is quite extensively cultivated. The yield of tobacco in 1880 was 
2,296,146 pounds. In 1885 here were raised 15,827,000 bushels of corn, 
1,493,000 bushels of wheat, and 2,831,000 bushels of oats. 

West Virginia had 2375 manufacturing establishments in 1880, with 
$13,883,390 invested in these industries. The value of the aggregate product 
was $22,867,126. The assessed value of the real and personal property of the 
State last year was $163,516,336. 

The number of children of school age in the State in 1880 was 210,115,, 
of whom 143,796 were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended 
in that year for public schools $720,967. 

West Virginia is sometimes called " The Pan-Handle State," because 
of a long, narrow projection of the territory in the northern part of the 
Commonwealth, between the Ohio River and the State of Pennsylvania. 





(1864.) 

Nevada is one of the Pacific States of the Union. It is 
the least populous and least in agricultural and manu- 
factured products of all the States, as it is one of the 
) ounger of the Commonwealths. It lies between lati- 
tude 35° and 42° north and 114° and 120° west longitude. 
It embraces an area of 1 10,700 square miles, and in 1880 had a population 
of 62,266, of whom 8710 were colored, including 5416 Chinese and 2803 
Indians. On its northern boundary is the State of Oregon and Territory of 
Idaho; on its eastern side are the Territories of Utah and Arizona; and on 
its south-west and west borders lies California. 

The surface of Nevada is generally mountainous. The greater part of 
it is included in the great American Basin, which has for its walls the Sierra 
Nevada on the west and the Wasatch Mountains on the east. This is a vast 
table-land, averaging in elevation about 4000 feet above the sea. Above this 
level some mountain peaks rise from lOOO to 8000 feet. About 12,000 square 
miles in the south-east portion of the State are outside of the basin. 

It is estimated that two-thirds of Nevada is a bleak desert, which can 
neither be inhabited nor cultivated. It has no large river. One-third of 
Lake Tahoe, mentioned in our sketch of California, lies within Nevada. It 
appears to be pure spring water. Although it lies at the elevation of 
6000 feet above the sea, it never freezes. Its temperature seldom varies 
from fifty-seven degrees in winter and summer. In one region of the moun- 
tain ranges there is a considerable number of streams, which have the pecu- 
liarity of suddenly disappearing from the surface, and re-appearing in the 
form of lakes or pools. 

Nevada was a part of the cession of Mexico to the United States made 
by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. (See California^ It re- 
mained a part of California until the creation of the Territory of Utah in 
1856, when it became a part of that domain. It remained a portion of 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



30s 



the western part of Utah until March, 1861, when the Nevada Territory was 
organized, with somewhat smaller boundaries than those of the present 
State. Some additions were made to the area of the State by Congress in 
1866. 

The mineral wealth of Nevada caused much emigration thither, and its 
population rapidly increased. In the fall of 1864 the people of the Territory^ 
in delegate Convention assembled, prepared a State Constitution, by the 
authority of an enabling act passed by Congress in the spring of that year. 
They were very anxious to be admitted to the Union as a State, in time to 




HENRY G. BLAISDELI,, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEVADA. 

cast a vote at the Presidential election in November. The time was too 
short to allow them to send the Constitution to Washington by an ordinary 
messenger in season to win that privilege, so they sent it on the swift wings 
of lightning. They telegraphed the Constitution to the President, who, on 
the 31st day of October, 1864, issued a proclamation that "the State of Nev- 
ada was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States." This good news was sent back by telegraph. Within a week after- 
wards the election was held, and 16,426 voters were cast in Nevada; 9826 
for Mr. Lincoln and 6594 for General McClellan, giving Lincoln a majority 
of 3232. Henry G. Blaisdell was chosen the first Governor of the new State. 



3o6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The enabling act required the people of the State to prohibit slavery 
within their domain ; to guarantee perfect toleration of religious sentiment, 
and to disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying 
within their territory. 

Nevada is the richest State in the Union, in respect to its mineral re- 
sources. No region in the world is richer in argentiferous lodes. These are 
found scattered over the entire Washoe country, the richest of which — the 
" Comstock lode " — had yielded immense amounts of silver. There " Virginia 
City" grew up in a day, as it were. In 1864 it was the second city in popula- 
tion on the Pacific coast. The late J. Ross Brown has given the following 
account of the finding of silver in the Washoe region : 

" Patrick McLoughlin was working for gold in a gulch or ravine, where 
he was making $10 a day to the hand. He followed it up, finding it paying 
better and better, until it gave out altogether, when he and his companions 
struck a vein of pure sulphuret of silver. They at first supposed it to be 
coal, but observing it to be heavy concluded it must be valuable. They sent 
one of their number to San Francisco to ascertain its value. 

"The lump was given to Killaley, an old Mexican miner, to assay. He 
took it home and assayed the ore. The result was so astounding that the old 
man became terribly excited. The next morning he was found dead in his 
bed. He had been in poor health for some time, and the excitement killed 
him. 

" Search vas immediately made for the original deposit, which resulted 
in the discovery of the famous ' Comstock lode.' When first found this 
lode had no outcropping, or other indications to denote its presence." This 
mine yielded, in 1864, silver valued at $10,425,350. The lode was discovered 
in June, 1859. 

The agricultural products of Nevada are comparatively meagre. Owing 
to the scarcity of water supply, irrigation is much resorted to. Some of its 
mountain slopes are good grazing lands, and raising of cattle is becoming an 
important industry. In 1880 there were in Nevada 32,087 horses, 172,221 
cattle, 133,695 sheep, and 9100 swine. There were 69,298 bushels of wheat, 
12,891 bushels of corn, 186,860 bushels of oats, and 513,470 bushels of barley 
raised. The wool-clip of 1880 was 655,000 pounds. 

The manufactures of Nevada are confined almost wholly to milling and 
mining industries. The reports of the United States mint show that, to 1884, 
nearly $80,000,000 in silver and $16,000,000 in gold had been coined from 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



307 



Nevada. The mining of these precious metals required much machinery. 
There were in the State, in 1880, 143 quartz crushing-mills. The value of 
the total products of manufactures that year was estimated at $32,534,605. 
Nevada had within its borders 900 miles of railway, which cost $16,570,715. 

The assessed value of taxable property, real and personal, in Nevada in 
1880 was $27,598,658. The interests of popular education are looked after 
with enlightened generosity. There were enrolled in the public schools 
SgiS children of school age, and, in 1880, $212,164 were paid for the support 
of public schools. 

Nevada is the Spanish word signifying " Snow Cloud," referring to the 
Sierra Nevada ranges, which are on its western border. 




©*-1 







(1867). 

Nebraska is one of the Central States of the Union. It 

lies between latitude 40° and 43° north, and longitude 

95° 23' and 104 west. The Territory of Dakota is on 

its northern border; the States of Iowa and Illinois, 

from which it is separated by the Missouri River, are on 

its eastern boundary; the States of Kansas and Colorado, 

and the Territory of Wyoming, on^the west. Its area is 76,855 square miles. 

In 1880 Nebraska had a population of 452,402, of whom 2638 were colored, 

including 235 Indians. 

Through its entire length, east and west, the country dips towards the 
Missouri River, it being upon the slope of the great central basin of the North 
American continent. The larger portion of the State is elevated, undulating 
prairie. It has some moderate hills. The river beds are deeply eroded by 
the action of the water, and the bluffs which line them, rising sometimes two 
or three hundred feet above them, give an appearance of hills where none 
exist. The eastern portion of the State is well watered and generally very 
fertile. In the western part of the State is a region ninety miles in length 
and thirty in width, known as the " Bad Lands." It is composed of sterile 
soil, and, seen at a distance, appears like a region of remains of civilization, 
the prismatic and columnar masses appearing like ruins of modern architec- 
ture. Among them may be found tracts of good land. The principal stream 
of the State is the Platte or Nebraska River. 

Nebraska was a part of the Louisiana territory, purchased from France 
in 1803. Lewis and Clarke traversed it in 1804 (see Orcgoi), who were proba- 
bly the first white men who explored it from east to west. When, in 181 2, 
Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a State, that domain formed a part 
of the territory of Missouri. It was then occupied by powerful and warlike 
barbarians, and seemed unfitted for occupation by a civilized people. Still, 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 309 

a few settlements were early made by enterprising adventurers in its eastern- 
portions; and from about 1840, population there increased quite rapidly. 

In 1844 a movement was made in Congress for the organization of (now) 
Nebraska, and a larger region, into a Territory. Another bill for the same 
purpose was submitted to Congress in 1849, but nothing more was then done. 
Finally, in 1854, Senator Douglas introduced a bill for dividing the domain, 
and the erection within it of two Territories to be called respectively Nebraska 
and Kansas. It became a law in May, 1854, when the two Territories were 
created. (See Kansas.) Nebraska then included a part of Dakota, Montana, 
most of Wyoming, and the north-eastern part of Colorado. It was made a 
free-labor Territory, 




DAVID BUTLER, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEBRASKA, 

In 1 861 and 1863 the area of Nebraska was greatly diminished by the set- 
ting ofT of the Territories of Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. As 
the Pacific Railroad, which had its eastern terminus at Omaha, began to 
stretch eastward, and the agricultural advantages of Nebraska became known, 
population flowed in quite rapidly. 

On March 24, 1864, Congress passed an act to enable the citizens of 
Nebraska to form a State Constitution and Government, preparatory to its 
admission into the Union as a State. Its conditions were complied with, and 
in January, 1867, a bill was introduced in the United States Senate to admit 
the Territory into the Union, to take effect only " on the fundamental and 
perpetual condition " that there should be no abridgment or denial of the 
exercise of the elective franchise by reason of race or color, except in the- 



,-3io THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

•case of Indians, not taxed. This act passed both Houses of Congress, but 
was vetoed by President Johnston, mainly on the ground that the conditions 
imposed upon the people of that Territory by that act were indirectly in con- 
flict with one of the provisions of their Constitution which they had framed. 
He said — "The people of the States can alone make or change their organic 
laws, and prescribe the qualifications requisite for electors." The act was 
formally passed over his veto, and on March i, 1867, Nebraska entered the 
Union as an equal and independent State, with David Butler as its first Gov- 
ernor. 

In March, 1867, Congress provided for a geological survey of the State. 
J^incoln having been selected as the State capital, and made the centre of 
;several projected railroads, the population of the new State increased rapidly 
from this period. The people were scourged by Indian depredations for 
:some years, but peace has long reigned in that region. Its fine climate and 
good soil attract immigration, and agriculture is the leading industry of the 
State, together with cattle-raising. 

In 1880 there were raised in Nebraska 65,450,135 bushels of Indian corn, 
13,847,000 bushels of wheat, 6,555,875 bushels of oats, 1,744,686 bushels of 
barley, and 424,348 bushels of rye. There were on the farms 204,864 horses, 
;20,ooo mules and asses, 754,550 cattle, 200,000 sheep, and 1,241,724 swine. 
The wool-clip that year yielded 1,282,656 pounds. There were raised in the 
:State 57,979 pounds of tobacco. 

The manufacturing establishments of Nebraska are rapidly increasing. 
In 1880 there were 1403. The number has probably nearly doubled. That 
year the value of their aggregate products was $12,627,336. At the beginning 
>of 1882 there were 2310 miles of railway in Nebraska, which cost $172,057,659. 
The assessed value of real and personal property in the State in 1881 was 
•'$93,142,457. Having no port of entry, the commerce of Nebraska is internal, 
and is considerable. 

Education receives liberal attention. There were in the State in 1880 
142,348 children of school age, of whom 100,871 were enrolled in the public 
schools. For the support of these schools the State expended that year 
^$565,651. It has four colleges and universities. 

Nebraska is an Indian word, signifying " Shallow Water," a description 
appropriately applied to the Missouri and Platte rivers. 



mft--' 




(1876). 

The youngest State in the Union at this moment (August, 
1888) is Colorado, being only a dozen years of age, yet it is 
having a lusty growth, and gives promise of a grand future. 
It is a Central State of the " New West," lying, between 
latitude 37° and 41° north, and longitude 102° and 109° west. 
Its area is 103,645 square miles. It is bounded on the north 
l)y the State of Nebraska and the Territory of Wyoming, on the east by 
Kansas, on the south by New Mexico, and on the west by Utah. 

One-third of the State, on the east, is a lofty plateau, rising gradually 
until, at the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, the country is from 6000 to 
7000 feet above the sea-level. The remainder of the State is occupied by 
the Rocky Mountains, which rise in their greatest grandeur within the Com- 
monwealth of Colorado, These mountains traverse the State from north to 
•south, nearly through the middle of the Commonwealth. Within these ranges 
.are embraced the North, Middle, South, San Luis, Egira, Estes, Animas, and 
Huerfan parks, which are immense areas of level lands, surrounded by snow- 
;clad mountains, and each having a climate and a soil peculiar to itself. They 
are the beds of ancient lakes or inland seas. 

Within the limits of Colorado the Rocky Mountains present peaks each 
■over 14,000 feet in height, and some hundreds more rise to an altitude 
between 11,000 and 14,000 feet. The Great Plains present a smooth, un- 
dulating surface, destitute of timber, excepting in the valleys of the water 
courses and the liighlands, which divide the waters of the Platte and Ar- 
kansas rivers, which rise near the centre of the State. The canons, or vast 
ravines, in Colorado are terrible in their grandeur, some of them being from 
2000 to 5000 feet in depth. 

It is believed that Francis Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish adventurer, 
was the first European who trod the soil of Colorado. He set out in 1540, 
by command of the Viceroy of Mexico, from the south-east coast of the Gulf 



312 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



of California, with 350 Spaniards and 800 Indians, to explore Jhe country 
northward. He followed the coast nearly to the head of the gulf, and then 
crossed to the Gila River, in (present) Arizona Territory, and followed it to its 
head-waters. He went over the great hills eastward to the upper waters of 
the Rio Grande del Norte, which he followed to their sources. Crossing the 
Rocky Mountains he traversed the great desert north-easterly to the (present) 
States of Colorado and Kansas, under latitude 40° north. In all that vast 
region Coronado found little to tempt or reward conquest, only rugged, 
mountains, bleak plains, and a few Indian villages in some of the valleys. 

For nearly three centuries after Coronado's expedition, Colorado lay 




JOHN L. ROUTT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF COLORADO. 



hidden from the outside world. In 1806 President Jefferson sent Lieutenant 
Z. M. Pike to explore this region. He and his command nearly crossed the 
territory, and gave the name to Pike's Peak, which they discovered. In i820' 
an expedition under Colonel Long visited the region, and in 1842-44 Lieuten- 
ant-colonel Fremont crossed Colorado in his famous passage of the Rocky 
Mountains. 

In 1852 gold was discovered near Pike's Peak by a Cherokee cattle- 
trader. This, and other discoveries of the precious metals, had brought four 
or five hundred adventurers to Colorado in 1858. The first discovery of a. 
gold-bearing lode was made by John H. Gregory in 1859 "^ Gilpin county. 
Immigrants had flocked thither in large numbers, and late in 1859 ^^^^ miners 
attemp'ted to form a civil Government. They erected Arapahoe county, and 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 313 

<elected a representative to the Kansas Legislature, who was instructed to 
urge the separation of the district from Kansas to form a new Territory. 

In the autumn of 1859 ^ Convention of 128 delegates was held at Denver, 
who decided to memorialize Congress for the creation of a new Territory. 
Nothing of importance was accomplished until 1861, when the Territory of 
Colorado was organized. It was formed out of portions of Kansas, Nebraska 
and Utah. The people of the Territory applied for its admission to the 
Union as a State. Congress passed bills for that purpose in 1865 and 1867. 
They were vetoed by President Johnston. Finally, Congress passed an en- 
abling act in March, 1875. The people framed a State Constitution and 
•organized a Government, and on July 4, 1876, Colorado was admitted as an 
equal and independent State of the Union, with John L. Routt as its first 
Governor. Since that event Colorado has rapidly increased in population 
.and wealth. It has become a great resort for a special class of invalids. 

Colorado is rich in mineral wealth. Gold and silver are found in twenty- 
one of the thirty-nine counties in the State. The largest, industry in the 
Commonwealth is, at present, the mining, smelting and reducing the precious 
and other metals. 

The entire output of gold, silver, copper and lead in Colorado, from 1859 
to 1881, was $120,600,000, of which $62,000,000 was gold, $55,000,000 silver, 
:$950,ooo copper, and $2,600,000 lead. The coal industry is assuming large 
proportions, and cattle-herding, sheep-raising, and the wool trafific have 
become important. In 1880 there were 600 manufacturing establishments in 
Colorado, the total value of the products of which, that year, was $14,260,159. 

In 1883 there were, in Colorado, 2326 miles of railways in operation, 
which, with equipments, cost $89,304,648. The assessed value of real and 
personal property in the State in 1880 was $74,471,693. 

Colorado has an excellent school system and an ample school fund. It 
lias a State university, a State agricultural college, a college at Colorado 
Springs, and graded and high schools of a high order. 

The population of Colorado in 1884 was over 300,000. Its principal 
towns in population in 1880 were — Denver, the capital, 35,629, and Leadville 
14,820. 

Colorado is from a Spanish word, meaning " colored." It is called "The 
Centennial State," because it was admitted to the Union on the Centen- 
Tiial of the Republic. 



Wke ^eFPitiSFies and BislFiQis. 



While States have been formed out of several of the Territories treated 
in the following sketches and have been duly admitted into the Union, their 
histor'y up to the present writing is mainly that of Territories. For this rea- 
son the writer has confined himself to their history as such, merely giving the 
facts as to their admission. The time has not yet arrived for their historical 
treatment as States. 

The following sketches are given in the chronological order of the organi- 
zation of the respective Territories and Districts. 





A District ten miles square, lying on each side of 
the Potomac River, in Maryland and Virginia, was 
made the seat of the National Government in 1789,. 
and named the District of Cohimbia. It was divided into, 
two counties, separated by the Potomac, and was placed 
under the jurisdiction of a Circuit Court composed of 
a Chief Justice and two Assistants. It was under the direct control of Con- 
gress. This arrangement was afterwards modified. Instead of providing a 
homogenous code of laws for the District, those of Maryland and Virginia 
were continued in force. 

The city of Washington, the future capital of the Republic, was laid out 
on a magnificent scale, with broad avenues, bearing the names of the several 
States of the Union, and radiating "from the hill on which the Capitol was. 
built, as a common centre, with streets intersecting them in such a peculiar 
way that they have ever been a puzzle to strangers. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 315 

The site of the city was a dreary one. The corner-stone of the Capitol 
was laid in 1793, upon which began the superstructure of the north wing. 
That portion was completed in the year 1800. The south wing was com- 
pleted in 1808. The President's house (called the White House) was built 
on a gentle eminence nearly a mile west of the Capitol. When, in the year 
1800, the seat of Government was transferred from Philadelphia to the 
District of Columbia, only a path leading through an alder swamp on the line 
of (present) Pennsylvania Avenue, was the way of communication between, 
the President's house and the Capitol. 

For a while the Executive and Legislative officers of the Government 
were compelled to suffer many privations there. The wife of President 
Adams wrote, in 1800: 

"I could content myself almost anywhere for three months, but, sur- 
rounded with forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because 
people cannot be found to cut and cart it ? * * * Most of the wood had 
been expended to dry the walls before we came in. * * * We have had. 
recourse to coals, but we cannot get grates made and set." 

Oliver Wolcott, member of Congress, wrote to a friend at about the same: 
time, saying — "There is one good tavern about forty rods from the Capitol,, 
and several houses are built or are erecting ; but I don't see how the members, 
of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like 
scholars in a college, crowded ten or twenty in one house. The only resource 
for such as wish to live comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles 
distant, over as bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford. 
* * * There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of 
them are small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the public 
buildings. * * * You may look in every direction over an extent of 
ground nearly as large as the city of New York without seeing a fence, or 
any object except brick-kilns and temporary huts for laborers." 

The original form of Government for the District continued in force 
until early in 187 1, when Congress passed a bill giving to the District the 
management of its own affairs. The District was then organized as a Terri- 
tory, with a Governor appointed by the President and a Legislature chosen 
by the people. The latter body consisted of a Council and a House of 
Delegates, the former having eleven members and the latter twenty-two. 
The Government was directed to confine itself strictly to the affairs of the 
District. The inhabitants of the District could not vote for President or- 



3i6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Vice-jc'resident of the United States. They might send one delegate to 
Congress, who exercised the rights of other Territorial delegates. The 
charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown were repealed, and all 
laws passed by the District or themselves were subject to the power of 
-Congress, which retained its legislative control of the Territory. The portion 
of the District of Columbia on the right side of the Potomac was retroceded 
to Virginia in 1846. 

The Government established in 1871 was abolished by Congress in 1874, 
when the affairs of the District, including those of the city of Washington, 
were placed under the management of three Commissioners, acting under 
the direct control of the National Legislature, for the levying and disburse- 
ment of taxes, and all public improvements. The citizens have no vote, 
either in District or National affairs. Justice is administered by a Supreme 
•Court of the District of Columbia, having six Justices, and by a Police Court, 
presided over by a single Judge. 

The original area of the Di-stnct of Columbia was lOO square miles. It 
is now sixty-four square miles. Agriculture is the chief pursuit of the in- 
habitants outside of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. Its manufac- 
tures are limited and its commerce is trifling. The assessed value of the real 
and personal private property of the District in 1880 was about $100,000,000. 

In 1880 there were 43,558 children of school age in the District, of whom 
27,299 were enrolled in the public schools. The amount expended that year 
for free schools was $527,312. The District has numerous flourishing private 
schools. It has three universities or colleges. The population of the District 
in 1 880 was 177,624. 






^In 1832 the United States Government set apart a large 
tract of land west of the Mississippi River (which was a 
part of the domain of Louisiana purchased in 1803), and 
devoted it to the purpose of a permanent residence for 
the remnants of the Indian tribes on- the east of the 
Lower Mississippi River. 

On January 30, 1834, Congress enacted that "all that part of the United 
States west of the Mississippi River, and not in the States of Missouri and 
Louisiana, or the Territory (now State) of Arkansas, shall be considered the 
Indian country." It has been reduced in area by the successive formation of 
Territories and States, until its area is now (1888) 64,690 square miles. It 
lies between latitude 33'^ 35' and 37° north, and longitude 100° and 103° west. 
It is bounded on the north by Kansas, on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, 
on the south and west by Texas, from which it is separated by the Red River. 
The country slopes gently from the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains on the 
west towards the Mississippi and the valley of the Lower Red River. It has 
mountain ranges of moderate elevation. The Ozark or Washita Mountains 
enter it from Arkansas, in the eastern part of the Territory, and in the north- 
western part is a portion of the Great American Desert. The general aspect 
of a greater portion of the Territory is that of an undulating plain. It is 
drained by the Arkansas and Red Rivers and their affluents. 

The tribes from east of the Mississippi, which first settled there, were 
the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, who went thither from 
1833 to 1838; also some.Seminoles and fragments of other tribes a little later. 
The Territory includes over thirty distinct Indian nations or tribes, on seven- 
teen reservations and unassigned lands. In 1880 there were eleven Indian 
agencies in the Territory, who represented the United States, but each tribe 
has its own internal government. 

The National Government exercises no authority over the Indians ex- 
cepting for the punishment of certain crimes committed by them against the 



3i8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

white people. For this purpose the Indian Territory was annexed to the 
judicial districts of the States of Missouri and Arkansas. The Indians are 
allowed to live under their own laws and follow their own customs and modes 
of life. Each tribe has its own lands assigned and secured to it by the 
United States. Efforts have been made to organize the Territory under a 
Constitution which should place the different tribes in corresponding rela- 
tions to the General Government held by the States of the Union, 

During the late Civil War emissaries of the Confederate leaders went 
among the more intelligent of the Indian tribes to seduce them from their 
allegiance to the United States, and succeeded in winning quite a large 
number. The more enlightened Cherokees and Creeks were not so easily 
moved at first. The venerable John Ross, who for almost forty years had 
been the principal chief of the Cherokees, took a decided stand against these 
corrupting emissaries, and urged his people to be faithful to their treaty ob- 
ligations to the United States. 

Ross and his loyal adherents were overborne by the tide of rebellion.. 
The forts on the frontier of Texas, which had been used for their defense, 
had been abandoned by United States troops, also those on the Arkansas 
frontier. Thus unsupported, the Cherokees were driven into the attitude of 
rebellion, and suffered dreadfully afterwards, Ross was compelled to fly to^ 
the North to escape personal violence. 

It is the policy of the United States Government to settle the various 
Indian tribes in that region on separate reservations, as far as possible, where 
they may be free from the encroachments of the white people ; but large 
numbers of " pale-faces " have gone into the Territory and settled there. It 
seems destined to be, ere long, overwhelmed by the tide of civilization by 
which it is surrounded. The Indians themselves are making rapid advances 
in the arts and refinements of civilized life. They are following the pursuits. 
of agriculturists and cattle-raising with success. 

In 1880 industry in the Indian Territory produced 2,015,000 bushels, 
of Indian corn; 565,400 bushels of wheat; 165,500 tons of hay, and quite 
a large crop of barley and cotton. Some of the people were engaged in 
the lumber business. They also had much live stock. At one time the 
whole people of the Territory had over 200,000 horses, 320,000 horned cattle,, 
22,500 sheep, and 400,000 swine. They also made hunting a profitable pursuit.. 
Until within a comparatively few years, vast herds of buffalo and wild horses; 
roamed over its prairies, and wild deer were abundant. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. -319 

The five leading nations or tribes are the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, 
Chickasaws and Seminoles, To these the schools in the Territory are con- 
fined. They are giving them vigorous support. In 1880 they expended for 
that purpose the sum of $186,359. At that time there were 11,444 children 
of school age in the Territory, of whom over 6000 were enrolled in the 
schools. Not less than 30,000 of the people of the Territory can read, and 
three newspapers are conducted by the Indians, one in English, one in Eng- 
lish and Cherokee, and one in English and Choctaw. 

Those more enlightened tribes lost a vast amount of property during the 
Civil War from Confederate raids and other causes, but have regained it, and 
their possessions are now estimated at the value of over $20,000,000. The 
population of the Territory in 1880 was about 80,000. A larger portion of 
them are sufficiently civilized to become citizens. Among the five principal 
tribes there are very few white people. 





When the Spaniards discovered the region of New Mexico 
it was inhabited by an industrious, semi-barbarous people, 
probably of the Toltec or Aztec races, whom Cortez 
• found in Old Mexico. They had walled towns, and 
stone dwellings several stories in height. They made 
textile fabrics in wool and cotton, and gathered large 
crops from the well-irrigated soil. 

New Mexico is a South-western Territory of the Union, lying between 
latitude 31° 20' and 37° north, and longitude 103° 2' and 109° 2' west. On 
the north it is bounded by Colorado, on the east by Texas and the Indian 
Territory, on the south by Texas and Mexico, and on the west by Arizona. 
It embraces an area of 122,580 square miles. 

This Territory is a part of a lofty table-land broken by mountain ranges, 
which form the foundations of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada 
ranges. This table-land slopes southward to the barren region known as 
the " Staked Plains." The Sierra Madre passes through its central portion. 
The best habitable part of the Territory is the valley of the Rio Grande, 
where the climate is temperate and salubrious. Only a small portion of 
the Territory is wooded. 

Spanish adventurers, among them Coronado (see Colorado), visited this 
region so early as 1537-40. In 1580-81 Augustin Ruyz, a Franciscan friar, 
inflamed with missionary zeal, with three companions, penetrated to the Rio 
Grande; and soon afterwards he was followed by Antonio Espejo, a Spaniard, 
with some soldiers, who built forts and took possession of the whole country 
in the name of the Spanish monarch, and called it " New Mexico." Santa 
Fe, its present capital, was built soon afterwards, and is, next to St. Augus- 
tine, the oldest borough in the United States. 

The Spanish missions readily made converts of the pueblo or village In- 
dians. Many successful stations were planted, but the enslavement of the 
natives by the Spaniards caused much discontent, and consequent insecurity 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 321 

for the white people there. Finally, in 1680, the Indians drove the white 
people out, and recovered the country from the Spaniards as far south as El 
Paso del Norte. The Spaniards regained possession in 1698, and the province 
remained a part of Mexico until 1846. 

General S. W. Kearney, in command of the Army of the West in the 
war with Mexico, in 1846, was ordered to conquer New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia. He left Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, in Kansas, in 
June, with 1600 men, and arrived at Santa Fe, after a march of 900 miles, on 
the 1 8th of August. He had traversed great plains and rugged mountains 
without opposition. As he approached the New Mexican capital, the Gov- 
ernor and 4000 soldiers fled, leaving the 6000 inhabitants of the city to quietly 




JAMES S. CALHOUN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO. 

submit to the invaders. Kearney then took formal possession of the State, 
appointed a provisional Governor, and pushed on towards California. (See 
California}) New Mexico was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 
Guadulupe-Hidalgo in February, 1848. 

An attempt was made in 1861 to attach New Mexico to the Southern 
Confederacy by the method employed by Twiggs in Texas. (See Texas.) 
Disloyal ofificers were sent thither by Floyd, the Secretary of War, a year be- 
fore the Civil War broke out, to corrupt the patriotism of the soldiers. They 
failed to corrupt a single one of the twelve hundred men under them. These 
of^cers were compelled to flee to Texas from the wrath of their soldiers when 
their scheme became apparent. They had led the unsuspecting troops to 
Fort Fillmore, on the Texas border. The commander of that post co-oper- 



322 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

ated with those leaders, and the loyal soldiers were betrayed into the power 
of the Texan insurgents. 

The Secessionists now felt assured of success in New Mexico, when Gen- 
eral Canby arrived and raised the standard of the Union. Around it the 
loyal people of the Territory gathered. With regular troops, New Mexican 
levies, and volunteers, he saved the Territory from the grasp of the insurgents. 

New Mexico was erected into a Territory of the United States in Sep- 
tember, 1850, when a Territorial Government was formed and James S. Cal- 
houn was chosen the first Governor. The region south of the Gila was ob- 
tained by purchase in 1853, and was added to New Mexico in 1854. It then 
contained the whole of Arizona and a portion of Colorado and Nevada. 
These were afterwards set off from it. The Territory has long been qualified 
to enter the Union as a State, and has asked for that privilege. 

The agricultural productions of New Mexico are not abundant. In 1880 
it produced 706,641 bushels of wheat, 633,786 bushels of Indian corn, 156,527 
bushels of oats, and a small amount of rye and barley. It had, of farm 
animals, 14,547 horses, 166,701 cattle, 2,088,831 sheep, and 7857 swine. The 
wool-clip that year was 4,019,188 pounds. Some tobacco was raised. 

The manufactures of New Mexico are comparatively insignificant. In 
1882 there were 975 miles of railway in operation in the Territory, which cost 
$28,369,300. 

The assessed valuation of real and personal property in the Territory in 
1881 was $19,523,624. There were about 30,000 children of school age, but 
only 4755 were enrolled in public schools. The sum of $28,973 was expended 
for the support of these schools that year. 

The precious metals are abundant in New Mexico. Its mineral wealth 
is not yet developed. Its future prosperity will probably depend very largely 
upon its mines. 






The Territory of Utah was originally inhabited by a tribe 
of Ute or Utah Indians, from whom its name is derived. 
It lies mostly in the Great Wasatch Basin, between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada range, and 
comprises an area of 84,970 square miles. It lies be- 
tween latitude 37° and 42° north, and longitude 109° 
and 114° west. The population of the Territory, in 1880, was 144,000, of 
whom (including 500 Chinese and 800 Indians) 1540 were colored. On the 
north of Utah lie the Territories of Idaho and Wyoming, on the north-east 
is Wyoming, east is Colorado, south is Arizona, and west is Nevada. 

Utah is traversed by the great Wasatch range of mountains, which forms 
the east wall of the Great Basin. East of that range is a plateau fifty miles 
wide, sloping to an elevated valley, a part of which is very fertile. The west- 
•ern part of the Territory is also elevated. In the north-east is a barren, al- 
kaline desert. 

The Wasatch Mountains present snowy peaks 11,000 to 12,000 feet above 
the sea-level. In the'Great Wasatch Basin are many lakes, into which rivers 
empty. Among these is the Great Salt Lake, over 100 miles in length and 
nearly fifty in width. The rivers have cut canons or ravines, 2000 to 5000 feet 
in depth. The Territory may be designated as generally an elevated, moun- 
tainous, and largely barren region. The pure water, UtaJi Lake, the source 
of the Jordan, is 4475 feet above the sea. 

The settlement of Utah is one of the marvels of our National history. 
It was a part of Upper California, ceded to the United States by Mexico in 
1848. The Mormons, driven from Missouri and Illinois, penetrated the region 
in the summer of 1847. The story of the exodus reads like a wild romance. 

The people of Illinois, in whose State, at Nauvoo, the Mormons had set- 
tled and begun the erection of a temple, took measures to drive them from 
the Commonwealth. In February, 1844, 1600 men, women and children 
crossed the Mississippi River on the ice, and, travelling with ox-teams and 



324 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

on foot, penetrated the then Indian country, and rested at Council Bluffs. 
Other bands followed, and in September the last lingering Mormons at Nauvoo 
were driven across the great river by the bayonets of soldiers — homeless 
exiles, led by a shrewd " prophet " named Brigham Young. To the Mormons 
his voice was the voice of God. They formed " Tabernacle Camps " in the 
wilderness, and while some tarried to cultivate the soil and aid other wan- 
derers who might follow, the great host moved on. 

That march was a wonderful sight to behold. They made short journeys 
by day, and encamped in military order every night. Every ten wagons were 
under the command of a captain, who was obedient to the command of a 




BRIGHAM YOUNG, FIRST GOVERNOR OF 1:TAH. 

centurion. Strict discipline everywhere prevailed. They had singing and 
dancing. Many were swept away by miasmatic fevers. When winter fell 
upon them they suffered greatly. They made caves in the sand-hills for 
dwellings, and in the spring of 1847 they marked out the site of a city on 
the Missouri, where the Omahas dwelt. They named it " Kane City," in com- 
pliment to a brother of the Arctic explorer, who gave them much aid in the 
exodus. They sent missionaries even to the Sandwich Islands. Others went 
deeper into the wilderness to spy out a " promised land " for an " everlasting 
habitation." 

These persons chose the Great Salt Lake region, enclosed by lofty-moun- 
tains, fertile, salubrious and isolated. Thither a chosen band of 143 men, 
with seventy wagons drawn by horses, accompanied by their wives and chil- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 325 

dren and members of the High Council, proceeded to take possession of the 
country in the summer of 1847. O" the evening of July 20 their eyes beheld, 
from the summits of the Wasatch Mountains, the placid Salt Lake glittering 
in the beams of the setting sun. It was a scene of wondrous interest to them 
— it was the " Land of Promise," where they expected to be forever freed 
from the " Gentiles " and the curse of " Gentile " government. They chose 
the site for a city near the Lake, on a gentle slope on the banks of a stream 
which they called Jordan. Fields were ploughed and sown in the spring of 
1848. The " saints " gathered there. They organized civil government and 
called the region the State of Deseret^ — the Land of the Honey-bees. 

The most prominent feature in the religious and social system of the 
Mormons is polygamy, which they persistently adhere to. Against this im- 
moral system the people of the rest of the Union have ever protested. Within 
a few years Congress has passed laws for its suppression. On account of that 
system Utah has been denied admission into the family of States of the Re- 
public. The city (Salt Lake), laid out four miles square by the pioneers in 
1847, contained in 1885, or less than forty years afterwards, 25,000 inhabitants, 
where they have their great temple, and is the metropolis of the hierarchy as 
well as of the Territory. The latter was created in 1850, and Brigham Young 
was appointed the first Governor. 

Incensed because Congress persistently refused to admit their Territory 
into the Union of States, the Mormons, from' time to time, defied the power 
of the National Government, and committed many outrages. In 1858 United 
States troops were sent mto the Territory to bring them into submission. It 
was done, and since then they have been more obedient to the laws of the 
Republic. 

The agricultural products of Utah are comparatively limited in amount, 
but there appears to be a general increase in its manufactures. In 1880 there 
were 640 manufacturing establishments in the Territory, the total value of 
the products of which was $4,324,992. Salt manufacturing is among the 
prominent industries. There were nearly looo miles of railway in the Terri- 
tory in 1885, which cost nearly $22,000,000. 

Utah has no Territorial debt. The assessed value of property in the 
Territory, real and personal, in 1844, was $38,452,987. There were 40,672 
children of school age in the Territory, of whom 29,792 were enrolled in public 
schools. In 1880 the Territory expended $170,887 for public instruction. 



-life^rO 




The Territory of Washington lies between 45° 32' and 49° 
north latitude, and 117° and 124° 28' west longitude. It 
embraces an area of 69,180 square miles. Its population 
numbered, in 1885, including 3186 Chinese and 4400 In- 
dians 130,465. On the north and north-west it is bounded 
by British Columbia, on the east by Idaho Territory, on 
the south by Oregon, from which the Columbia River separates it along a 
greater portion of the boundary line, and west by the Pacific Ocean. 

The Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River (the latter entering the 
Territory on the north-east) divide the domain into Western Washington, 
west of the Cascade Mountains; Middle Washington, between the Cascade 
Mountains and the Columbia River; and Eastern Washington, east of the 
Columbia River. The western half and the south-eastern portion of the 
Territory are mountainous. The Cascade range extends entirely across the 
Territory from north to south. In this range are the lofty peaks of Mount 
Rainer, 12,300 feet in altitude; Mount St. Helen and Mount Adams, each 
about 9500 feet; and Mount Baker, 10,700 feet above the sea, all covered 
with perpetual snow. In the western part of the Territory the climate is 
mild, there being very little winter weather there. Cattle pasture the year 
round. There is a dry and a rainy season, each of about six months' dura- 
tion. The river valleys are very fertile. 

The country about Puget's Sound was for centuries a favorite resort of 
the Indian tribes of the Pacific coast. The Strait of San Juan de Fuca was 
first entered in 1592 by a German navigator of that name employed in the 
Spanish naval service. Captain Gray, in command of the ship Columbia, of 
Boston, discovered Gray's Harbor, in south-western Washington, at the 
mouth of the Columbia River, in 1792 (see Oregon); and Lewis and Clarke 
reached that point in their explorations in 1805. 

The Hudson's Bay Fur Company, grasping at a monopoly of trade with 
the natives, attempted to take possession of the Territory from 1828 to 1841. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 327 

The United States held a double title to the region watered by the Columbia 
River and its tributaries — namely, from the Spanish, and by the discovery of 
Captain Gray. 

In 1845 ^ ^^w American families, who had crossed the Great Plains and 
the mountain ranges, formed the first permanent settlement in the Territory. 
Other settlers followed, and in March, 1853, Congress, by act, created the 
Territory of Washington and appointed Isaac I. Stevens the first Governor. 

The act of Congress, February 14, 1859, ^^^ ^^^ admission of Oregon into 
the Union as a State, added to the Washington Territory the region between 
the eastern boundary of that State and the Rocky Mountains, embracing the 




ISAAC I. STEVENS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

present Territory of Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The islands 
in Washington Sound, (formerly Gulf of Georgia) were claimed as a part of 
the British possessions. After long disputes the question of eminent domain 
was referred to the Emperor of Germany, who, in 1872, decided that they 
belonged to the United States. In 1873 these islands were formed into the 
county of San Juan. The capital of the Territory is Olympia, situated at the 
southern projection of Puget's Sound. It was first settled in 1846, and was 
incorporated and made the capital in 1859. 

Wheat and oats are the principal cereal crops of Washington. In 1884 
the Territory produced 7,412,000 bushels of wheat, over 3,000,000 bushels of 
oats, and 800,000 bushels of barley. The climate appears to be too cold for 



328 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

the successful cultivation of Indian corn. Sheep-raising is a growing in- 
dustry. The wool crop in 1884 was 8,000,000 pounds. 

Manufacturing and mining are beginning to be carried on quite exten- 
sively in Washington Territory. Its manufactured products in 1885 were 
valued at $5,000,000. The mineral resources of the Territory have not been 
developed. They are evidently very extensive. Vast beds of coal have been 
found there; also, the precious metals in various places. 

The lumber business is a great and growing industry. The forests of 
the Territory seem to be almost inexhaustible. Its salmon fisheries are 
assuming large proportions. The estimated value of salmon packed in 1884 
was over $1,000,000. 

The assessed value of the real and personal property of the Territory 
in 1885 was $50,215,581. No Territorial debt. The amount of money ex- 
pended for public instruction in 1884 was $287,500. The public-school sys- 
tem is said to be the best of any of the Territories. It established a Terri- 
torial University at Seattle in 1862, and there are several high schools at 
various places. 

This Territory was created a State on February 22d, 1889.. 






Dakota Territory lies between latitude 42° 30' and 49° 
north, and longitude 96° 20' and 104° west. It is 
bounded on the north by the Dominion of Canada; on 
the east by Minnesota, from which it is separated by the 
Mississippi River; on the south by Nebraska, and on the 
west by Wyoming and Montana Territories. It em- 
braces an area of 149,100 square miles. From north to south it is 450 miles, 
and from east to west 350 miles. The population of Dakota in 1885 was 416, 
000, and was rapidly increasing. Of that number over 2000 were colored, 
including 1400 Indians and 238 Chinese. It also contained 27,108 tribal 
Indians. 

A greater portion of Dakota belongs to the region known as the Great 
Plains, east of the Rocky Mountains. It occupies the most elevated section 
of country between the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, forming to a 
great extent the water-shed of the two great basins of North America — those 
of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers — and the tributaries of Hudson's Bay. 
This water-shed is nearly 1600 feet above the sea. The Missouri River trav- 
erses the Territory from north-west to south-east. The country east and 
north of this river is a beautiful, rich and undulating prairie, free from marshes, 
swamps or sloughs, dotted with numerous lakes, and traversed by many 
streams — tributaries of the Missouri. 

When the French first visited this region (a part of the old Louisiana do- 
main), in the 17th century, they found it inhabited by one of the most power- 
ful barbarian nations on the Continent. They were the Sioux or Dakotas, 
from whom the Territory derives its name. They occupied the vast wilder- 
ness extending from the Arkansas River in the south to Lake Winnepeg in the 
north, and westward to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. In wars with the 
French the northern Dakotas were pushed down the Mississippi, and, driving 
off the occupants of the buffalo plains, took possession. Others remained 
on the shores of Lake St. Peter. 



330 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

In 1837 the Dakotas ceded to the United States their lands east of the- 
Mississippi River, and in 1851 they ceded 35,000,000 acres west of that river 
for $3,000,000. The violations of treaties with the barbarians by the United 
States Government or its agents, exasperated the Dakotas or Sioux, and 
kept them in a state of chronic hostility, which finally developed into actual 
war. 

One of these treaties made the Black Hills of Dakota and Wyoming a 
reservation for the Indians, but, gold having been discovered there, efforts, 
were made to induce the " wards of the nation" to go to the Indian Territory. 
They refused. Late in 1874 a bill was introduced into Congress which pro- 



WILLIAM JAYNE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF DAKOTA.. 

vided for the extinguishment of the Indian title to so much of the Black 
Hills as lay within the Territory of Dakota. 

In the spring of 1874, Government geologists were sent to the Black Hills, 
to survey that region. They were escorted by troops. The Indians, rightly 
suspecting more perfidy, prepared for war. To suppress these preparations 
a strong military force was sent into Montana Territory and adjoining regions 
in 1876. A campaign against the barbarians was arranged. Troops were to 
move simultaneously in three divisions — one from the Department of the 
Platte, another from the Department of Dakota, and a third from the Terri- 
tory of Montana. The whole expedition was under the command of General 
Alfred H. Terry. 

Learning that the hostile Indians were concentrated in large numbers near a 
tributary of the Yellowstone River, early in June, the three armies proceeded 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES; 331; 

to close upon them. General George A. Custer's command arrived first, and 
discovered an immense Indian camp on a plain. He had been instructed to 
await the arrival of other troops to co-operate before making an attack ; but 
Custer, inferring that the Indians were moving ofT, directed one of his Colonels, 
Reno, to attack them at one point with seven companies of cavalry, whilst he 
dashed off with about 300 mounted men to attack at another point. • A ter- 
rible struggle ensued (June 25, 1876) with a body of Indians, in number about 
five to one of the v/hite men. They were commanded by an educated, bold 
and skillful chief named Sitting Bull. Custer, and almost his entire command,, 
were slain in the encounter. 

The Government now sent a large military force into the region of the 
Black Hills, for the purpose of utterly crushing the power of the Dakotas. 
Sitting Bull and his followers, anticipating severe chastisement, at length 
withdrew into the British possessions. The fugitive Indians have mostly 
returned to the old hunting grounds, but the powerful nation of Dakotas. 
have forever lost their puissance. 

The first permanent settlements of white people in Dakota were made in 
1859, i^ what are now Clay, Union, and Yankton counties, in the extreme: 
South-eastern part of the Territory. That Territory was organized in March,. 
1861, when it comprised the Territories of Montana and Wyoming. William 
Jayne was appointed the first Governor. Yankton was made its capital.. 
There the first Territorial Legislature met in March, 1862. The next year 
a part of the Territory was included in Idaho. In 1868 a large portion of 
Dakota was taken to form the Wyoming Territory. Emigration to this 
inchoate State was limited until 1866. After the pacification of the Indians,, 
ten years later, a larger and a continuous stream of emigrants has flowed into 
the Territory. The seat of Government was removed to Bismarck, on the 
left bank of the Missouri, at the centre of the Territory, in 1883. 

Efforts have been made to have Dakota admitted into the Union as a 
State, either in whole or in part. The latest proposition made was to divide 
the Territory and make two States. 

The agricultural resources of Dakota are immense. Nearly the whole 
Territory is very fertile. The wheat crops are marvellous, especially in North- 
ern Dakota. There are farms in that region of from 50,000 to 75,000 acres, 
which yield from twenty-five to thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. Southern 
Dakota is also an excellent grain region, while Central Dakota is generally 
better adapted to grazing. 



332 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Flour and lumber have been thus far (1888) the principal manufacturing 
industries of Dakota. Mining, except for coal, is confined to the Black Hills. 
So early as 1881 there were more than 1800 miles of railway in Dakota, includ- 
ing three parallel lines which cross the Territory. The assessed valuation of 
the real and personal property of the Territory, in 1885, was $106,000,000. Its 
commerce is wholly internal. 

The facilities for public instruction have not quite kept pace with the 
increase in population. In 1884 there were over 70,000 children of school age 
in the Territory, and that year $1,748,562 were spent in the support of public 
schools. There are several colleges and academies, and seminaries for young 
women. 

This Territory was divided and erected into two States — North Dakota 
and South Dakota — on February 22d, 1889. 





Arizona is in the extreme south-western portion of the 
Republic, lying on the borders of Mexico. It is be- 
tween latitude 31° 20' and 37° north, and longitude 109° 
and 114° 35' west. Nevada and Utah are its nearest 
neighbors on the north, New Mexico on the east, Mex- 
ico on the south, and California and Nevada on the west. 
Its area embraces 1 13,020 square miles. Its population in 1880 was 40,440, 
of whom 3493 were Indians and 1630 Chinese. There were 21,000 tribal Indi- 
ans. Among the latter are the Apaches, the most troublesome, who numbered 
about 5000. The Moquis, numbering about 1800, are probably descendants 
of the ancient Aztec population. They are more peaceable and intelligent 
than any other of the barbarians in the Territory. 

The surface of Arizona is generally elevated and mountainous, numerous 
ranges traversing it from the north-west to the south-east. It is composed of 
wide plateaus, gradually sloping from an elevation of 7000 feet above the 
sea, in the north, to not more than 100 feet in the south. Among the moun- 
tains are peaks towering to the height of 12,000 to 14,000 feet. These moun- 
tain ranges are traversed by rivers which have cut caftons from looo to 6000 
feet in depth. The whole Territory is drained by the Columbia River and 
its affluents. The whole course of that river through the Territory is through 
the Grand Canon, which is from 400 to 5000 feet below the plateau. It falls 
in the course of 400 miles, over 3000 feet. 

So early as 1526 Don Jose de Vasconcellos, a follower of Cortez, crossed 
the centre of this Territory toward the Great Canon. He and subsequent 
Spanish explorers found on the banks of the rivers ruins of cities, deserted 
centuries before apparently. The builders were undoubtedly Aztecs or 
Toltecs, who were driven away by northern invaders. Evidences of quite a 
high degree of civilization appeared everywhere. 

Spanish missionaries made settlements in Arizona as early as 1687. They 



334 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

were chiefly on the Lower Colorado and Gila rivers. The history of their 
missions is similar to those in Nevada and California. 

Arizona formed a part of Mexico until its purchase by the United States 
in 1850. It was created a Territory by act of Congress February 24, 1863, 
when John A. Gurley was appointed its first Governor. In that act its area 
was described as comprising " all of the United States lands west of longi- 
tude 109° to the California line." Since then the north-west corner has 
been ceded to Nevada. 

One of the descendants of the Zuni, or most ancient race who inhabited 
Arizona, gave to a pioneer the following account of their origin, as preserved 
in their traditions: 

" In the beginning a race of men sprang out of the Earth, as plants arise 
and come forth in the spring. This race increasied until it spread over the 
whole earth, and, after continuing for countless ages, passed away. 

" The Earth then remained without people a great length of time, until,, 
ally, the Sun had compassion on the Earth, and sent a celestial maiden tO' 
re-people the globe. The young goddess was called Arizonia, the name signi- 
fying " Maiden Queen." Arizonia dwelt upon the earth in lonely solitude a 
great length of time, until, at a certain time, basking in the Sun, a drop of dew 
fell from Heaven and rested upon her. In due time Arizonia blessed the 
world with twins, a son and daughter, and these became the father and mother 
of the Zuni Indians, and from this tribe came all other races of men — the 
Zunis being the only pure, original stock — the Children of the Sun." 

Arizona abounds in precious metals, especially silver. Mining is its most 
important industry. The mines of both gold and silver are very numerous. 
The scarcity of wood and water makes mining expensive. Agricultural labors 
are, as a rule, not very productive. The irrigable lands, properly managed, 
will produce very large crops of cereals and roots. Semi-tropical fruits are 
very plentiful. Many cattle are raised in the Territory. 

There is, unfortunately, little manufacturing carried on in the Territory. 
The assessed value of the real and personal property there in 1880 was $9,- 
270,214. It had at that time 4212 pupils in its public schools, and spent that 
year for the support of public instruction $61,172. To these schools the. 
Moquis contribute some children. They live in villages, and have some man- 
ufactures 





The Territory of Idaho is one of the northern provinces of 
the RepubHc on the Pacific slope. It is irregular in shape. 
For a short distance, on the north, it is bounded by British 
Columbia, east by Montana and Wyoming, south by Utah 
and Nevada, and west by the State of Oregon and Wash- 
ington Territory. It contains an area of 84,800 square 
miles. Its population in 1885 was about 75,000. Its capital is Boise City, 
the most populous town in the Tei-ritory, the inhabitants of which, in 1880, 
numbered about 2000. 

Idaho is a mountainous country. The Rocky Mountains extend for about 
250 miles along its eastern and north-eastern boundaries. Within the bounds 
of the Territory is Fremont's Peak, the highest of the Rocky Mountain ranges 
in the United States. On Florence Mountain, 2000 feet below its summit, 
is the town of Florence. It is over 11,000 feet above the sea, and is believed 
to be the highest town in the United States.' With the exception of Bear 
River, in the extreme south-eastern region, the entire drainage of Idaho is 
into the Columbia River. The Bear River is a tributary to the great Salt 
Lake in Utah. A small portion of the Yellowstone Park occupies a little 
of south-eastern Idaho. The whole of that region is volcanic. 

It is believed that the only white men who trod the soil of Idaho pre- 
vious to the year 1850, with the exception of some missionaries in 1842, and 
the bold explorers with Lewis and Clarke (see Oregon) early in the century, 
were trappers and miners. The latter, prospecting for the precious metals, 
discovered some in 1852 in the extreme northern part of the Territory. At 
first not many miners and settlers were attracted to that region; but ac- 
counts of the evident mineral wealth of the country, which reached the 
settlers in California and Oregon in i860, drew many adventurers thither. 
Very soon there was a population in Idaho of 20,000, and in the spring of 
1863 Congress erected the Territory of Idaho. William H. Wallace was 
appointed its first Governor. Previous to that act it had formed a part of 



336 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Oregon, and embraced the Territories of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska 
and Western Dakota. In 1864 Montana was set off from it. 

The mineral wealth of Idaho is believed to be enormous. Mines of gold 
and silver are found at the sources of all the rivers, and in every county in 
the Territory. Lead also is found, and there are valuable deposits of bitumi- 
nous coal. 

Wheat and oats are the leading agricultural products of Idaho. Farm 
animals and sheep are found there in considerable numbers. Mining is the 
leading industry. 

This Territory ranks fifth among the States and Territories in the order 
of production of the precious metals. Up to 1885 it had furnished the 
United States Mint with gold and silver valued at nearly $30,000,000. 

The manufactures of Idaho are inconsiderable. In 1881 there were 
about 250 miles of railway in the Territory; now the Northern Pacific Railway 
runs through its northern part, and another railway passes through its south- 
ern part. 

The assessed value of the taxable property in the Territory in 1880 was 
$6,440,876. It has a good public-school system, and the schools are liberally 
supported. 

Idaho is an Indian word. Its correct pronunciation is Id-ah'-o, 





Montana Territory is one of the extreme northern Ter- 
ritories of the Republic, lying between latitude 44° 6' 
and 49° north, and longitude 104° and 116° west. Its 
area is 14,608 square miles. Its northern boundary is 
the Dominion of Canada; on the east is the Territory 
of Dakota; on the south is Wyoming and Idaho, and on 
the west is also Idaho, 

The general surface of Montana is mountainous, with some fine and fertile 
valleys. It is abundantly timbered with pine, spruce and other trees. The 
main range of the Rocky Mountains, with detached spurs, crosses the Terri- 
tory. In the eastern part is a long valley of the Yellowstone River, with 
mountain walls on each side, said to be fertile. The Missouri River rises 
near the south-western corner of the Territory, and makes a circuitous course 
through the whole extent of the province, and on its eastern border it enters 
the Territory of Dakota. Some portions of the Territory present undulating 
prairies, dotted with clumps of timber. The climate is salubrious and the 
water pure. 

There were a few missionaries, hunters and trappers in the Territory 
several years before its organization, but there were no really permanent set- 
tlements established before the discovery of the precious metals there, in 
1 861, when emigrants flocked thither in large numbers, some from the east, 
but a greater portion from the region of the Pacific coast. Gold, silver, 
copper, iron and lead are found in all parts of the mountain districts. A 
larger portion of the vast mineral wealth of the Territory undoubtedly remains 
to be developed. 

By act of Congress, in May, 1864, the Territory of Montana was created, 
and Virginia City was made its capital. That city is on the eastern slope of 
the Rocky Mountains, 6000 feet above the sea. Sidney Egerton was ap- 
pointed the first Governor of this Territory. It was settled only the year 
before, in the vicinity of a rich gold mine which had just been drained, and 



338 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



from which has since been taken gold valued at more than $40,000,000. It 
remained the capital until January, 1875, when the seat of Government was 
transferred to Helena, fifteen miles east of the summit of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. This city had a population, in 1885, estimated at 8000. It is in the 
midst of rich agricultural valleys and productive mines of precious metals. 

The principal agricultural productions of Montana are wheat and oats. 
In 1880 it produced 469,648 bushels of wheat and 900,915 bushels of oats, while 
of Indian corn only 5649 bushels were raised. Cattle and sheep-raising is an 
active industry in the Territory. In 1880 there were 172,387 cattle, 184,277 




SIDNEY EDGERTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MONTANA. 



sheep, and 10,278 swine. The wool-clip that year }'ielded 1,000,000 pounds. 
All of these products have been largely increased since, especially the area 
of wheat culture. 

Manufactures are becoming important in the Territory. The value of 
the aggregate products in 1880 was about $2,000,000. The North Pacific 
Railway runs through the Territory. 

The assessed value of taxable property in 1880 was $18,609,802. Liberal 
provision is made for public instruction. 

Montana derives its name from the mountainous character of the Terri- 
tory. 

This Territory was created a State on February 22d, 1889. 





The latest organised Territory of the United States is 
Wyoming, one of the Rocky Mountain provinces. It 
lies between latitude 41° and 45° north, and longitude 
104° and 111° west. It embraces an area of 97,890 
square miles, and a population in 1880 of 20,789, of 
whom 1352 were colored, including 914 Chinese and 140 
Indians. The Territory is bounded on the north by Montana, east by Dakota 
and Nebraska, south by Colorado and Utah, and west by Utah, Idaho and 
Montana. 

A larger part of the Territory is mountainous. The main ranges of the 
Rocky Mountains, entering it at the north-west, cross the Territory in a 
south-easterly direction, into Colorado. The Snow Mountain range has the 
Valley of the Yellowstone on the west and that of the Big Horn on the east. 
The Black Hills, which constitute the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, occupy the eastern portion of the Territory and extend into Dakota. 
The highest mountain top in the Territory is Fremont's peak, on the border of 
Montana. Around this peak are the sources of some of the principal affluents 
of the Columbia and Colorado rivers. The whole of Wyoming has an eleva- 
tion of from 3000 to 8000 feet above the sea. The Laramie Plain, 5000 to 6000 
feet above the ocean, affords a most excellent grazing region of vast extent. 

The Yellowstone National Park is almost wholly within ^he Territory of 
Wyoming. It is one of the most remarkable regions on the globe for its 
wonderful curiosities of nature. It is only a very few years since this 
marvellous " wonder-land " was made positively known to the civilized world. 
There have been for three-fourths of a century vague rumors of hot springs, 
mud springs, volcanoes, etc., in the heart of the continent, but they were 
regarded as wild tales of excited or untrustworthy men. 

Probably the first white man who visited this region was John Colter, a 
member of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke (see Oregon). He returned 
to it after his discharge from service, and his narrative of its volcanic wonders 



340 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



caused it to be spoken of in derision as " Colter's Hell." Two other adven- 
turers in that region (James Bridges and Robert Meldrum) described the 
geysers and hot springs in 1844, but their stories were regarded as pure 
romances. It was described in print in 1847, ^^^^ again in 1870. The latter 
account carried with it such an aspect of truthfulness that an expedition was 
organized the same year to explore the region. It was conducted by General 
Washburne, who had been appointed Surveyor-General of Wyoming Terri- 
tory. The truth of the wild tales was ofificially attested, and excited great 
interest in both hemispheres. 

In 1 87 1 a well-organized scientific corps, under Professor Hayden, made 




JOHN A. CAMPBELL, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WYOMING TERRITORY. 



a careful exploration of this remarkable region. In February, 1872, Congress 
passed an act reserving 3312 square miles, chiefly in the north-western corner 
of Wyoming, withdrawing it from " settlement, occupancy or sale," under 
the laws of the United States, dedicating and setting it apart as a public 
park and pleasure-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Its 
general elevation averages about 8000 feet. The region is so elevated that 
it can scarcely ever be available for agricultural purposes. 

Probably the oldest white settlement in Wyoming is that at Fort 
Laramie, where a fur trading-post was established in 1834. It was pur- 
chased by the United States in 1849, '^"^ there Fort Laramie was built and 
has since been garrisoned. The Territory was organised by Congress on July 
25, 1868, out of portions of Dakota, Idaho and Utah, the larger portion 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES'. 341 

consisting of Western Dakota. John A. Campbell was appointed the first 
Governor. The form of Government is similar to that of other Territories^ 
Women possess the right of suffrage, and exercise it;, they sit also on juries,, 
and hold elective offices. 

There have been no severe contests with Indians in Wyoming, except in 
1876, when the Dakotas of the Black Hills region almost totally destroyed 
the command of General Custer near the waters of Big Horn River. (See 
Dakota^ 

About 5,000,000 of the 62,000,000 acres of Wyoming are arable land, and 
about 35,000,000 acres are available for grazing, Both gold and silver abound 
in the Territory, and there are extensive coal-fields near the line of the Union 
Pacific Railway. Wheat and oats are the chief cereal productions. Sheep- 
raising is becoming a prominent industry, and cattle-raising much more 
prominent. So early as the census of 1880 there were 278,000 cattle in the 
Territory, 12,000 horses, and more than 140,000 sheep. 

Manufactures are yet (1888) somewhat limited. The Union Pacific Rail- 
way passes through W^yoming, of which 464 miles are in the Territory. The 
assessed value of real and personal property in 1885 was $30,717,250. There- 
is an efificient system of public instruction in the Territory. 

Cheyenne City is the capital of Wyoming. It had a population in i88o» 
of 3456. It is at an elevation of over 6000 feet above the sea. Its name is; 
derived from that of a tribe of Indians which inhabited that region. 




^^■i^^&Jhs 



Isolated from the rest of the territory of the United States, and in 
the extreme north-western portion of North America, is a vast region pos- 
sessed by the Great Republic of the West, and known as Alaska. It lies 
north of the parallel of 50° 40' north latitude, and west of the meridian of 
140"' west longitude. It includes many littoral islands, and the group known 
as the Aleutian Islands. Its area is estimated at 577,390 square miles. Its 
shore line, including bays and rivers, is estimated at 25,000 miles. 

The mountains of Alaska are a continuation of the Coast, Cascade, and 
Rocky Mountains (see California and Orcgoii), with outlying spurs. Some of 
the mountain peaks are very elevated. That of Mount St. Elias is estimated 
at 18,000 to 19,500 feet. Mount Fairweather is almost as high. There are 
several active volcanoes, some of them attaining an altitude of 10,000 feet. 
The Aleutian Archipelago, extending towards Asia from the shores of 
Alaska, are the summits of a mountain range. They form a curve, southward, 
westward and northward, from the extremity of the great peninsula to 
Behring's Island, a distance of 1075 miles. They constitute a most wonder- 
ful range of volcanic islands. The six larger ones are inhabited. 

The principal river in the District is the Yukon. It is 2000 miles in 
length, and is navigable for nearly 1500 miles. The climate is comparatively 
mild, the mean temperature being but a little lower than that in Maine and 
New Brunswick. 

Alaska was formerly known as ." Russian America," the Muscovites hav- 
ing acquired the right of possession by its discovery, in 1741, by Vitus 
Behring, a Danish navigator in the Russian service. In 1725 he had com- 
manded a scientific expedition to the Sea of Kamschatka. He ascertained 
that Asia and America were separated by a strait, which now bears his name. 
This problem Peter the Great had anxiously sought to solve. On a second 
voyage to the same region in 1741 he discovered a part of the North American 
continent. Attempting to return to Kamschatka, his vessel was wrecked' on 
an island which bears his name, where he died. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 343 

Russian fur-traders founded a settlement at Sitka, or New Archangel, the 
first in the District. The country was granted to the Russian Fur Company 
in 1799 by the Emperor Paul VIH., and was a sort of independent province 
under their rule. The Company was invested by the Czar with the exclusive 
right of hunting and fishing in the American waters. The charter of this 
Company expired in 1867, when the Russian Government declined to renew it. 

In 1865-67 Alaska was explored by a scientific corps, sent to select a 
route for a Russo-American telegraph line, designed to extend across 




LOVELL HARRISON ROUSSEAU, COMMISSIONER OF ALASKA, 

Behring's Strait into Asia. That project was abandoned in consequence of 
the successful laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable. 

Early in 1867 negotiations for the purchase of that Russian possession 
were begun. On May 20, the same year, a treaty to that effect was ratified 
by the United States Senate, and Alaska became a part of the domain of the 
American Republic, at a cost of $7,200,000 in gold. In October the same year 
it was formally taken possession of by United States Commissioner, General 
Lovell H. Rousseau. The laws of the United States were extended over the 
territory in July, i868 — such as related to Customs, Navigation and Com- 
merce. A collection district was established, also a military district, at- 
tached to the Department of California. Sitka was made the capital. It is 
the most northern harbor on the Pacific coast. 



344 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Alaska has never been organized as a Territory of the United States. 
In May, 1884, Congress created a District Government for the territory, with 
a Governor (John H. Kinkead), and a District Court, sitting alternately at 
Sitka, the capital, and at Wrangel. The laws are those of Oregon. 

Gold and silver, copper and iron, semi-bituminous coal, petroleum, and 
other minerals are found in Alaska. The islands and the Sitkan Peninsula 
produce wheat and other cereals, and some root crops. By far its greatest 
products are from the fisheries — the fur-seal and salmon. In these pursuits 
thousands of persons are employed. The fur seal and the other are very 
abundant. In 1880 they yielded to the United States Government a revenue 
of $300,cxx). The waters of Alaska swarm with salmon, halibut, cod, and 
other fishes. 

The white inhabitants of the District do not exceed, probably, at this 
time (1888), 15,000. There are many Creoles, Indians, and Eskimos, number- 
ing, probably 60,000. The Aleutian Islands (six of them) are peopled with a 
mixed population — hardy, industrious, and honest. 



OKLAHOMA. 

PORTION of the domain in the heart of the Indian Territory 
(which see), having been ceded to the United States, Congress 
erected it into a Territory, named Oklahoma, and on April 22d, 
1889, it was opened for settlement. On that day a large multitude of intending 
settlers, gathered on its borders the previous night, rushed into the Territory 
to secure a quarter section of land each. It was a scene of wild excitement. 
An improvised city which had grown upon the site of a government land-office 
called Guthrie, was made the capital of this Territory, with proper ofifices. 

Oklahoma is, at present, irregular in shape, which other expected cessions 
of Territory may correct. It is about the size of the States of Rhode Island 
and Delaware combined — something like 3,000,000 acres of land. It is com- 
posed of undulating plains and elevated prairies, and is watered by abundant 
streams. The climate is mild and salubrious. It is said to be well wooded. 
Three important streams traverse the Territory. The vegetation is much like 
that of Northern Texas. The only railway entering the Territory at present 
is the Atchison, Topeka and Santa F^. 



OUR NATION: 



THE STORY OF ITS 



PROGRESS AND GROWTH 



INTRODUCTION. 



OUR POSITION AMONG THE NATIONS— LESSONS TAUGHT 

IN OUR HISTORY. 

We are standing to-day like the Roman god of the gates with our faces 
turned both ways. With one we are gazing in subdued tenderness upon the 
sacred memories of the past, and stretching our hands with their wealth of 
flowers to do honor to our hero dead : with the other we turn to the hopeful 
future, and offer our arms still strong to bear its burden and brave to share 
its battles. For those who have nobly fallen in the line of duty the end has 
come, and to them the fullest praise should be given ; but for us who remain, 
the bugle only sounds the needful truce, while with reverent tread we bear our 
comrades to their resting place and strew their graves with the richest flowers 
of each returning spring. For us the respite from the conflict is but a brief 
one. The present makes its ever-increasing demands upon us, and calls for 
brave hearts with noble purpose true. 

Scarcely do the echoes of the burial note and the " volley of honor " 
die upon the air when the thrilling tones of the bugle sound " On to the 
battle!'' If we thought the truce meant a peace we were most sadly mis- 
taken, for we shall find that the contest wages still. The battle-field only has 
changed, and with it has changed the relation of the contending forces. The 
armies late arrayed against each other are divided on a different line now. 
Happily the issues of that contest are settled, but the conflict of the people 
against the enemies of popular government wages still. The recent civil war 
was but one phase of the gigantic struggle which began with our existence as 
a people, a single scene of the national drama which opened when the genius 
of liberty " rang up the curtain," and our fathers pronounced the grand old 
prelude in their immortal bill of rights, " THE DECLARATION OF INDEPEND- 
ENCE." 

The first battahons of the army have engaged in conflicts fierce and long 



348 OUR NATION: 

and they won the victory; but their triumph was not destined to give com- 
plete security to thein who came after them. The enemies of popular liberty 
have been encountered and overcome on many a hotly contested battle-field, 
but after each successive victory new allies of tyranny have as suddenly 
arisen ; new assaults have been prepared ; new tactics have been employed, and 
•still new enemies pour down upon the army of freedom. Conquering field 
•after field from their foes the patriot soldiers see the frowning hill-tops 
beyond, still black with threatening warriors pressing forward to meet them 
'on other fields — and " the end is not yet.'' 

The march of freedom's host is like that of a conquering army into a for- 
tress that has been breached. The men in the vanguard may fall by thou- 
sands. Was their fall a failure ? Nay, nay; for their bodies but helped to 
bridge the trench over which their comrades have marched to a complete 
victory. The dying exhortation of the falling heroes to those who came after 
them has been like that of noble Laivrenee, carried wounded unto death from 
the deck of his vessel, " Don't give up the ship! " Each succeeding genera- 
tion will find that " ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY," and 
this price must ever be paid by those who would retain it ! 

" This last successful experiment of self-government by the people " is 
still on trial before the ages, and the severest tests are now being applied, 
the strength of our institutions is put to its utmost tension. The cable of 
law that holds our ship of State is being stretched by two opposite forces: 
already do the strands smoke in their intense friction around the pierhead of 
the constitution. On the one side unbridled license exerts the full force of 
its diabolic strength; the love of money and of power, on the other, puts 
forth all its energyto break the bonds of lawful restraint. Human greed and 
human lust have united to bid defiance to the right, — twin monsters more 
hideous than mythology ever painted or poet ever dreamed. They have 
given birth to a whole brood of bantlings as repulsive as themselves — the 
demagogues in Society and Church and State; Communism, with its red 
hand, Ishmael-like arrayed against every man, and every man's hand arrayed 
against it; the Moloch of wealth seizing in its fiery arms the noblest children 
of our race; the Goliath of intemperance bidding defiance to the Church of 
God and the cries of Humanity; the shameless goddess. Free Love, and her 
wanton sister. Easy Divorce, who have polluted with their fetid breath the 
purest sanctuary of home; dark-robed Skepticism assuming the name of 
Human Reason, would pluck with skeleton hand the brightest star from 



INTRODUCTION. 349 

our sky and throw her own black mantle of night over the harizon that hides 
our hopes of immortaHty ; License which would bring to our land the Sunday 
of Europe and rob us of all the sacred memories which hallow " the day of 
rest ; " the corrupting and festering influences that are sapping the manhood 
of the nation; the shameless immoralities and ill-concealed dishonesties which 
so frequently startle us with their public outcroppings, are enough to sicken 
the heart and unnerve the arm of the patriot if he has not the same confi- 
dence in the God of battles that our fathers had. These are the foes with 
which we still have to contend, in their new disguises and upon their own 
well-chosen and well-fortified battle ground. 

Shall we overcome them ? In the words of the flaming orator of our 
early struggle, " I have no way of judging of the future, but by the past." 

Look back on the line of history along which this " Young Republic of 
the West " has come, and with the broad chart of ancient and modern times 
before you find a parallel to it all if you can ! But little more than a century 
has passed since thirteen isolated and dependent colonies, with no commu- 
nity of aims and no mutual bond save a common grievance in the oppression 
of the Home Government, came to agitate the question of an appeal to arms; 
and to-day, as regards moral force and material strength, they stand united 
as the first power in Christendom, Thirteen States have increased to (will 
some little boy or girl who has the latest edition of geography please to tell 
me ?) — I am unable to keep up the count, they come in so fast. We have a 
new star in our flag to-day, I believe, and the number is thirty-eight. 

In view of the facts in our remarkable history we may well say with the 
inspired Hebrew bard, " He hath not dealt so with any nation." 

Can we fathom the problems of Providence in reference to this Ameri- 
can people ? Has not Jehovah some mighty design in all this wonderful 
development ? Can we not see the plainest indications all along the highway 
of the past of the great fact which the crazy old king of Babylon acknowl- 
edged, " God doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among 
the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand?" Let us look 
back upon our history and trace, if we can, these developments of Provi- 
dence. If we can do this we will not have misspent the few moments devoted 
to-day to this exercise. 

Here was a continent lying in a wilderness state, the only inhabitants 
were the wild beasts and scarcely less wild aborigines who roamed, unre- 
strained, over its extensive plains and through its grand old forests. Here were 



350 OUR NATION: 

the same noble rivers; the same broad inland seas; the wide extended prairie- 
with its rich deposit of soil; the hidden wealth of minerals in the bowels of 
the earth ; water-power capable of carrying all the machinery of the world 
to-day; the same lofty mountains with their magnificent scenery, the grand- 
est upon which the sun ever shines, all as we behold them now, and yet for 
fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ it is an unknown world. And 
why was this ? Look at the condition of the more civilized parts of the world 
for these long centuries and you will find the answer, — the dark black night 
of a thousand years which had come over Europe, when moral, religious 
and social darkness rested on all the people so dense that scarcely a ray 
of light ever penetrated it. Man was working out the bitter problem of 
the relation of the Church to the State, in the union of temporal and spiritual 
power: and the fearful solution was well-nigh given in the loss of civil and 
religious liberty. 

Many abortive attempts were made to regain that which had been lost, 
and the flickering fires, uncertain and disconcerted, which arose ever and 
anon amid the surrounding gloom went quickly out and made the darkness 
all the more intense for their short-lived burning. These questions had an 
ample theatre in the old world ; the new was held in reserve for grander trials 
of those questions which are closely interwoven with our world-wide human- 
ity. At length the echoes of the hammer of Luther as he nailed his bold 
Theses to the church door at Wittenberg awoke the people from their sleep 
of centuries, a sleep which had cost them so much, in which the chains of an 
irksome bondage were being riven harder and harder still about them. But 
the strength of the sleeping giant was aroused and the bands were rent 
asunder. And now, when this spirit of freedom from the chains which had 
bound body and mind and heart alike, had swept across the newly awakened 
nations, and men were seeking for some asylum from the bondage, God him- 
self sent the hardy Genoan navigator in his Spanish ships to open the way 
to such a land as this. And he did it. 

When " the fullness of times " had come He sent the right people to colo- 
nize the land. The stern unyielding Puritan with hardy hand and living faith 
He sent to Plymouth; the Dutchman with his love for " Faderland " to Man- 
hattan ; the Quaker with charitable heart and uncompromising integrity to 
build up the City of Brotherly Love ; the fervent, zealous Catholic to the 
shores of the Chesapeake ; the vanguard of all, led by the boldest of pioneers, 
to Jamestown; the Huguenots of sunny France to the no less sunny clime of 



INTRODUCTION. 351 

Georgia and the Carolinas. And these were they who laid the foundation of 
the civil government we now enjoy. Do we not see the plainest indications 
that right here, in this new world upon whose eastern shores these feeble 
colonies were planted, there were questions to be solved which were to affect 
all the race ? The variety of creed and nationality which characterized the 
pioneers was an arrangement of Providence to hold each in check, and thus 
prepare for the coming struggle which so soon was to be theirs. The seeds 
were planted, but it would take years of storm and sunshine, of tempest and 
calm, of anxious watching and bitterest disappointment, before that seed 
would germinate and develop into a full-grown tree beneath whose shadow 
the nations of the earth might rest. This period which preceded the revolu- 
tion is ricli in indications of manifest providences. All the wars M'ith the 
Indians, with the French, and the wilderness, too, were but as a training- 
school for the contest which they were to have. All this was but the forma- 
tive, concentrative period which was to try their young strength and develop 
it to maturity. 

Like the infant Hercules crawling from his cradle to throttle the twin 
serpents one in either hand did these young colonies contend with difficulties 
which might well appal the stoutest heart, and they overcame them. The 
savage climate and the more savage aborigines had well-nigh annihilated the 
little band. But still they stood by the daring enterprise which seemed so 
perilous. A race of warriors was thus reared hardy of muscle and quick of 
sight, with indomitable courage and perseverance such as was soon to try 
the mettle of the well-trained soldiers of the Mother Country. The conflict 
came. Statesmen and generals and patriot soldiers were not wanting for the 
conflict. 

The night was long and dark and almost starless, but still they watched 
with unequaled patience for the coming morning. Seven weary years of war 
with all its sad experiences of want and misery, of sacrifice and blood, came 
upon them. Then it was that these noble men needed such trust in God as 
the Puritan had instilled into his faith ; such indomitable perseverance as the 
Germanic element infused with the burning zeal of the Catholic, and the ini- 
mitable patience of the Huguenot under affliction. And that there was a 
wise design in this protracted war is seen in the fact that the colonies were 
thus knit together as never before by a community of sacrifice and suffering 
in the same cause, and so the bond which was to hold them in sympathy was 
more and more firmly cemented. At length the glorious dawn was ushered 



352 OUR NATION: 

in; faint and uncertain at first, like the earliest break of day, but surely com- 
ing, till soon the sun of liberty rises full and clear on this western land. 
Clouds, dark and portentous, may cross his track and hide him from our 
view, but never again will he set till all the world has felt the warmth which 
comes from his beams. 

Now follows the formative period, when there needed men of wise heads 
and honest hearts to lay the foundations of government upon an unyielding 
basis. That these men who gave us such a document as "The Constitution 
of the United States " were eminently fitted for such a task is amply proven 
by the experimental workings of this Magna Charta of human rights for more 
than a century. 

Wisdom and patriotism in a very marked degree were the character- 
istics of the National Congress in the early days of our history. It was 
most eminently fitting that George Washington, who had commanded the 
army during the war of the Revolution, should be the chosen one to inaugu- 
rate the new government. No other man in all history had so united in him- 
self every characteristic of nature's nobleman as he. Right worthy the trust 
confided to him by a grateful people, he displayed to the wondering govern- 
ments of Europe an example unequaled by anything which had preceded it. 
They sneeringly had asked the question : Can the American people establish 
a republic after a protracted war, arousing, as war was prone to do, an ambi- 
tion for power in the breast of the successful chieftain? The farewell address 
of George Washington to his countrymen, an immortal production, is the 
unhesitating answer to their questioning. 

Now succeeds another period of development unparalleled in all that the 
world had before seen. The government had demonstrated its adaptation 
to the wants of the mai^ses; it had shown its power to suppress domestic tur- 
moil, and now the country is at peace. The pursuits of agriculture, of man- 
ufactures and of commerce receive the attention of the people. Wealth and 
commercial influence very rapidly increase, while throughout all the land 
there are being built up the monuments of intelligence and industry. The 
liberal arts and sciences, these problems which touch the vital interest of such 
a government as ours, receive ample attention. Our prosperity at |^home is 
not equaled by our national standing abroad. 

Two of the chief powers of Europe were at war, and while we remain 
strictly neutral they each trample upon our rights as a nation. The one 
takes from our ships of war, by a pretende-d right of search, men to fill her 



INTRODUCTION. 353 

own depleted navy, and they both in turn, by their unrighteous embargoes, 
unite to cripple our young commerce. France recedes from her position and 
makes restitution ; but the Mother Land, who has ever behaved in a very 
step-motherly way toward her vigorous child, is compelled to yield only by 
force of arms. In this war, disastrous to both countries, we were enabled to' 
assert our national dignity, and to command the respect of other nationali- 
ties. That this war was needful is clearly seen by the marked increase of our 
commercial interests and the respect paid to our flag by all other powers; a 
result which immediately followed. And, again, through a period of years 
the development of our country keeps pace with the loftiest imagination. 
State after State takes its place beside its fellow in the Union. Territory is 
acquired by peaceful purchase from France (of Louisiana) and from Spain (of 
Florida). Texas gravitates to us by the fortunes of war, and the golden 
land, with Arizona and New Mexico, are wrested from a sister republic by 
the force of arms and by purchase. 

The strong arm of the nation has proved its power in subduing the 
Indians and bringing the insubordinate citizens to bow to rightful authority. 
The republic has, by the providence of God, taken a foremost place among 
the powers of the world, and with an enlightenment and liberalism unknown 
before has spread her broad arms to the nations and welcomed the oppressed 
of every clime and race to her "asylum of thefree." 

Freedom, civil and religious, was proclaimed, in theory, at least, through 
all the land. And thus, as we have hastily sketched, a nation of patriots had 
conquered their independence and had laid the foundation of the best gov- 
ernment the world has ever seen. They had developed into a powerful 
people, prosperous at home and respected abroad. This prosperity they had 
earned .by their industry; this respect they had won by their swords from 
unwilling lips. For, while the bitterest hatred of old dynasties in the Eastern 
World still lay smouldering, ill-concealed beneath their pretended friendliness, 
they only dared to flatter the rising power they so intensely hated. All the 
peoples of the Old World were looking on in amazement to see this experi- 
ment of popular government prove so successful as it did. Sister republics 
sprang up in the New World modeled upon our Constitution. The trembling 
monarchies of Europe felt the moral force of such a fact in history as " the 
United States of America" came to be, and they all desired our destruction 
while they feared the power of our example, for the masses in every country 
where a general intelligence prevailed had caught the spirit of liberty borne 



354 OUR NATION: 

to them on every Western wind, and should the fact be estabhshed beyond 
question that the entire people were capable of self-government they would 
be most likely to follow the example thus set them. This caused the mon- 
archs of Europe to wear uneasy crowns as they sat upon their tottering 
thrones. And they said, "A violent internal commotion will rend this coun- 
try asunder, and its disrupted States will form rival independencies, and thus 
the power which we fear will ere long overshadow us will be destroyed." 
This they said and this they sincerely hoped. There seemed to be the pros- 
pect of a speedy realization of their fond anticipations, for there had been 
one dark spot upon our otherwise fair escutcheon. It stood out bold and 
black and repulsive, and made us a by-word to the nations. It was this: 
While we proclaimed universal liberty in our immortal Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, there was at the same time within our own borders a race of serfs 
cut off from all these inalienable rights which we had demanded for every 
man. 

How to deal with this forbidding question, which we had inherited from 
the mother country, was a perplexing one to our wisest and best statesmen. 
Good men of all shades of political opinion could not fail to see the fearful 
cloud, small and inauspicious at first, but spreading wider and wider still was 
threatening our destruction. The contest must come sooner or later. Polit- 
ical extremists in either section of the country hastened it to its final issue. 
An appeal to arms, rash as it was wicked, was made. The flag of our com- 
mon country was insulted and disgraced, the authority of the government 
despised and its rightful allegiance set aside. Nothing in all the world would 
give more satisfaction to the enemies of civil liberty in the Eastern continent 
than to see the rebellion prove a success. And so they threw the whole force 
of their sympathy and moral aid, under cover of a pretended neutrality, on 
the side of those who sought to overthrow the government. In this they 
were disappointed. The unrighteous appeal to arms was most disastrous to 
those who made it. The authority of the government was asserted by the 
overthrow of the armed rebellion. The strength of the citizen soldiery which 
the nation could call into the field was appalling to other nationalities. More 
than two millions of names were borne upon the muster rolls of the United 
States army, a greater force than Napoleon could command in the height of 
his power. The grand review of the army at the close of the war w^as a spec- 
tacle unequaled in history. One hundred and eighty thousand strong, they 
marched past the President and the generals of the army, and that, too, when 



INTRODUCTION. 355 

many thousands of soldiers equally brave, were scattered throughout the 
South. Never before had the world seen such a sight. But these men were 
ready to stack their arms, park their artillery, and return to the avocations 
of peace. In an incredibly short time they were disbanded ; and to-day you 
will find them in the workshops, the fields, the stores, and all the marts of 
trade throughout our land, from its one extreme to the other. 

Those questions which were left to be solved as the outgrowth of the 
war are too new and too recent for us to discuss them without bias by our 
former opinions. That ultimately they will be wrought out to a successful 
issue is the hope, yes, the settled belief of every man who recognizes the 
truth that " God ruleth among the nations of the earth," and " he maketh 
even the wrath of man to praise him." Is there no design of Providence in 
all this wonderful history of the past and aspect of the present ? This free 
land, extending from sea to sea, with no abutting nation upon either frontier, 
capable of sustaining hundreds of millions of inhabitants, offers now a home 
to the oppressed of the world; and they are hastening to its shores, spreading 
over its wide extent, and peopling its towns and villages. The Celtic and 
Teutonic, the Anglo-Saxon and his Germanic cousin, the Scandinavian of 
Northern Europe and the child of sunny France and Italy. The Asiatic and 
the African are beneath a common flag to-day. The teeming population of 
Europe and Asia came of their own accord, the one part across the ocean 
which laves Our Eastern shores, and the other wafted by the softer gales 
of the Pacific to the golden shores of the west. And now they iind an equal 
home as they strike glad hands across our free America. 

The dusky sons of Africa are here as well. They came, it is true, as 
Joseph came to the land of Egypt, " whose feet they hurt with fetters." But, 
thank God, those fetters are stricken off to-day. Here there is ample protec- 
tion for all religions alike, the true and the false. The Protestant and the 
Catholic, the Mohammedan and Pagan, the Jew and the Christian of every 
name are on an equal footing before the law. The only conflict there is 
between them is the conflict of argument and ideas, and with a general diffu- 
sion of intelligence among the people the true religion has nothing to fear in 
the unequal contest with the false. If America in the future will keep her 
ballot-box pure and her people rightly educated she need fear nothing that 
that future has in store for her. 

The great duty of America to-day is to civilize, to educate and to chris- 
tianize her people. The first of these results will follow from the other two 



356 ' OUR NATION: 

united. God has sent the world to our feet for us to enHghten, to instruct, 
and to convert to him. When the great question came to the church of 
Christ, "How shall we bring all men to a knowledge of the truth? How 
shall we send the light of a pure religion to all the world ? " God himself 
answered it by sending the nations to us. Here they are to-day, and we 
must christianize them or they will paganize us. The Church can do her 
great part in this work so long as the strong arm of the Government protects 
the freedom of speech and disseminates the light of intelligence to the masses. 
These, then, are the bold questions which affect this common humanity of 
ours, and which America is working out for the world to-day: freedom of 
person and conscience; universal equality and the brotherhood of the race; 
the civilization and redemption of all men. If she be true to her trust the 
grandest place in history awaits her, but if she prove false, she will find 
written on the walls of her proudest palaces by the finger of Deity, " Thou 
art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is given to 
another," which, may heaven forbid! 

Let us prize, as we should, the blessed inheritance which has come down 
to us from the past. Let us remember that the blood of three generations 
cements the bond which binds this union with its indissoluble chain. The 
altar of our liberty has been baptized with the richest and the noblest blood 
which ever flowed in human veins. 

The patriots of 1776, of 1812, and of 1861 have vied with each other in 
sacrifices for a common country, and poured out their blood like water to 
enrich the soil from which has sprung this tree of liberty. Long may it 
flourish, striking its roots deeper and deeper still into the earth ; higher yet 
may it lift its towering top into the heavens as its branches, outstretching far 
and wide, throw their protection over all the land alike. Nor storms, nor 
tempests' fiercest power can now tear up the giant oak. If e'er it shall decay,, 
the worm which feeds upon its life will be the cause. But may God forbid. 

Let us, then, swear renewed fidelity to our institutions, to the Constitu- 
tion and the laws of our united land. And with that stern old patriot, 
Andrew Jackson, answer back to the world, " The Union must and shall be 
preserved." 



Qtir Sation: 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 



The earliest settlement that remained permanent in the United States 
was at Jamestown, Virginia. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was at one time a 
great favorite of Elizabeth, the Queen of England, was very much interested 
in making a settlement in America, and expended a vast amount of money to 
forward his plans. But his colonies always failed for some cause or another. 
Sometimes the colonists would return in disgust at the hardships which they 
had to endure. A part of one colony was murdered by the Indians, and 
when help came nothing but ruins could be found; and one colony was lost, 
and its fate is unknown to this day. At last, in 1606, a grant was given b)^ 
the king to a company who would colonize any part of America claimed by 
the English and trade with the natives. Under this grant, a company of one 
hundred and five men set out for Virginia in three vessels. One-half of this 
number were " gentlemen " of broken fortunes; some were trades-people, and 
some were servants. There was not a farmer and only a few mechanics 
among them. There was one man in this band who was a born hero and 
leader, — John Smith. They came to the James River and laid the foundation 
of a settlement, which they named Jamestown, in honor of the king. Here 
were planted the seeds of the first settlement that took root and flourished. 
The colonists, unaccustomed to toil, erected rude homes in the wilderness 
and planted a little. When the summer came they w^ere attacked by sickness, 
and about one-half of them died from disease and starvation ; but winter 
brought them better climate and abundant supplies of game and fish. Smith 
set out to explore the country, and was captured by the Indians. After 
puzzling them for a time with the mysteries of the pocket compass and the 
art of writing, he was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the young daughter 
of the Indian chief, Powhatan, who had decided to kill him.. When Smith. 



358 OUR NATION: 

returned from his captivity with the savages, he found his colony on the very 
point of breaking up. Only thirty-eight were living, and these were making 
preparations to leave. But the return of their leader inspired them with new 
hope, and they resumed their work. New colonists joined them from Eng- 
land, but they were of a class known as " vagabond gentlemen, who had 
packed off to escape worse destinies at home." The reputation of the colony 
was so bad, that we are told that some, rather than come to Virginia, " chose 
to be hung, and zverc^ These were the undesirable subjects whom Smith 
was obliged to rule with an authority that none dared to question. But un- 
fortunately for the colony. Smith was obliged to return to England to pro- 
cure surgical treatment for an injury caused by an accidental discharge of 
gunpowder. In six months the colony was again reduced to sixty men, and 
were making ready to depart, when Lord De la Warr, their new governor, 
•came and prevented them. Once more the settlement was saved on the very 
verge of dissolution. 

Years of quiet growth followed, and a better class of emigrants came. 
'There was a great demand for tobacco, — a new plant unknown to Europe 
until Sir Walter Raleigh introduced it into England ; — and the colonists 
found it growing in Virginia, and learned its cultivation from the natives. It 
was in extensive use among the Indians, and was regarded as a medicine. 
The use of this plant spread in England very rapidly, and created a demand 
for its supply, and the Virginians found it a most profitable crop to cultivate. 

In the absence of money, tobacco became a medium of exchange among 
the colonists. Salaries of officers and ministers, fines in churches and State, 
were paid with it. In a few years after the first settlements, a representative 
government was established. They had a House of Burgesses composed of 
twenty-two members, who were chosen by the people, with a governor sent 
■out from England. The Anglican church was recognized as the State church, 
and the colony was divided into parishes. A college was founded, and the 
Indians were friendly. The first European child born in this region of 
America was the daughter of one of Raleigh's colonists, named Dare, and she 
was baptized by the name of Virginia Dare. Pocahontas, wlio married a 
young Englishman named Rolfe, went to England with her husband, where 
she was kindly received by the queen, and made the recipient of many favors. 
She died at Gravesend, March, 1617, just as she was about to return to 
America with her husband. She left an infant son, from whom some of the 
:best known families of Virginia are descended. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 359 

THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

A LITTLE more than two centuries ago, the part of the United States 

• called New England was one vast forest, with here and there a little clearing 
where a few Indian families made their temporary home, and raised their 
scanty supply of corn. But it was destined to become the abode of a hardy 
and devout people, who by their industry and frugality were to lay the basis 
of a mighty nation upon the broad foundation-stones of civil and religious 
liberty. 

A noble band of men in England who were denied the liberty of worship 
which they desired in their own land, resolved to escape to Holland to find 
the freedom denied by their own countrymen. Rev. John Robinson, a wise 
and good man, had been their minister, and after straggling bands of Puritans, 

• as they were called, reached Holland, their pastor joined them. They re- 
mained here eleven years receiving additions, from time to time, from those 
who were anxious to be free from religious oppression. Then it was decided 
to establish a settlement in America where they could be free to worship 
God. 

Enough money was raised to equip and send over one hundred of their 
number to the New World. Two ships were chartered to take them across 
the stormy Atlantic. On a morning in July this vanguard of freedom, gath- 
ered at Delft Haven, on the river Maese, to listen to the prayers of their 
pastor, and receive his parting blessing. One of the vessels proved unsea- 
worthy. Another, the Mayflower, of one hundred and eighty tons burden, bore 
one hundred and two of them safely to America. 

After repeated delays, the Mayflower set sail in the early part of Sep- 
tember, 1620, and after a long and stormy voyage, dropped her anchor in the 
waters of Cape Cod Bayou the nth of November of the same year. It was a 
cold and barren coast which met their view, with low sand hills almost devoid 
of any vegetation, with some low dwarf trees. 

The Pilgrims went out to explore, and finally chose a spot wliere they 
•decided to found their colony. They landed on the nth of December upon 
Plymouth rock, and began the Colony which they called by the name of the 
city in England which they had left. Here they were in an unknown wilder- 
ness, the winter upon them, with scant supplies and no shelter. But they 
worked manfully to build their little town, sadly hindered by the severe cold 
•and the death .of their comrades, who fell around them. They erected nine- 



36o OUR NATION: 

teen houses, surrounded them with a palisade, and then on the hill they 
erected a building which served the double purpose of a fort and a church. 
The severe winter passed, and when the spring came their numbers had been 
sadly reduced by death; but soon the health and spirits of the survivors 
began to improve. 

The little band had signed a civil compact in the cabin of the Mayflower 
before they landed, in which they formed themselves into a government, and 
chose John Carver as their governor. They acknowledged King James as 
their sovereign, but were emphatically a self-governing commonwealth. 
They had known enough of the despotism of Kings, and were quite sure that 
democracy could not be any worse, and they had faith to try the experiment. 

From this small beginning came the establishment of political and relig- 
ious liberty in America. 

For some years, the dif^culties which beset the infant colonists were well- 
nigh insurmountable, but their faith failed not, and after a time prosperity 
came to them. Each summer new additions were made to their number, of 
men and women who had caught the spirit of religious freedom, and sought 
to find here an asylum from the tyrannies to w^hich they were subject in their 
old homes. Thus New England became the place of refuge to many of the 
wearied victims of persecution, and seemed a paradise to those who were 
denied the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. 

The men were stout of heart and patient in toil, and their industry and 
labor brought them comfort. They were simple in manners and plain in 
dress ; their wants were few and these were supplied by the harvests of the 
autumn, by their success in hunting and fishing and by the flocks they raised. 
The women carded, spun and wove the wool. The men felled the forests and 
built houses and vessels, erected cities and formed new towns in the woods.. 
The ships they built crossed the ocean and carried their freights of timber, 
fish and furs. Commerce sprung up and prosperity smiled upon the settlers.. 
They early made friends with the Indians; and one of the most pleasant 
episodes in the early days of the Colony was the visit and friendly aid of 
Massasoit, a Sachem who lived at Svvanscy, now Warren, Rhode Island. 

He came with his brother and sixty warriors to the liLlle settlement in 
March, 162 1, the spring which followed the first severe winter in the new 
world. He made a ]e;jguc of friendship with the English, and for fufty years 
was their staunch friend and protector, never failing them in all their dangers- 
and hardships. His influence saved the little band from destruction by the- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 361 

Narragansets. Two years after his visit the old chief was taken very sick, 
and would have died if the governor had not sent him Mr. Winslow, who used 
simple remedies which effected a cure; and in his great joy and gratitude he 
said, " Now I see that the English are my friends and love me, and while I 
live I will never forget the kindness they have shown me." The kindness of 
this Indian was of great value to the Colony as long as he lived, and he was 
highly respected by them. 

The Colonists of New England paid great attention to the subject of 
education, believing that it was of vital importance to the preservation of the 
State and Church. In a few years schools began to appear, and a law was 
passed that every town of fifty freeholders should maintain a common school, 
and every town of one hundred must sustain a grammar school. Some 
tolerably qualified brother was chosen and " entreated to become school- 
master." Harvard College was established within s-ixteen years after the 
Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth. 

Twenty-three years after the landing, there were twenty-four thousand 
white people in New England. There were forty-nine towns, and four 
Colonies, namely, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven. 
There seemed at first a desire to scatter widely, push out into the wilderness, 
form new settlements, and set up self-government, each for itself. But this 
separation could not long exist, for there were other human beings in the 
wilderness beside the white settlers, and these had a prior claim there. 
Within calling distance there were Indians enough when aroused and com- 
bined to drive out all the colonists. And beyond the frontiers were French 
and Dutch settlements. So it came to pass that the four Colonies were 
forced to form themselves for mutual protection and encouragement, into a 
band called "The United Colonies of New England." This was the first 
confederation in a land which was destined afterwards to establish this form 
of government on a scale the world had never seen before. Nor was this 
done any too soon, for there were troublous times to come, and these earnest. 
God-fearing men found that they would need all the strength which a united 
assistance and a common bond would bring. 

Massasoit was dead, and all the efforts of the English to Christianize and 
civilize the natives had produced but little effect. 



362 OUR NATION: 

THE INDIAN WAR. 

The great Indian Apostle, Rev. John Eliot, was the pastor of the church 
at Roxbury near Boston. He was moved by pity to carry the Gospel to the 
tribes around him, and for this purpose he learned their language, and trans- 
lated the Bible by means of an alphabet of his own. He preached to them 
in their own tongue, and many became converts. He even ^attempted to 
establish a college for the Indian youth, but was obliged to abandon this 
undertaking on account of their natural love of idleness and strong drink. 
They would not work. They could indeed be taught to rest on the Sabbath, 
but they would not labor on the other six days. This was a great cause of 
hindrance, but in spite of the general discouragement, there were many noble 
exceptions, and the hold which Christianity took upon those who accepted it 
was never wiiolly lost. In the Indian wars which arose, the converts were 
never found fighting against the English, but usually united in aiding them. 

At length came the short but bitter war with King Philip, the younger son 
of the old chief, Massasoit, the friend of the colonies. Even his enemies will, 
acknowledge that this savage chief was a hero. The noble old Sachem, whc 
had been faithful to his early friendship with the English, had two sons, whorn 
Governor Winslow had named Alexander and Philip. Alexander had suc- 
ceeded his father, but had died, and Philip had become chief and Sachem.. 
He was noble-hearted, patriotic, and filled with good sense. He w^as a states- 
man as well as a warrior, and at first was friendly to the settlers. But he saw 
that the whites Avere crowding year by year upon his domain ; still he kept 
the treaties which his father had made, and even submitted to grave insults 
from the white men. There came a time when he could endure this no 
longer, and he arose in war against them. The war spread throughout New 
England, and the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts united to meet 
them. In a week the Indian chief was driven out of his beautiful home on 
Mount Hope, Rhode Island, and went a fugitive to other tribes, arousing 
them to vengeance. The whites thought the war was over, but it had just 
begun. The powerful tribes of the Narragansets joined in the war. The 
Indians avoided the white troops, and carried on the warfare, after their 
savage fashion, by plundering towns and villages,, and killing defenseless 
women and children. Whole villages were wiped out, and no one could feel 
safe. The fields, the homes, the churches, the very beds of the poor colonists 
were liable to be attacked without warning, and a general massacre of all was 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 36^ 

threatened. Out of one hundred towns twelve were entirely destroyed, and 
more than forty others were more or less plundered. Josiah Winslow, 
General-in-chief of the united colonies, with a brave band of settlers, captured 
the principal fort of the Narragansets, which stood where South Kingston, 
Rhode Island, now is, and destroyed it. Their chief, Canonchet, was soon 
afterwards taken, and offered his life if he would submit ; but he proudly 
refused. When he was condemned to death, he said, " I like it well ; I shall 
die before I speak anything unworthy of myself." 

The close of 1676 brought an end to the war; King Philip saw that he 
could not prevent the other tribes from making peace, and the most of his 
own warriors had fallen. When he heard that his wife and child had been 
taken by the English, he exclaimed in his anguish, " My heart breaks; now I 
am ready to die." 

He was shot in a swamp by a traitor Indian, and his body was given to> 
Captain Church, the famous Indian fighter and commander of a party pursu- 
ing Philip and his warriors. According to custom, the head of Philip was, 
severed from his body, and carried on a pole to Plymouth, where it was set 
up in sight of the people for a number of days. The body was quartered and 
hung on trees. In this way did the New England colonists retaliate upon 
the Indian warrior and statesman, who labored and fought for the rights of 
his tribe. There were now scarcely one hundred of the Narragansets left,, 
and Philip's son, who, with his mother, had been made a prisoner before his. 
father's death, the sole survivor of the family of Massasoit, was carried to 
Bermuda and sold into slavery. 

Annawon was the next in command over the Indian forces after the 
death of Philip, and the same captain, Benjamin Church, who had taken the 
head of the king to Plymouth, was sent to capture him. Church became 
separated from his company, and had only one white man and five friendly 
Indians when he heard where Annawon and his band of fifty warriors were 
encamped. These men succeeded in surprising the chief, and taking him a 
captive to Boston, where he was put to death by the English, after he had 
surrendered all the royal emblems of Philip. The white people had no ex- 
cuse for this act of wanton cruelty. 



364 OUR NATION: 

SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK. 

Hendrick Hudson, an explorer in the employ of the Dutch, had dis- 
covered and sailed up the river which bears his name, in the year 1609. 
Three or four years after the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, the Dutch 
West India Company resolved to establish a trading post with the Indians, 
They sent out a settlement in 1623, which located on Manhattan island at the 
mouth of the (present) Hudson River, and built a town which was afterwards 
called New Amsterdam. They prospered until they became involved in war 
with the Indians, when, at times, the colony appeared on the brink of ruin. 
They built a wooden wall or palisade across the island where Wall Street is now 
situated. The war came to an end, and for eighteen years afterwards there 
was a time of peace and prosperity under the government of a wise and 
sagacious man, Peter Stuyvesant. While his government was not faultless, 
the province flourished under it, and a continued flow of emigration came in 
from Europe. In the year 1664, an English fleet appeared in the harbor to 
demand the territory in the name of their sovereign. Charles II. had given 
his brother, James, Duke of York, the whole of the territory of New Nether- 
lands embracing New Jersey. 

Stuyvesant was willing to fight the invaders, but the English settlers 
Avould not fight against their king, and the Dutch, who remembered some of 
the petty tyrannies of their governor, would not join him. At length he 
yielded to the entreaties of two ministers and many of the people, and the 
city of fifteen hundred inhabitants quietly passed into the hands of the 
English, when its name was changed to New York. With this city the 
Dutch also gave up their settlements in New Jersey, including those made 
by the Swedes, which they had absorbed, and so the English had possession 
of the Atlantic roast from Massachusetts Bay to Georgia. 

THE LAND OF PENN. 

William Penn, the son of an English admiral, who had won many 
noted victories for the Crown, became a Quaker, to the disappointment of his 
friends, just at the time when a brilliant future was spread out before him. 
At first the father was furious and turned his son out of doors, hoping that 
hunger would soon cause him to recant ; but the admiral finally relented and 
restored him to favor. When his father died, soon after the reconciliation, 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 365 

young Penn inherited his possessions, and among the rest a claim for $80,000 
due the admiral from the king. Penn, who had formed in his mind a design 
to establish a settlement in America for the persecuted members of his own 
sect, offered to take payment of the king in land ; and Charles was ready 
enough to bestow upon his subject a vast region stretching westward from 
the Delaware River. Penn then came to America with the noble purpose of 
founding a free and self-governing State, where, as he said, he could show 
men as free and " as happy as they can be." He proclaimed to the men who 
were already settled within his territory, " Whatever sober and free men can 
reasonably desire, I will comply with." He was true to his word; and when 
in 1683, he met representatives of the settlers, in an Assembly, he gave to the 
people a "Charter of Liberties," signed and sealed by his own hand. He 
had also dealt honorably and kindly with the Indians, and bought their lands 
of them, and in return they respected and loved him. The conference with 
the natives was held under a large elm which stood in the forest where Phila- 
delphia now is, and a monument marked the spot for fully two centuries. 
All was to be " openness and love," and " no advantage was to be taken on 
either side." For long years the Indians recounted the words of Penn; and 
the blood of a Quaker was never shed by an Indian on the soil of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

The fame of Penn's new State went abroad to all lands, and it grew very 
rapidly with grave and God-fearing men, who came from all parts of Europe. 
During the first year, two thousand persons arrived, and Philadelphia became 
a town of six hundred houses. A few years later Penn returned to England, 
and reported that "things went on sweetly with the Friends in Pennsylvania; 
that they increased finely, in outward things and in wisdom." 

The settlement of Pennsylvania was founded in 1682. 

SETTLEMENTS IN THE OTHER COLONIES. 

The thirteen original States were Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut,, 
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, 
New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

Connecticut was settled by men and women from Massachusetts, in two 
colonies. One came through the wilderness and settled at Windsor above 
Hartford; the other came by water and settled at New Hav^en. 

Rhode Island was settled by Roger Williams, a minister of Salem, who, 



366 OUR NATION: 

by his outspoken opinions about " soul liberty " had offended clergy and 
magistrates. He declared that the State had to do only with the " bodies 
and goods and outward estates " of men. In the domain of conscience God 
alone was the ruler. He was banished and went to the wilderness, where he 
obtained a grant of land from the Indians and laid the foundation of the 
State of Rhode Island. He founded the city of Providence and proclaimed 
that his settlement was to become a " shelter for persons distressed for con- 
science sake." And so has it ever been. 

New Hampshire was settled by colonists from Massachusetts, of which it 
was a part from 1641 to 1679. 

Delaware was so named in honor of Lord De la Warr, who came to Vir- 
ginia as governor, in 161 1, and gave great relief to the settlers at Jamestown, 
who were about to abandon it. It was first settled by Swedes, in 1637, but 
passed into the hands of the Dutch, in 1655. Penn afterward obtained pos- 
session of it, when it was annexed to Pennsylvania. It was returned to its 
former condition of a separate colony, in 1703. 

Maryland was first the recipient of intended settlers in 1731, by a band 
of adventurers from Virginia under William Clayborne. In 1632, Lord Balti- 
more received a charter from the King, making it a distinct province, when it 
was named " Maryland " in honor of the Queen. 

New Jersey was first settled by the Dutch, in 1620, and by the Swedes 
and Danes in 1637. It afterwards passed into the hands of the English, 
when they took possession of New Netherland (New York) in 1664. 

North Carolina was permanently settled under a grant from King Charles 
II., in 1663. John Locke, the metaphysician, and the Earl of Shaftesbury, 
prepared a " fundamental Constitution for the two Carolina colonies," aristo- 
cratic in every feature, but it was never accepted by the American settlers, 
and after many years it was abandoned. 

South Carolina received its first well-defined settlement in 1670, when Sir 
William Sayle and a company of adventurers, under a charter from Charles 
II., planted a colony on the shores of Port Royal Sound. In 1680, English 
families settled at; Oyster Point, where they founded the city of Charleston. 

Georgia was the latest of the colonies that formed the original Union, 
and the farthest south of any of the English possessions in America during 
the time of colonial history. It was settled in 1733, when General Oglethorpe 
founded the city of Savannah. He obtained a charter from George II. of 
all the land between the Savannah River and the Altamaha, extending west- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 367 

ward to the Pacific Ocean. It was designed chiefly as an asylum for bettering 
the condition of English prisoners for debt, and for a refuge from persecution 
of Protestants in Germany and elsewhere. Parliament appropriated $i6o,ooa 
for the enterprise. In 1733, General Oglethorpe, at the head of 120 emi- 
grants, planted the seeds of a colony on the site of the city of Savannah. 
The next year a hundred Germans came and were assigned a place, which 
they in gratitude named Ebenezer. They were steady and industrious, and 
some of them eagerly applied themselves to the raising of silk and indigo.. 
The fame of the colony spread through Europe and attracted large numbers.. 
Thus was planted on the eastern shore of the continent a chain of English 
colonies like a vanguard, which was in time to conquer the wilderness and fill 
the land with busy towns and thriving villages. The hum of machinery was 
to be heard along its water-courses. Its hills were to resound to the whistle 
of the shop and locomotive. The wharves of its cities were to be crowded 
with commerce from all parts of the world, and a stream of emigration was 
to pour in from all the crowded nations of the East, and an empire would be 
erected upon the foundation which these feeble colonies were laying. Each 
distinct, with no common bond but the slight allegiance to a distant sover- 
eign, they were to become united in one mighty compact, and together give 
the world its highest example of a free government of the people and for the 
people. These earnest men builded better than they knew, and shaped the 
destinies of the unborn millions who should come after them. 

THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

After the establishment of the colonies which stretched along the Atlan- 
tic coast from the Penobscot to the Altamaha, and owned allegiance to the 
English king, there came a period of formation and growth in which they 
developed their natural resources and established their commerce, built col- 
leges and seminaries, and grew in all things which increased their prosperity 
and strength. The Indian tribes were subdued, the forests were cleared and 
cities and towns sprang up as if by magic. Manufactories were built and 
agriculture was flourishing. The colonies were left alone by the home gov- 
ernment and allowed to direct their own affairs. In some cases a governor 
was sent from England to rule the colony, but the laws were enacted by 
representatives chosen by the people. In others the people had the right to 
elect their own governors. They regulated their own commerce and inter- 



368 OUR NATION: 

nal trade and directed their own taxation and system of religion and edu- 
cation. 

We will take a hasty glance at the condition of each colony during this 
period. 

In New England we will find some things that may surprise us. The 
early settlers had been a religious, sensible people, but when they left Europe 
there was a universal belief in witchcraft. King James had written a strange 
book on Demonology, in which he said that to forbear to put witches to 
death was an " odious treason against God," and the people were no wiser 
than their king. 

The superstition spread to America, or was brought thither by the ship- 
loads of emigrants who were flocking over the sea to find a home here. All 
at once it burst out like a fearful scourge in the little town of Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, now a fine city. 

There was here a minister by the name of Parris. The daughter and the 
niece of this clergyman fell ill of a strange nervous disorder. The doctors 
claimed that they were bewitched, and the minister set out at once to find out 
who were the offenders. Three old women were suspected, and taken into 
custody. From this the mania spread, and every one became alarmed and 
suspicious. No one was safe. Witches were supposed to ride in the air at 
night. Even the beasts were not safe; and once a dog was solemnly con- 
demned to death for taking some part in a satanic festival. 

The prisons were filled with the accused, and a score of persons were 
put to death. The town of Falmouth hanged its minister; and the wise and 
intelligent were no more secure than the low and ignorant. The wild panic 
lasted for more than six months. Those who confessed that they were wiz- 
ards or witches were set free for the most part, while those w^ho denied it 
were judged guilty and punished. Many refused to buy their life by false- 
hood and miserably perished. The delusion spread wide like a forest fire, 
until the whole colony was filled with terror. But the reaction came as 
suddenly as the outbreak of the mania. The Governor put an end to the 
persecution, stopped the prosecutions, dismissed all the suspected, and par- 
doned the condemned; and the General Court proclaimed a fast. They en- 
treated that God would pardon the errors of the people " in the late tragedy 
caused by Satan and his instruments." One of tlie judges with bowed head 
stood in his pew in a church in Boston while a paper was read asking the 
prayers of the congregation, that the innocent blood which he had shed in 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 369 

error might not be laid to him or the country. The Salem jury asked for- 
giveness of God and of the community for what they had done under the 
power of a strong and general delusion. Reverend Mr. Parris was obliged to 
resign his church and leave the town a broken man. The error of New Eng- 
land had been great and lamentable, but her repentance was deep and sincere. 
Strange as was this widespread delusion, there is another chapter in colonial 
history none the less strange. The very men who had come across the ocean 
to find religious liberty, in their turn became persecutors and bigots. They 
had discovered that the. restraints laid upon them for conscience' sake were 
unjust and grievous, and while they claimed toleration for themselves they 
had not learned that others had as good a right to think for themselves. 

After enjoying a few years of religious liberty there began to arise strange 
doctrines, which they thought it their duty to put down at all hazards. Roger 
Williams, a young clergyman — " godly and zealous" — landed in Boston in 
163 1, with strange notions which he had brought with him. He had been 
the friend of John Milton and taught him the Dutch language. Long and 
serious study had convinced him that in regard to creed and form of worship, 
man was alone responsible to his Creator, and no one is entitled to la}' com- 
pulsion upon another man in reference to his religious opinions. 

The colonists were not ready to receive these opinions, although Williams 
was settled as a pastor over the church in Salem, where he was held in high 
esteem. But his bold preaching drew down upon him the wrath of the 
authorities, and, deserted by most of his church, he was banished and escaped 
to the wilderness of Rhode Island where he established a colony for perfect 
religious toleration, as we have observed. 

Williams had a forgiving spirit and twice saved the Puritan colonies 
from their enemies. But they continued to persecute the Baptists, and when 
the Quakers came to Boston the General Court proclaimed a fast, and cast 
them into prison. Their books were burned by the common hangman, and 
shipmasters were forbidden to bring any Quakers into the colony. They 
were publicly whipped through the streets of Boston, tied to carts, and were 
banished under penalty of death if they returned. Four persons suffered 
death ; others were long imprisoned. The Quakers had friends at home, and 
in 1661 a letter came in the king's name directing that the authorities in New 
England should forbear to proceed farther against the Quakers. The letter 
came by the hand of aQuaker who was under sentence of death if he returned. 



370 OUR NATION: 

But they did not dare to do otherwise than respect it. With this closed the 
most shameful chapter in the history of New England. 

A writer on the history of these times offers the following excuse for the 
persecution of this peaceful sect: "But, in justice to New England, it must 
be told that the first generation of Quakers differed extremely from succeed- 
ing generations. They were a fanatical people, — extravagant, intemperate 
in speech, rejectors of lawful authority. They believed themselves guided by 
an ' inner light,' which habitually placed them at variance with the laws and 
customs of the country in which they lived. George Fox declared that ' the 
Lord forbade him to put off his hat to any man.' His followers were provok- 
ingly aggressive. They invaded public worship. They openly expressed their 
contempt for the religion of their neighbors. They perpetually came with 
' messages from the Lord,' which were not pleasant to listen to. They 
appeared in public places very imperfectly attired, thus symbolically to 
express and to rebuke the spiritual nakedness of the time. The second gen- 
eration of New England Quakers were people of beautiful lives, spiritual- 
minded, hospitable, and just. When their zeal allied itself with discretion, 
they became a most valuable element in American society. They have 
firmly resisted all social evils. But we can scarcely wonder that they created 
alarm at first. The men of New England took a very simple view of the 
subject. They had bought and paid for every acre of soil which they occu- 
pied. Their country was a homestead from which they might exclude whom 
they chose. They would not receive men whose object seemed to be to over- 
throw their customs, civil and religious. It was a mistake, but a most natural 
mistake. Long afterwards, when New England saw her error, she made what 
amends she could by giving compensation to the representatives of those 
Quakers who had suffered in the evil times," 

THE GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES. 

At the first there was some diversity in the form of government in the 
different colonies, but as time passed on this lessened, and one general type 
came to be in force in them all. The governor was appointed by the king, and 
he had to depend upon the assembly of representatives chosen from the 
people, for the moneys needed to carry on the government and execute its 
laws. So as the time of separation drew near the governors found their 
powers very much circumscribed by the heavy pressure which the Assembly 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 371 

brought to bear upon them. When the governor as the king's representative 
had a falHng out with the popular will as expressed by the representatives of 
the Commonwealth, the latter assumed the whole business of government. 
The people were, in fact, self-governing, who felt a pride in their connection 
w^ith the mother country, but if their governors encroached too much upon 
their rights, they were ready to resist them to the utmost. Virginia had two 
councils at first, one appointed by the king, and the other elected by the 
•colonists, but both were under control of the king. In a few years the rep- 
resentative system prevailed, but the governor retained the power of veto. 
She was more closely allied to the Crown than the more northern colonies, 
and remained loyal to the Stuarts. Virginia refused to recognize the Pro- 
tector, Oliver Cromwell. Refugees from England were gladly received in 
Virginia during these troublous times, and when the Stuarts were returned 
to power, her then ruling class rejoiced. 

On the other hand the colonists of New England had come to America 
to get rid of kingly rule, and were of a different spirit and temper. In the. 
little cabin of the Mayfiozver they had signed their compact of government 
and selected their own governor. Every member of the church was an elec- 
tor, and could hold office. This democratic form of government continued 
for sixty years, until the despotic James II. took it away and appointed a 
governor of his own choosing. They cordially supported Cromwell, and 
hesitated for two years after the restoration of Charles II. before they recog- 
nized him as their king. These colonies were the most democratic and the 
least tolerant of kingly interference of any of the colonies in the New World. 
New York, which had been given to the Duke of York, had its governor 
appointed by him, Pennsylvania was bestowed upon Penn, who had a right 
to name its governor. But at last all the colonies came to receive a governor 
from the king. Connecticut held out longer than the rest, and when the gov- 
ernor, appointed by the king, came to Hartford to demand the charter of the 
colony; it was hidden in the hollow of an oak tree, afterward known as the 
Charter Oak. 

While the colonics had as yet no thought of separation from the Old 
Country they were still in the presence of a common enemy. The French 
had taken Canada and the present State of Louisiana, and thus were stretch- 
ing down from the north, and up from the south, a line of trading posts and 
settlements, which was a continual menace to the western frontier of the 
English colonies. The French incited the Indians to attack the English, and 



372 OUR NATION: 

there were constant incursions upon the pioneers who were moving west- 
ward from the coast. Sooner or later the trial of strength must come between 
these rival forces. The French claimed the Mississippi River and the fertile 
valley of the Ohio. To establish this claim, they sent three hundred soldiers 
into this valley and buried in the ground leaden plates bearing the French 
coat of arms, and drove out the scattering English who had ventured there. 
The English, on their part, had given large grants of land to a trading com- 
pany, who agreed to colonize the valley, establish trading relations with the 
natives, and a competent military force. This was in 1749, and then the two 
nations were preparing for war. The home government left the colonies to 
carry on the struggle for themselves. 

In 1753 the Governor of Virginia sent a young man twenty-one years of 
age on a delicate mission to the commander of French forces on the head- 
waters of the Ohio River. His name was George Washington, a name des- 
tined, some years later, to become famous over the whole world. Marching 
for Fort Duquesne, with some Virginia forces, in the Spring of 1754, Wash- 
ington, then a major of militia, met, fought and defeated a French forqe. He 
fell back, and built a stockade which he called Fort Necessity. With rein- 
forcements he pushed on toward Fort Duquesne, but was pressed back to his 
fort, which was attacked and captured. Washington surrendered on honor- 
able terms, and returned to Virginia. In this brief campaign was shed the 
first blood in the contest known as the French and Indian War. 

This campaign was honorable to Washington, but resulted in no especial 
advantage to the colonies. This contest between the colonies of the French 
and English was going on for a year and a half before war was declared 
between the two great nations. But the English were aroused to the necessity 
of doing something to secure the rich Ohio valley, and they sent Edward 
Braddock, an ofHcer of distinction, with two regiments of soldiers, to aid the 
colonies. He began his campaign in 1755, with two thousand troops. He 
had learned the best rules of war in the broad battle-fields of Europe, but was 
perfectly unacquainted with the rude tactics of the West. Washington was 
invited to join his stafT, and the young man, eager to retrieve his loss in the 
former campaign, assented. The English general started on his march, June 
lOth, to reach Fort Duquesne, on the Ohio, the great centre of French power 
in the West. It was the objective point of Washington in his former expedition, 
and was deemed of great importance. This fort had been partly built by the 
English and taken from them and completed by the French. Benjamin Franklin 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 2>73. 

told General Braddock that " he would undoubtedly take the fort if he could 
reach it, but the long slender line which his army must form on the march 
would be cut like a thread in several pieces by the hostile Indians." Brad- 
dock " smiled at his ignorance." Franklin offered no further opinion, but 
performed his duties of collecting horses and equipage for the army. The 
young aid-de-camp, Washington, offered some suggestions based on his expe- 
rience, but the general would not listen to any advice from a provincial sub- 
ordinate. No scouts were sent out, and the commander did not know how 
near his unseen foes might be. He was marching along a road near the 
Monongahela River twelve feet wide, when suddenly an Indian war whoop 
burst upon the air, and a murderous fire opened upon them. Tlie battle lasted 
three hours and General Braddock was mortally wounded. " Who would 
have thought it ? " said the dying man as they carried him from the field. 

Washington was the only mounted officer who remained unharmed, 
while the regulars, seeing their general fall, fled in confusion. But young 
Washington rallied the provincials and covered the retreat of the regulars 
with such a desperate defense that the Indians did not follow. One half of 
the entire force had been killed, and the remainder returned, disheartened 
and broken, at the end of a disastrous expedition. 

War was now proclaimed between France and England, and the siege of 
Quebec by the English and its capture by troops under General Wolfe in 
1759, with the surrender of Montreal in 1760, established the English posses- 
sion of Canada and the lake region and beyond. 

The English fleet came to Quebec in June, 1759, with a large force. 
Captain James Cook, the famous navigator, who, thirteen years later, sailed 
around the world, was in charge of one of the ships, and General Wolfe had 
command of the army. The city was divided into an upper town, on the 
heights of Abraham, beyond the reach of the guns from the fleet, and a lower 
town, on the banks of the St. Charles River. The lower town was quickly 
reduced, but the upper town held out against any attempt of the English. 
But the enthusiastic young general was not to be baffled, and carefully searched 
the high banks of the St. Lawrence. He found an opening where a path led 
up to the heights above, and here Wolfe resolved to land his men, lead an 
attack and capture the French position, or perish in the attempt. One night 
in September, he landed his men silently, and they quietly clambered up the 
high hill, while the sailors contrived to drag up a few heavy guns. When 
the morning rose the whole Britis-h army stood on the Heights of Abraham. 



374 OUR NATION: 

Montcalm, the French commander, was so taken by surprise at the pres- 
ence of the enemy, that he refused to believe the first report which came to 
him. But he lost no time in forming his line of battle, and made a fierce and 
bloody contest with his unexpected assailants. Both generals fell in the con- 
flict, Wolfe dying happy at the thought of the French defeat. As his blood 
was flowing he heard the shouts, " They fly! They fly ! " He raised his head 
to ask, " Who fly? " " The French," was the answer. " Then I die content," 
said the hero. The French General died thankful that he would not live to 
■suffer the mortification of being compelled to surrender to the English. These 
men died as enemies, but after-generations blended the two names upon a 
■common monument, which marks out to posterity the scene of this decisive 
battle. The French made an ineffectual attempt to regain Quebec the follow- 
ing year. In due time the French surrendered Canada to the English; at the 
same time Spain gave up Florida to England ; and thus the English held 
undisputed possession of America from the regions of perpetual ice and snow 
to the Gulf of Mexico. 

All these contests with the savages and the French had fallen with heavi- 
est weight upon the colonists, although they had received some assistance 
from the home government in the latter part of the struggle. The colonies 
had poured out their blood and treasure without stint and were loyal to their 
king. They were proud of the mother country, and were willing to do their 
utmost to support the honor of the English flag. A hundred and fifty years 
had passed since the settlement of the feeble colonies on the Atlantic cosat. 
They were self-sustaining and prosperous, and their increase in numbers and 
"wealth was most remarkable. Thousands were coming every year to seek 
their fortunes in the West. America opened her wide arms to the oppressed 
and offered them the blessing of liberty and comfort. The thirteen colonies 
had increased in population to three millions and were upon the eve of a 
•mighty struggle. 

THE GATHERING CLOUD. 

It maybe a natural question to ask, how it came to pass that in the short 
space of ten or twelve years the affection and respect which the colonies had 
for England, which they still fondly called " home," were changed to hatred 
and a desire for separation ? What cause had been at work to sever the bonds 
of attachment, and awaken the mighty spirit of resistance which spread all 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 375 

over the country ? For generations they had spoken the same language, and 
had a common code of laws, while glorying in the history of the past. 

England was the model in all things, and to be an " Old England man " 
gave one a prestige and position among the colonists ; while all yielded a will- 
ing obedience to her laws. They were governed, as Benjamin Franklin had 
said, " at the mere expense of ink and paper." Money was voted without 
grudge by their Assemblies, and all the relations between the colonies and 
the home government were of the pleasantest kind, and such was their love 
for England that " they were led by a thread." 

But a wonderful change was wrought in the public mind, and the aroused 
people resolved in their public gatherings by the most solemn compact, that 
they would not use any article of English manufacture, or engage in any 
transaction which would bring money into the pockets of the- English. They 
often treated roughly any person who expressed friendliness for the British ; 
defied the acts of parliament; resisted the authority of royal governors; 
treated with scorn the soldiers sent to enslave them, and at times were on 
the verge of open rebellion and armed resistance. 

What caused this wonderful change, and how were these numerous obe- 
dient subjects taught to despise and fight against the very men whom they 
had before regarded as fellow countrymen ? The answer to these questions 
can be summed up in one sentence. The persistent ignorance and folly of the 
English government of the nature and spirit of its American Colonies, urged 
on by cupidity and a desire to wring out of the prosperous colonies a rich 
revenue to replenish the depleted treasury of the country that had become 
exhausted in the expensive wars of Europe, wrought all this evil, and lost to 
the English crown her richest possessions in the Western World. The result 
was that a new nation was formed that was destined to become the leading 
power of Christendom. It would have been better if she had gone in peace, 
and thus not engendered an animosity that lasted for two generations, and 
led to two disastrous wars between men of the same language and religion. 
We come now to the story of these struggles. 

England had shown for many years a disposition to govern her Ameri- 
can colonies in a spirit of harshness and undisguised selfishness. The interest 
of England was the chief object, and not the good of the colonies. No for- 
eign vessels could land in American ports, and woolen fabrics could not be 
taken from one colony to another. At one time the manufacture of hats was 
forbidden. Iron works were prohibited, and up to the last restrictive naviga- 



-^^6 OUR NATION: 

tion laws bound colonial commerce hand and foot. The colonies had borne 
the expense of their own governments and defenses, but now the long-con- 
tinued struggle had left the treasury of England very low, and Parliament 
came to discuss the propriety of taxing the colonies for the benefit of the 
home government. The eager eye of Lord Grenville was searching for some- 
thing new to tax, and he saw that America was growing rich and •powerful. 
The English ofificers who had served in the West, had brought back the most 
glowing accounts of its resources and prosperity. The English merchants 
were already envious of their increasing wealth. When the House of Com- 
mons passed their resolution setting forth their right to tax the colonies, not 
a single voice or vote opposed the measure. Thereupon an act was passed 
imposing a tax upon silks, sugar, coffee, and other articles used in the colo- 
nies. The Americans remonstrated, and claimed that taxation and represen- 
tation should go together ; they were willing to vote w^iat money the king might 
require of them, but they would not pay taxes when they had no voice in 
laying them. But Lord Grenville, who thought the Americans would finally 
submit, persisted in his course. The act called the Stamp Act was passed at 
the next session of Parliament in 1765, which required a government stamp 
on all legal documents. Benjamin Franklin told the House of Commons that 
America would never submit to this, and no power on earth could &nforce it. 
Nor could England long misunderstand the position of the colonies upon this 
question. In many places in New England and elsewhere riots occurred, 
and the Stamp Act was denounced. 

The stamp distributors were obliged to resign. A universal protest that 
they would not eat, drink, or use anything which came from England, was 
expressed by the citizens everywhere. The act came in force on November 
1st, 1765, and on that day the bells tolled, and the people appeared as if some 
great public calamity had fallen upon them. 

Not a stamp was sold in America, but business went on all the same; 
men and women were married, and merchants bought and sold goods. The 
courts were held and all the functions of government went on ; but all this 
was illegal because it was done without stamps. Yet no serious harm came 
of it. The English were astonished, and some demanded that the Stamp Act 
be enforced with the sword, but the British merchants feared the loss of their 
trade with the colonies if this were done. 

William Pitt, afterwards the Earl of Chatham, joined with the merchants. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 377 

and caused a repeal of the law the very next year. But stubborn old King 
•George never ceased to regret " the fatal repeal of the Stamp Act." 

The third intercolonial Congress assembled at New York during the ex- 
citement. It is known as the Stamp Act Congress. They adopted a Declara- 
tion of Rights, and accomplished a good design in showing the tendency of 
Union between the States. 

The approaching crisis was delayed for a little time by the repeal of the 
Stamp Act. But when the feeling in England was stormy against the col- 
onies, Charles Townshend, the virtual Prime Minister of England, during the 
sickness of Pitt, proposed to levy various taxes on America. All his proposed 
measures became laws. The most obnoxious of them was a tax of three 
pence a pound on tea. This act was passed in 1767. 

The Americans despaired of justice and right from the English Parlia- 
ment, yet they hardly dared to think of open separation, but already the most 
thoughtful among them were becoming fixed in their opinion as to what the 
issue would be. They protested, they appealed, they held large public meet- 
ings, and everywhere the people were inflamed with a sense of their injuries, 
■other laws restricting the liberties of America were passed by Parliament, 
and the people prepared to resort to the last step in the solution of the fear- 
ful problem. Riots occurred ; the foreign of^ficials were resisted, and public 
meetings were held to deliberate upon their grievances. 

British troops were sent across the ocean to preserve order. Their pres- 
ence was galling to the citizens, who could not brook this restraint upon their 
liberty. 

The press, the pulpit, and the assemblies of representatives in all the col- 
onies were bold in their utterances against the tyranny of the old country. 
The General Court of Massachusetts called on their governor to remove the 
soldiers, but he was powerless. The governor called upon the court to raise 
money to maintain the troops, and they took infinite pleasure in refusing to 
raise money for that purpose. Then came the " Boston Massacre," (March, 
1770), in which the troops fired upon the citizens, and killed and wounded 
eleven persons. This inflamed the zeal of the patriots still more, and the 
entire populace was aroused. The people again demanded the removal of 
the troops from the city, and the trial of the soldiers for murder. This was 
complied with, and two of the soldiers Avere found guilty of murder, by a 
Boston jury. 

Parliament no-w wavered in its treatment of America, and removed all 



378 OUR NATION: 

the duties, except the small one on tea. But they had mistaken the feeling 
of their colonies. It was not the amount of the tax to which they objected, 
but the principle of taxation without representation. 

In the autumn of 1773, ships laden with taxed tea arrived in Boston 
harbor. The crisis had now arrived. The excited people met and considered 
the situation. If that tea should be landed and sold, liberty in America would 
become a by-word. It was resolved not to allow it to be landed. 

Samuel Adams, a man of strict integrity and powerful eloquence as a 
speaker and writer, was the true leader of the revolt in Massachusetts. He 
was one of the first who saw at the outset that there could be no stopping- 
place short of independence. "We are free," he said, "and want no king." 
He assumed the leadership of his fellows, and was worthy of the trust. They 
hoped that the consignees of the East Indian Company, in whose employ the 
ships were engaged, would send them back, but they refused. Days of in- 
tense excitement followed. Public meetings were held constantly in a church 
and in Faneuil Hall, afterward known as the cradle of American liberty. One 
day the debate waxed hot, and the people continued together till night-fall. 
Samuel Adams announced, " This meeting can do nothing more to save the 
country," and with a sh®ut it broke up. The excited crowd hastened down 
to the wharf, led by iifty men disguised as Indians. This band of disguised 
men rushed on shipboard, broke open the boxes of tea, and poured their 
contents into the harbor. The crowd looked on in silence, and not a sound 
Avas heard but the striking of the hatchets, and the splash of the ruined tea in 
the water. That cargo of tea would bring no taxes into the English treasury, 
that was certain. This was on the night of December i6th, 1773, and was the 
first move of the colonists toward open resistance. Then they waited to see 
what might be the next move of England. 

Lord North was then Prime Minister of the English Crown, and he de- 
termined to deal harshly with such men. The port of Boston was closed as a 
port of entry and sailing for shipping; a heavy fine was imposed for the de- 
struction of the tea. The charter of Massachusetts was revoked, and the 
governor was ordered to send political offenders to England for trial. In 
spite of the remonstrance of Lord Chatham, and of Edmund Burke, these 
measures became laws. Four regiments of regulars were sent to Boston, 
under the command of General Gage. The Americans held a day of fasting 
and prayer. More than this, they organized military companies, and began 
the process of equipment and drill. While all this^ was going on in the north- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 379 

ern provinces, the other Colonies were not idle, but Massachusetts received 
the heaviest blows of vengeance. An invitation to all the Colonies to meet 
in General Congress at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774, was, 
sent out by the sturdy Representatives of Massachusetts, who met in Salem. 
Twelve States sent delegations to this Congress. Georgia, the youngest and 
most southern of the thirteen Colonies, alone .stood trembling upon the verge 
of the perilous enterprise. 

The first General Congress of the American commonwealth, met in Car- 
penter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th day of September, 1774, 
agreeable to this call. The regular business of the Congress began on the 
7th, and was opened with prayer. In all their proceedings, decorum, firmness, 
moderation and loyalty were manifested, and the delegates voted to adjourn 
to the loth day of the following May, unless the English Crown in the mean- 
time should redress their specified grievances. But King George was blind 
and stubborn. 

Lord Chatham said in open Parliament of the men who formed this Con- 
tinental Congress: " For solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom 
of conclusion under such a complication of circumstances, no nation, or body 
of men can stand in preference to the General Congress in Philadelphia." 
Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was President, and Charles Thompson, of 
Pennsylvania, was secretary of this body. George Washington, Patrick 
Henry, John Rutledge, Richard Henry Lee, John Dickinson, and other men 
of that stamp were there. Washington assures us that this Congress did not 
aim at independence, but a removal of wrongs. The time was ripe for open 
resistance, and the patriots of Massachusetts were busy in the autumn and 
winter of 1774, in making preparations for war, and uniting the people to 
meet the storm that was sure to come. 



THE BURSTING OF THE STORM. 

No alternative was now left to the colonists, and they saw that they 
must fight for their liberties or forego them altogether. Throughout the 
State of Massachusetts, where the heel of the oppressor was planted the 
heaviest, the most active preparations were in progress. Minute-men were 
drilling, and stores of arms and ammunition were being collected in central 
places, where they would be considered safe from seizure by the British. The 
press and the pulpit vied with the rostrum in their bold defiance of the ag- 



380 OUR NATION: 

■gression of the soldiers. Fathers and sons were urged on by their wives and 
mothers, and the spirit of freedom incited them to deeds of danger and sac- 
rifice. The ofificers of the EngHsh Government were despised, the soldiers 
were defied, and the laws were set at defiance. Such was the condition of 
things when the spring of 1775 dawned upon the conflict. This is regarded 
■as the first year of the long struggle of seven years which was to test the 
strength of the young country in her contest with the victorious armies of 
English warriors who came fresh from the battle-fields of Europe. 

General Gage, the commander of the British forces in Boston, had learned 
that a large amount of military stores were secreted at Concord, eighteen 
miles away. He decided to send an expedition to seize it in the king's name. 
He sent eight hundred soldiers upon the errand. To prevent the tidings 
from being carried to the patriots the general forbade any one going out of 
Boston. The troops were silently embarked at the foot of the Common 
where the tide then reached and landed on the main. Doctor Warren, after- 
wards killed at Bunker Hill, made arrangements with his friend, Paul Re- 
vere, to carry " the tidings to every Middlesex village and farm." Young 
Revere escaped from Boston in a small boat just five minutes before the 
guard was stationed to prevent any one from leaving the city. He was to 
notify Hancock and Adams who were at Lexington, and to arouse the people 
all along the route. Revere waited on the Charlestown shore until his friend 
should learn how the British were to proceed. He was to hang a lantern in 
the North Church tower, " one if by land and two if by sea." At the instant 
the twin lights appeared upon the tower. Revere dashed off in the darkness 
and spread the tidings. He reached Lexington and warned Hancock and 
Adams. Then he proceeded toward Concord, but was arrested by a British 
guard, not, however, until he had communicated the news to a friend, who 
carried it forward. 

The British, who had crossed the Charles River and marched all night, 
reached Lexington just as day was breaking. The minute-men were called 
by the beating of the drum, and about one hundred militia were gathered to 
meet eight times as many trained soldiers. 

There they stood on the Common, on a very warm morning as the regu- 
lars came up. Captain Jonas Parker had ordered them not to fire on the 
British until the latter had first fired on them. Major Pitcairn rode up and 
ordered the " villains " and " rebels," with an oath to disperse, and instantly 
commanded his men to fire on them. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 381 

The captain of the Continentals had intended to disperse his men, but 
the fire of the British had killed eight and wounded several; about one-fifth 
■of the whole. The British fire was returned only by a few of the wounded 
men ; and three Englishmen were wounded. But the war had begun by the 
cold-blooded murder of Americans on their own soil. 

It was no battle, and the act of the British officer was nothing less than 
•wanton murder. Samuel Adams said when he heard it, "^Oh! what a glorious 
morning this is," knowing that it would rally and unite all the people. The 
■regulars cheered over their triumph of a few score farmers, who had not 
attacked them, and pressed on to Concord. They reached here at seven in 
the morning, but were too late, for the news of their coming had preceded 
them several hours. The military stores had most of them been removed and 
hidden away, and but little remained for them to destroy. In the mean time 
the towns all around had been aroused, and the militia were pouring in from 
every direction. There were not enough to attack the troops nor were there 
any serious thoughts of doing so, and they were withdrawn from the village 
of Concord to a hill on the other side of the river. The British scattered to 
find the concealed stores, and one party went over the north bridge and one 
over the south. As the party went over the north bridge, the provincial 
troops, if troops we could call them, were in plain sight, and therefore a part 
of the regulars, about one hundred, were left to guard the bridge, while the 
rest, about the same number, went over. The Continentals saw the British at 
the bridge and could see the smoke that arose across the bridge. What 
should they do? see their houses burned and not go to the rescue of their 
wives and children? They consulted and agreed to march down to the bridge, 
but not a man was to fire until they had been fired upon. The British saw 
them coming and began to tear up the bridge. The Continentals hurried on 
and the British fired upon them, — at first one or two shots by which no harm 
was done; then more shots were fired; two men were wounded; a whole 
volley and two of the patriots were killed. ''Fire! fellow soldiers; for God's 
sake, fire!" cried Captain John Buttrick, leaping into the air and turning to 
his men. Thus began the American revolution. Two British were killed and 
several injured. Blood had been shed by men in armed rebellion, and the 
men who had done it were rebels and traitors. There could be no backward 
steps now, and the contest must wage till one or the other side should give 
-in. This was the battle of Concord, and the first one of the war. 

The British retreated from the town as quickly as possible toward Lex- 



382 OUR NATION: 

ington and Boston. It had been a mild winter, followed by an early spring, 
and the day was intensely hot. The provision train which was to supply 
them with food had been taken, and all they could get was what they might 
plunder from the citizens. Nor was this the worst, for the minute-men, without 
any orders from their officers, but each on his own account, lay in ambush 
behind trees and fences and stone walls, where they were safe, and kept up a 
harassing fire upon the retreating British to the very shelter of their ships. 
As the troops would pass by one place the patriots would go forward by by- 
paths and fire upon them again from another position. When one party 
became worn out, fres-h recruits would come up from the surrounding coun- 
try, and thus the war was kept up all along the distressing march back to 
Boston. The march was kept up in good order at first, but broke into an 
irregular rout at last. About two o'clock in the afternoon they were met 
by twelve hundred British troops, sent out from Boston to aid them with two 
pieces of artillery. But their position was perilous even after the arrival of 
these reinforcements. The colonists were increasing- in numbers every mo- 
ment, and unless they moved rapidly the whole force would be cut off. The 
firing began again, and more and more of the patriots came up to aid the 
weary Continentals. They fought like men in thorough earnest, and although 
they were undisciplined and their methods were crude, they put the very 
flower of the English army to the worst, and it was not till seven o'clock at night 
that the regulars were safe under the protection of the guns of their ships. 

The British lost seventy-three killed, one hundred and seventy-twO' 
wounded, and twenty-six missing; while the Americans had forty-nine killed,, 
thirty-six wounded and six missing. The British suffered heavily in the loss; 
of officers. This was the opening contest that the British had forced upon 
their patient and loyal subjects in America, and which was to rage for seven 
years. We will now speak of some of the heroes whose names are conspicu- 
ous in this period of American history. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY. 

The man who was fondly regarded as "the first in War, the first in 
Peace, and the first in the Hearts of his countrymen," could trace the line of 
his ancestry back nearly to the Norman conquest of England. He was born 
February 22nd, 1732, in Virginia, and was educated by his mother, whg became. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 383 

a widow when her eldest son was eleven years of age. She early instilled into 
his mind a love of goodness and truth, which gave a color to all his after life^ 
and to a great extent, moulded the destinies of America. Under her gentle 
yet firm control, George learned the great lessons of obedience and self- 
command, and i.n early life gave promise of the excellences which would ripen 
into a well-rounded manhood. He had his mother's love of command, and 
inherited her calm, judicial character of mind. Even among his schoolmates 
he became an arbitrator of their disputes and would not allow anything un- 
just or unfair. His person was large and powerful, and he delighted in 
athletic sports, and out-of-door pursuits. He had a bodily frame suited to a 
lofty soul, and could endure hardship, toil and fatigue, to almost any extent. 
His education was limited, and he learned no language but his mother tongue. 
He learned mathematics and land surveying, the keeping of accounts, and the 
framing of legal documents. This was the extent of his literary acquire- 
ments. 

But George Washington was precise and exact in everything he under- 
took. His copy books, and measurements of surveying when studying, were 
as neat and scrupulously kept, as if they were of great pecuniary value. At 
the age of eighteen, we find him serving as a government surveyor for the 
State of Virginia. Many of his returns are on file in the county court- 
house and are so very accurate that their evidence is taken in contested 
disputes to this day, where the measurement or boundary of land is involved. 
He was Adjutant General of one of the military districts of his native State 
before the Indian war, and as we have seen, led towards the Ohio valley a 
body of troops, when he was just past twenty-two years of age. He covered 
the retreat of the remnant of General Braddock's army, at the Battle of the 
Monongahela, and was a member of the first Continental Congress at Phila- 
delphia in 1774. He was for the years prior to the Revolution engaged in 
conducting the affairs of his private estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where 
he shipped his tobacco, kept his books and conducted his own correspond- 
ence. He raised a large quantity of wheat, and ground it at his own mill. 
It became renowned for its excellent quality; and such was his reputation for 
business integrity that no one thought of inspecting the barrel which bore his 
brand. He had the rare combination of a massive intellect, an iron will, and 
a gentle, loving heart. In him was united a perfect equipoise of all the 
elements of manhood, and in a great degree did he combine the qualities of 
the Spartan Lycurgus, the Roman Cincinnatus, and the Greek Alexander. A 



384 OUR NATION: 

true patriot, a born leader, and a safe counselor in the army, in congress and 
at the head of government, he was the chosen instrument of Providence, 
raised up to meet the demand of the times in which he lived, and to earn the 
proud title which succeeding generations have given him, " The Father of his 
Country." 

History has assigned to Washington a high position among her noble 
names, and delights to point to him as a revolutionary leader against whom 
the least act of wrong has never been alleged. Such was the man around 
whose name crystallizes the noble deeds of the Revolution in America. The 
life of this man has been so interwoven into the history of the nation, as to 
form a large part of it. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 

This man was President of the Congress which adopted the resolution 
for the " Declaration of Independence," and his bold autograph stands at the 
head of the names which are signed to that immortal instrument. It is a 
bold defiance to the home government, and flaunted like the battle-flag of 
freedom, it stands at the head of the list of noted names, in its vigorous 
strength a type of the man whose courage and undaunted power of will 
moved the pen which affixed it there in distinct characters for future gener- 
ations to read, as he said King George could do, " without spectacles." He 
was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1737, and received a collegiate edu- 
cation at Harvard, after which he became a clerk to his uncle, and at the 
death of the latter inherited his great wealth. He was one of the most 
wealthy and the most popular of all the leaders during the Revolutionary 
struggle, in Massachusetts. He began his public career quite early in life, 
and was President of the first Provincial Congress which met, independent of 
royal authority, in Salem, Massachusetts, in October, 1774; also of the Conti- 
nental Congress of 1775 and 1776. 

On June loth, 1775, General Gage, commanding the British forces in 
Boston, issued his proclamation declaring the colonists rebels and traitors, 
but offering pardon to all who would give up their arms and take the oath of 
loyalty to the king, excepting John Hancock and S-amuel Adams, whom he 
proposed to send to England to be hanged. 

Hancock was a staunch patriot, and did much throughout the struggle to 
aid the army and supply provisions and equipments. He was Major General 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. . 385 

of the Massachusetts mihtia, awd was sadly disappointed that he was not 
chosen Commander-in-Chief of the Continental forces. But for all this, he 
did not desert the Colonies, but gave his services and his money to his coun- 
try without stint, and was unswerving in his loyalty to the American cause. 

John Hancock was Governor of Massachusetts after the war, and died in 
1793, honored and respected by all. He was buried in the old Granary bury- 
ing-ground, in Boston, where lies the dust of many of Massachusetts' noble 
dead. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

When George Washington was passing his boyhood at Mount Vernon, 
there was a young man at Philadelphia who was modestly toiling to gain a 
livelihood. He was a printer, publisher, stationer, and kept a store for the 
sale of sundry articles. He became a thriving man, and by his simple habits, 
genial disposition, and pure character won the esteem of his fellow-citizens. 
More than this, he was a popular writer, and a studious gentleman, whose 
name would afterwards be sounded over the world as a great philosopher. 
He would demonstrate to the savans of Europe that electricity and lightning 
were the same, and give the scientific world a proof that there are investiga- 
tors and original thinkers among the rude people of the West. But he was 
more than this even, he was a patriot and statesman who would be an inval- 
uable assistant to the generals in the field. This man was Benjamin Franklin, 
the printer, the economist, the philosopher, the patriot and the statesman. 
He was born in Boston, January 17th, 1706, of humble parentage. He was 
apprenticed to his brother to the trade of a printer, but set out at the age of 
seventeen to seek his fortunes in Philadelphia, without money or friends. In 
1729 he established a newspaper, and began the publication of "Poor 
Richard's Almanac" in 1732. He established the free library of Philadel- 
phia. He was appointed Deputy Postmaster General of the American Colo- 
nies in 1753, a year after he had astonished the world with his scientific 
discoveries. In 1764 he was sent to England as a representative of the 
Colonies to protest before the Privy Counsel against the obnoxious Stamp 
Act ; and after being examined before a committee of the House of Commons, 
where he acquitted himself with remarkable ability, he returned home. He 
was chosen a member of the second Continental Congress in 1775, and the 
next year was a member of the committee which framed the Declaration of 



386 OUR NATION: 

Independence. Franklin, very early in the contest, agitated the separation 
of the Colonies from England, and took a prominent part in all the councils 
of that eventful period. In 1776 he was sent as the first ambassador to the 
court of France, where the good sense and simple manners of the old printer 
gained the favor of the French. He assisted in effecting a treaty between 
the two governments, which was signed at Paris, February 6th, 1778. He 
lived to a ripe old age, assisted in framing the Constitution, and was the in- 
strument of forming the treaty of peace with England in 1782. He died in 
1790 and was buried at Philadelphia. 

ISRAEL PUTNAM, 

The hero of Connecticut, who did much to arouse the patriotic zeal of 
his foster Colony, deserves more than a passing notice. He had taken an 
active and honorable part in the Indian and French wars, and was Major 
General of the Connecticut troops at the outbreak of the Revolution. In his 
wars with the Indians he had been taken prisoner, and at one time was 
bound to the stake to be tormented by having the savages toss their toma- 
hawks at him with such dexterity as not to cut him, but was rescued by an 
unexpected deliverance. He had once engaged with a wolf alone in a den, 
and by his coolness and bravery in many exploits had won the esteem and 
respect of his fellow-citizens. He was a true patriot, and a stern disciplina- 
rian. After the skirmishers at Lexington and Concord had stirred the peo- 
ple of Massachusetts to deeds of valor, the tidings came to Putnam as he 
was ploughing on his Connecticut farm. He unyoked his oxen, sent word to 
his family that he had started for Boston, mounted his horse and rode off to 
join the patriots in their noble defence. He was conspicuous for bravery at 
the battle of Bunker Hill, and rallied the militia who turned to run. Some 
years after this, he stood up in the church of which he was a member to 
answer to the sin of swearing on that occasion, and partially justified himself 
by saying that " it was almost enough to make an angel swear to see the 
cowards refuse to secure a victory so nearly won." 

Putnam was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1718, and emigrated to 
eastern Connecticut in early life. He was conspicuous in all the exploits 
with the Indians of that period and was regarded as a brave and fearless man. 
In 1775, he was commissioned as a Major General of the Continental army. 
He was in command of the army in the Hudson Highlands, and superin- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 387 

tended the erection of fortifications at West Point on the Hudson. He died 
in 1790, at the age of seventy-two. 

PATRICK HENRY, THE ORATOR. 

This man, who was a perfect Boanerges (son of thunder) at the outset 
of the Revolution, was also a native of Virginia, where he was born in Han- 
over county, in 1736. It is said that he was stupid as a scholar, and indolent 
hi his habits during his youth, and gave no promise of the great power he 
possessed as a thinker and orator. His remarkable eloquence first broke out 
when he was twenty-seven, and his reputation as an orator spread over his 
•native State after this. He was the first Governor of Virginia elected by the 
people, and served in that ofHce for two terms. He was the first of all the 
public speakers of America to hurl down the gauntlet of defiance to the 
English. In the year 1765, he introduced into the house of Burgesses, of 
Virginia, of which he was a member, a series of resolutions highly tinctured 
with treason. They boldly maintained the doctrine that all the Colonies, and 
especially Virginia, alone had the right to impose taxes upon the people of 
that province, and they were not bound to obey any law in reference to taxa- 
tion which did not proceed from their own representatives. The last reso- 
lution declared that whoever dissented from the opinions set forth in the 
resolutions preceding, was an enemy to the colonies. 

Henry supported these resolutions with all the power of his matchless 
eloquence. In the midst of this memorable speech, when the impassioned 
-orator had exclaimed, " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Crom- 
well, and George the Third — ■'" " Treason ! Treason ! " cried a voice from 
the gallery — " may profit by their example. // tJiat is treason, make the most 
of it,'' finished Henry. 

Henry was a member of the first Continental Congress, as we have seen. 
The members sat silent in the assembly which gathered in Carpenter's Hall 
on that memorable day, the fifth of September, 1774. Not a voice broke the 
silence, and deep anxiety sat on every face. All at once a grave-looking man 
in a suit of minister's gray arose, and poured forth a torrent of eloquence in a 
sweet musical voice which stirred the hearts of all. • " Who is he ? " was whis- 
pered from lip to lip. The few who knew him answered " Patrick Henry, of 
Virginia." There was no longer any hesitation in the Congress, and the 
deliberations of that body went on to the end. His eloquence was of a high 
•character, and impassioned in its style. 



388 OUR NATION: 

In the Virginia House of Burgesses, on the 23d day of March, 1775, 
before the battle of Concord and Lexington, Henry again aroused the enthu- 
siasm of his fellow delegates in a patriotic speech, which has been published 
in nearly every school reader since that time, and ended with the sentence 
which became the rallying cry of the Revolution, " GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR 
GIVE ME DEATH." Twenty-six days after this. Governor Dunmore seized 
and conveyed on board the British man-of-war a quantity of gunpowder 
belonging to the Colony of Virginia. The enraged citizens compelled him to 
leave his palace at Williamsburg, and flee for his life on board of the same 
vessel. In October of the same year, the deposed governor landed with reg- 
ular troops to punish the Colony and seize the town of Hampton, near Old 
Point Comfort. Patrick Henry at the head of the militia defeated him, and 
compelled him to pay for the gunpowder he had taken away the June before. 
His regiment carried one of the Earliest known American flags in this 
engagement, with the words " LIBERTY OR DEATH," and the picture of a 
coiled serpent under which were the words, " Dont tread on me." 

The soldiers vvere clad in green hunting shirts, with the words " LIBERTY 
OR DEATH " printed across the bosom. They wore hats with long bucks' 
tails trailing behind, and a belt with tomahawks and scalping knives stuck in 
them, and made a formidable appearance as they marched through the prov- 
ince. We will find the mention of Patrick Henry as we proceed further in 
the history. 

SAMUEL ADAMS. 

This man was the true leader in the city of Boston during the excite- 
ment of the Stamp Act and the destruction of the tea. He was then a man 
of middle age, well educated and with a stainless reputation. He was a most 
powerful speaker and writer; — a man who gathered his adherents by his 
eloquence, and held them by his wonderful power of persuasion and argu- 
ment. He was a type of the old Puritan family from which he was de- 
scended, having been born in Boston, in 1732. His fellow citizens felt the 
power of his resolute will, and gladly followed when he led the way for them. 
The English rightly regarded him as a leader of the rebellion ; for when they 
sent a proclamation to New England offering general amnesty to all who 
would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance to the crown, 
Samuel Adams and John Hancock were the only men who were exempt from. 
the provision of pardon. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 389. 

The keen foresight of this man took in the situation at a glance, and saw 
from the first that there could be no halt for the Colonies until a complete 
separation from the old country was effected. His strength of argument and 
powerful eloquence in the General Court and before the people did much co 
mould the action and direct the thoughts of the patriots of this stormy time. 
There can be no doubt that he was the leader in more than one encounter of 
the people with the soldiers before the battle of Lexington, and he was 
responsible for the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor. He seemed 
eager to incite the Colony to open rebellion, and was delighted with the news 
of the conflict at Concord and Lexington. 

At the Assembly of the representatives of Massachusetts, in Salem, which 
sent out the invitation that resulted in the first General Congress, they pro- 
vided for a plan of union between the Colonies, raised munitions of war, and 
formed a league of non-intercourse with England. General Gage sent his 
own secretary to dissolve the Assembly, but the door of the chamber was 
locked and Samuel Adams had the key in his pocket. He was one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence and, afterwards Governor of 
Massachusetts. He was a true man, a noble patriot, a born leader of the 
people, and in the hours which tried men's souls he was brave, undaunted 
and heroic. 

The unflinching advocate of liberty, he was among the first to pledge 
" his life, his fortune and his sacred honor," to the cause he loved, and his 
countrymen loved to do him honor. He died in 1803. 

There are many other illustrious names of this period. General Warren, 
who fell at Bunker Hill, Henry Knox, the warm friend of Washington, Gen- 
eral Green and a host of noble men, heroes all of them ; but we must hasten 
on with our history, and let their heroic deeds speak their praise in more 
eloquent terms than words can proclaim. 

BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL AND SIEGE OF BOSTON. 

We will resume the line of history at the point where we left off: the 
return of the discomfited British troops from their ill-fated expedition to 
Concord and Lexington. The initial blow for liberty had been struck, and it 
was appalling to friends and foes alike. The people were thoroughly aroused 
all over the land. General Gage had issued his proclamation, of which we 
have spoken. 



390 OUR NATION: 

Minute-men were gathering from all parts of the country, and the other 
Colonies heartily espoused the cause of their sister, Massachusetts. The min- 
istry of the crown had cut off the Colonies from protection, exempting New 
York, Delaware and North Carolina, but these Colonies had spurned the 
offer and united with the others in a common cause. The news spread like 
wild-fire that patriotic blood had been shed, and already American freedom 
could boast of her martyrs. Mounted couriers were galloping in hot haste 
to other Colonies to carry the tidings of Lexington. " The war has begun! " 
was shouted in market-place and by the press. And all true men saw that 
the time to lay aside the avocations of peace, and gird themselves for the 
contest, had arrived. In her great eagerness, North Carolina threw off her 
allegiance to the crown and formed military organizations. Georgia and 
South Carolina sent gifts of money and food with cheering letters to the 
patriots of the North. There was a general rush to arms in Virginia, under 
the arousing influence of the orator, Patrick Henry. From almost every 
town and hamlet of New England men were rushing to Boston. That city 
could be easily blockaded. A narrow strip of land joined the peninsula to the 
main land at Roxbury; called Boston Neck. Three thousand British soldiers 
were quickly hemmed within the city, and still General Gage did not move. 
The New England yeomanry were pouring into the camp of the blockaders, 
undisciplined and ununiformed. The regulars of the English army mocked 
them as " a rabble with calico frocks and fowling-pieces." But they were 
free Anglo-Saxons with arms in their hands and a strong purpose in their 
hearts. It was unwise to despise such men. 

A number of aggressive movements were undertaken by volunteers 
against forts and garrisons, which were successful from their very boldness 
and unexpectedness. Among the most important of these was the taking of 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, by the troops of Connec- 
ticut and Vermont. On the morning of the loth of May, 1775, Colonel 
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys appeared in the vicinity of Fort 
Ticonderoga. It seems that there were two independent expeditions igno- 
rant of the purpose of each other. The Colony of Massachusetts had given 
Benedict Arnold a commission as Colonel, and ordered him to raise a force 
of four hundred men to reduce the two forts. Connecticut lent eighteen 
hundred dollars to aid the enterprise, and ammunition was purchased which, 
as we shall see, was not expended for that purpose. The Connecticut men 
were first in the field, and went to Vermont and offered the command to 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 391 

Ethan Allen, He was a bold, rough man who had made himself conspicuous 
by his resistance to the royal governor of New York, who attempted to take 
possession of Vermont. While the troops were concentrating at the rendez- 
vous at Castleton, Arnold came up with his Massachusetts commission. He 
was allowed to join the army, but Allen was put in command. The first 
thing to be done was to obtain information of the condition of the fort. 
Captain Noah Phelps, of Connecticut, dressed as a farmer, went to the fort 
to get shaved, as he claimed he thought he could find a barber there. He 
obtained the information wanted and returned to the camp. 

On the evening of May 9th, the force of Green Mountain Boys were 
ready to embark in the only boat that could be procured; but eighty-three 
men could cross at the same time. The two colonels went over in the first 
boat. When across the river, Allen could not wait for more men and under- 
took the capture of the fort at once. A young lad named Nathan Beman 
led them to the fort. The sentry was captured, and the little force of eighty- 
three men took possession of the fort without firing a shot. The officers 
were asleep in their quarters when a terrified soldier pointed out the door of 
the commanding officer. Colonel Allen cried out, " Come forth instantly or 
I will sacrifice the whole garrison!" Captain Delaplace, the English com- 
mander, had no time to dress and came out of his room as he was. " Deliver 
this fort, instantly ! " said Allen. " By what authority?" asked the British 
captain. " In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," 
replied the patriot. So he was compelled to surrender his fortress before he 
had learned that the war had actually begun. At once the men were paraded 
without arms, and the Americans obtained two hundred cannons, and a large 
stock of ammunition without a blow. Two days afterward, Colonel Seth 
W^arner proceeded to capture Crown Point, which surrendered almost as 
easily as Ticonderoga, and then an armed sloop was taken on the lake. This 
gave the patriots complete control of Lake Champlain, and was of immense 
advantage to the Colonists. 

Provincial Congresses had been held in many of the Colonies, and before 
the summer was gone every one had thrown off the authority of England. 

The second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia on the very day 
that Allen had taken Ticonderoga, and voted a very conciliatory and open- 
handed address to King George, but not to be too late, they at the same time 
took measures to organize the Continental army, appoint a commander and 
general officers, and raise money for the war. The Provincial Congress of 



392 OUR NATION: 

Massachusetts appointed a committee of safety, May 19, 1775, sitting at 
Cambridge, with full powers to regulate the army of the province. Artemas 
Ward was appointed Commander-in-chief. Israel Putnam, John Stark, and 
other heroes of the French war were appointed to important commands. 

On the 25th of May, six English men-of-war sailed into Boston Harbor, 
and it was rumored that reinforcements of troops, with generals Howe, Bur- 
goyne and Clinton, the best generals in the English army, were in these ves- 
sels. 

Gage now thought himself able to meet the undisciplined militia besieg- 
ing him around Boston, but the Colonists did not permit him to choose his 
time and place for the first engagement. On the Charleston peninsula there 
are two hills within easy gun-shot of Boston, namely, Bunker Hill and Breed's 
Hill. In a council of war it was decided to seize and fortify one of these 
hills and prepare for the onset of the English. The rumor came that Gage 
intended to occupy these hills, and fortify them on the morning of the eigh- 
teenth of June. Not a moment was to be lost; on the evening of the six- 
teenth a band of twelve hundred Americans under Colonel Prescott, accom- 
panied by General Putnam, were mustered on Cambridge Common for special 
duty. 

Prayers were said and they marched away in silence, not knowing where 
they were to go. The men only knew that they were marching possibly to 
battle, and some to death. They passed under the very guns of the British 
ships and reached the hillside undiscovered by their enemy. They ascended 
Breed's Hill. A lovely June night, warm and still, was upon them. Across 
the Charles river now slept the unsuspecting foe. Swiftly and carefully they 
labored to throw up a breastwork and build rifle pits on the hill. When the 
morning came Gage saw a long line of intrenchments and armed men behind 
them, where the day before the untrodden grass waved in the summer air. 
He looked through his field glass and saw the tall figure of Colonel Prescott^ 
" Will he fight ? " asked the English general. " Yes, sir," said a bystander, 
" to the last drop of his blood I " 

A simple plan of attack was agreed upon. The Continentals could never 
sustain the shock of regular troops, so an attacking column was sent to march 
straight up the hill to make an assault on the works in front. 

Reinforcements were coming to the Americans; they were supplied with 
a gill of powder and fifteen balls each. To obtain even this small supply the 
balls were run from the organ-pipes of the Episcopal church at Cambridge. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 393 

At noon the English crossed the river, halted for rations, and the men from 
their earth-works could see and hear them. The bright uniforms and glisten- 
ing bayonets of their foes did not deter them from their noble purpose. From 
church steeple and house-top, from all the surrounding cities, there were 
eager spectators watching the event of battle. The well-trained soldiers of 
England had no easy task. They marched up the hill upon that hot sum- 
mer's day through the tall grass with their heavy knapsacks and equipments, 
weighing one hundred and twenty pounds per man. When they were more 
than a musket shot distant they fired a harmless volley at the patriots. 
"Aim low," shouted Putnam to his men, "and wait till you can see the 
whites of their eyes." Nearer and nearer the solid line of red-coats came up 
to the breastworks. At last the word is given to fire, and the American 
sharp-shooters made every shot tell with deadly effect. The English line 
recoiled. Once more they advanced to the very breastwork to receive a 
murderous fire from the patriots, and again sustain a bloody repulse. Now 
they throw off their knapsacks and great-coats, and come up again to the 
• assault. They are resolute this time and will end the fight with the bayonet. 
The Americans have spent the'ir little stock of ammunition and can give the 
red-coats only a single volley. They have no bayonets, and for a little time 
fight hand to hand with their clubbed muskets, but are soon driven out of 
their works and flee to Cambridge under the galling fire of the English ships. 
The English had doubtless won the day, but some things had been gained for 
the patriots; it had been demonstrated that American freemen could contend 
with the disciplined soldiers in a fair stand-up fight. Henceforth the success 
of the Revolution was a foregone conclusion. George Washington, it is said, 
exclaimed when he heard of this battle, "Thank God! the liberties of the 
country are safe." 

The loss of the English in this engagement was nearly eleven hundred, 
and of the Americans five hundred, yet as the English obtained the works 
they regarded it as a victory. The Americans who had up to this time taken 
up arms and fought the English troops, had done so without any form of 
authority, and no responsible body or legislature had recognized or employed 
them. They had no supplies of any kind. Their friends at home wove and 
spun to send them clothing and blankets, and the neighboring citizens fed 
them as best they could. 

The second Continental Congress appointed George Washington, of Vir- 
ginia, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on the 15th day of 



394 OUR NATION: 

June, 1775, and shortly after the battle of Bunker Hill,* adopted the incon- 
gruous assembly of men at Cambridge as " the Continental Army." Wash- 
ington hastened to join the army before Boston, and assumed command 
under a grand old elm at Cambridge, The condition of the army was a sad 
one. They were without much ammunition ; only nine rounds for each man 
in the ranks. They could not use their artillery, and their rude and irregular 
fortifications stretched for eight or nine miles. The provincials were not 
soldiers enough to know how weak they really w^ere. Any moment the 
English might break their feeble lines and hurl them back in utter confusion.. 

Washington saw the peril, but he was powerless. There was an army of 
ten thousand well-trained British soldiers in Boston. A noble body of men, 
but fortunately for the Americans they were led by incompetent generals. 
Gage quietly endured the seige without making a move. Small-pox broke- 
out in his army and did fearful havoc. They were poorly supplied by the 
fleet, and had to destroy the very houses for fuel. 

Gage was recalled by an angry ministry, and quitted Boston in disgrace.. 
General Howe was to succeed him. Washington was at times almost in. 
despair. His men had enlisted for three months, and they found that a 
soldier's life was a hard one, that even their patriotism could not endure. 
The general was a strict disciplinarian and would be obeyed. When January, 
1776, arrived, he found himself with a new army much reduced in number;, 
and he had to begin the weary process of drill and organization over again. 
He knew that Howe was informed of his condition, and he was constantly lookr 
ing out for an attack. In February, Congress sent him a liberal supply of 
arms and ammunition. Ten regiments of militia were added to his little 
army and he began to feel that he could make a move. 

The heights of Dorchester lay to the south of Boston, and if he could 
secure and hold this position he would be able to drive the British out of 
the city. He settled upon the night of the 4th of March for the undertaking 
of securing it. He kept the attention of the enemy by a constant discharge 
of artillery, while he sent a strong party of men to Dorchester to throw up^ 
a line of works. Huge wagons loaded with bales of pressed hay were driven 
there to form breastworks for the men, who could not dig rapidly in the- 
frozen ground. The men worked with such energy that when morning came- 
they had fashioned the bales of hay into redoubts and fortifications of quite- 

* The troops were ordered to fortify Bunker's Hill, but by mistake they fortified Breed's Mill. It 
was supposed to be Bunker's Hill until afterwards and so it is often. erroneously called in history. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 395: 

a formidable appearance. In the morning General Howe, peering with his 
glass through the fog, saw the works and said, " The rebels have done more 
work in one night than my whole army would have done in a month." Howe 
prepared an expedition to cross to Dorchester and fight the patriots, but for 
two days a fearful easterly storm raged that scattered his transports, and on 
the third day he saw that the Americans had possession of the heights ; then 
he knew that it was impossible to capture them. He laid aside his plans of 
battle and made preparations to evacuate the city. Washington might have 
taken them as prisoners of war, but he could not care for them, nor could the 
Colonies keep them until exchanged: so he gave a written promise that he 
would not hinder them in departing from the city. On the 17th of March 
not a British soldier was left in the city of Boston, and five thousand of the 
joyous Continentals entered it in triumph. Seven thousand soldiers, four 
thousand seamen, and fifteen hundred families of those who had been loyal to 
the king, sailed for Halifax. 

General Israel Putnam, with a second detachment of troops, entered the 
city and took possession in the name of tJic TJiirtccn Colonics. 

Washington had learned that Sir Henry Clinton had sailed from Boston 
with his troops upon a secret expedition early in January, 1776, and he natur- 
ally supposed that the British general had gone to New York. He at once 
ordered one of his generals, Charles Lee, to go to Connecticut, raise troops, 
for the defense of that city, and watch Clinton wherever he might attempt to 
land. Six weeks before the evacuation of Boston, Lee had twelve hundred 
troops in the vicinity of New York, and was on the watch for the British. 

But in the mean time the citizens of New York had committed overt acts; 
of treason on their own account. They had seized the cannon at Fort George,, 
and had driven the royal governor on board of an English ship. In March,, 
Clinton arrived with his fleet and army just outside of Sandy Hook, and on. 
the same day, Lee, not knowing where the English were, marched into the 
city and took possession. Clinton, foiled in this attempt to obtain New York,, 
sailed to the southward. Washington had not heard from Lee or Clinton,, 
and as soon as he could leave Boston he pressed on to aid Lee and find 
Clinton, also thinking that Howe would sail to New York. He arrived about 
the middle of April, and began fortifying the city and the Hudson Highlands 
fifty miles above. General Charles Lee had been ordered south to assume 
command, and Lord Stirling, an American citizen of New York, who espoused 
the patriot cause, and was of Scotch descent, was left in command. Lee was 



396 OUR NATION: 

hastening toward the Carohnas, arousing the Whigs, and on the lookout for 
the EngHsh General Clinton. 

Clinton had been joined at Cape Fear by an expedition sent out from 
England under Admiral Sir Peter Parker, and the combined fleet appeared 
off Charleston, South Carolina, on the 4th of June, 1776. The patriots in 
the South were aroused, and, led by Colonel Caswell, had defeated an army 
of loyalists over fifteen hundred strong, in February of that year. When Gov- 
'ernor Rutledge called for volunteers they rallied from all over the State, and 
six thousand well-armed men appeared at Charleston to repel the invaders. 
A fort of palmetto logs and sand was erected on Sullivan's Island, and 
twenty-six cannon were mounted, and a garrison of five hundred men was 
stationed there under Colonel William Moultrie. The British made a com- 
bined attack by land and water upon this island, but were repelled after a 
persistent battle of ten hours. Colonel Thompson, with a small force in a 
battery, held the advancing land forces of Clinton at bay, while the fort 
poured its shot and shell into the fleet. At night the crippled and discom- 
forted fleet sailed away, and for two years the sound of British guns was not 
heard below the Potomac. The English fleet sailed for New York, June 31st, 
I'J'J^i, and the victory of the patriots of South Carolina had an inspiring effect 
upon all the colonists throughout the country. 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

After these months of fighting there were those who could not come to 
think of separation from the home government but with pain. Those who 
were native Englishmen could not but love the land of their birth, and many 
were slow to abandon the proud title of British citizens. The Quakers and 
Moravians were opposed to war as sinful, and great numbers thought it was 
useless for a few weak colonies to measure strength against the power of 
Great Britain. There was long and anxious discussion. The land was flooded 
with pamphlets and papers setting forth the oppression of the home govern- 
ment and the grievances of the Colonies. The wisest and best minds of the 
age were agitating the question of a final rupture, because they saw that this 
was the only course. The vast weight of intelligence, learning and argument, 
as well as patriotism, was in favor of this. 

Among these, a man who wielded a powerful pen, and aided the cause 
with the full weight of his influence and talent, was one who has never re- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 397 

ceived the full amount of honor due him. He held a conspicuous place 
among the men of his time, and his judgment was considered of importance 
in the settlement of serious questions. We refer to Thomas Paine, an ear- 
nest thinker and writer. He had been but a few months in the Colonies, but 
his vigorous mind was enlisted on the side of human freedom. He wrote a 
pamphlet entitled Common Sense, in which he took the strong ground that 
the Colonies ought to be free. The Continental Congress was in session, and 
the time was ripe for a decision of this question. On June 7th, 1776, a reso- 
lution was introduced, " That the United Colonies are and ought to be free 
and independent." Some opposed, some favored. Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land had instructed their delegates to oppose it. The Quakers were loyal to 
the last. Seven States were for, and six against this resolution. It was then 
voted that the matter be deferred two or three weeks. 

On the 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the 
thirteen States, by the unanimous consent of all the Colonies. It was a most 
remarkable document, setting forth the wrongs done to the Colonies, and 
portraying the character of George the King, in the roughest handling he 
ever received, and ending with these wonderful words, " and finally we do 
assert and declare these Colonies to be free and independent States, and that 
as free and independent States they have power to levy war, conclude peace, 
contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which 
independent States may of right do, and for the support of this declaration 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred 
honor." To this immortal document, the names of all the members then 
present, were signed. 

The original draft of the Declaration of Independence, in the hand- 
writing of Thomas Jefferson, the youngest member of the committee, is pre- 
served. The Declaration was first published to the world with only the 
names of John Hancock and Charles Thompson, appended : but two other 
names were signed on the 2d of August. 

This act of the Congress inspired the patriots with enthusiasm. The 
Declaration was read by order of General Washington at the head of each 
regiment, and by the ministers in their pulpits and everywhere in posters and 
papers from Massachusetts to Georgia. The quarrel must now be fought 
out to the end, and result in a glorious victory for freedom, or in ^ shameful 
defeat. Everywhere the Declaration was received with shouts of joy. 
The soldiers in New York pulled down a leaden statue of King George and 



398 OUR NATION: 

sent it to Litchfield, Connecticut, where the family of Oliver Wolcott melted' 
it and ran it into bullets to hurl at the king's soldiers. General Washington 
issued orders to his troops, in his customary dignified style, in which he said, 
" The General hopes and trusts that every officer and soldier will endeavor 
so to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights 
and liberties of his country." 

THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 

Just after the publication of the Declaration, General Howe, wath Clin- 
ton and a large force of troops, made up largely of Hessians hired from 
some petty German Princes to fight the Americans, appeared off New York.. 
These Hessians were hired at so much per head ; and their employment in that 
case to make war on British subjects, was a scandal to Europe. Frederick the 
Great did not hesitate to express his unmitigated contempt for both parties tO' 
the bargain. 

The British army was now composed of twenty-five thousand men, and 
General Howe had brought with him a commission to pacify the Colonies. 
They were now no longer Colonies, but free and independent States. So when 
General Howe invited them to lay down their arms, and promised them a 
free pardon, they replied that they were not seeking forgiveness but liberty. 

The sword must be the arbiter now. The British landed upon Staten 
Island, a few miles from New York. With his fleet Lord Howe could hold 
undisputed possession of the bay, and at his leisure choose his point of 
assault. General Putnam was sent with a body of troops to take and hold 
the heights of Brooklyn which commanded the city of New York. Staten 
Island could be seen from the heights and after a while the English were 
observed moving. They struck their tents, marched on ship board and 
crossed the bay near the Narrows. Putnam marched out of the works to 
meet the enemy, for Washington did not hope for a victory, only to do all 
he could to cripple the enemy. The English landed ten thousand men, in 
three divisions. The left division under General Grant, moved along the 
shore towards Gowanus. The right, under Clinton and Cornwallis, towards 
the interior, and the centre, composed of Hessians, under De Heister marched 
up the Flatbush roaid. The right attacked the Americans, and others came 
to help what seemed the main attack, while the remaining column of British 
cut off their retreat, and the centre closed in upon them. The Americans. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 399 

retreated to their intrenchments. Howe might have captured them, but he 
waited for the co-operation of the fleet and began a regular siege, Washing- 
ton perceiving the peril of the remnant of his forces at Brooklyn, silently 
withdrew them under cover of night, and in the concealment of a dense fog^ 
they reached New York in safety. Early the next morning, before their 
flight was discovered, Washington retreated to Harlem Heights. The British 
followed ; fought him at White Plains and captured Fort Washington. The 
Americans crossed the Hudson closely pursued by the British. 

Lord Stirling had been defeated and taken prisoner; so also, had General 
Sullivan. It was indeed a dark time for the American cause. Scarcely four 
thousand men were left and they were dispirited at the defeats they had suf- 
fered. Thousands of their comrades had been killed, or, worse than death, 
were crowded in prisons and prison ships to die of neglect and starvation. 
This little army of men, without blankets or shoes, poorly armed and ill-fed, 
were a strange force to defend a continent. Washington was in full retreat 
to Philadelphia, and the British had possession of New York and Long Island. 
Again the British general issued his offers of pardon, and many of the rich 
colonists accepted them to preserve their property. The loyalists, who had 
been silenced by the popular uprising, now became clamorous and defiant. 
The terms of enlistment of the militia were expiring, and they were leaving 
the ranks, and the Continentals were deserting every day. Newark, New 
Brunswick and Princeton, were occupied by the British, and Washington 
reached the banks of the Delaware river with scarcely three thousand men. 
So near was the vanguard of the pursuing British, that their drums could be 
distinctly heard by the rear guard of the Continental army. And often the 
men engaged in destroying bridges behind the Americans would see the head 
of the column of the enemy before they had completed their work of destruc- 
tion. Washington knew the desperate odds against him. He had not hoped 
to overcome the British in the Eastern States then, but he resolvd to do what 
he could with such an army as his country had given him. The British 
waited in New Jersey until the river should freeze and they be able to pass 
over. Washington strove to devise a plan by which he should win back suc- 
cess to his cause. 

The defeats which had followed each other so rapidly for four months 
had caused the people to become uneasy and dispirited. The short terms of 
enlistment had been embarrassing to the army, and the increasing activity of 
the tories, as the loyalist colonists were called, all had a disastrous effect. 



400 OUR NATION: 

The winter of the second year of the war had come, and the British 
general was inactive; his ofificers and men were enjoying themselves in New 
York, and small detachments were scattered throughout New Jersey. Thirty 
miles from Philadelphia was the city of Trenton, held by a considerable force 
of British and Hessians. Washington crossed the Delaware Christmas night, 
1776, in a storm, and made a hurried march to Trenton to surprise the care- 
less army there. He succeeded. The general in command was slain, and the 
troops surrendered at discretion. A week after this encounter, three regi- 
ments of British troops came to Princeton, on their way to retrieve the defeat 
of their companions. While they were resting for the night, Washington 
surprised them at dawn on Jan 3, (1777), and after a sharp fight defeated 
them with heavy loss. These successes, slight as they seem, revived the 
drooping spirits of the patriots and restored the wavering confidence in 
Washington, which after this was unbounded. Congress gave him unlimited 
military authority for six months. They also decided that all enlistments 
thereafter should be for the war. Thus in the time of its deepest peril the 
infant Republic was rescued from its danger by the timely victories of Tren- 
ton and Princeton. 

Thus opened the third year of the struggle with victory and enthusiasm 
for their Commander-in-Chief, and soon the hearts of the colonists were to 
be cheered by the arrival of a new ally to freedom, and a source of strength 
that would be of great aid to them in their contest for liberty and independ- 
ence. 

THE FRENCH AID TO THE COLONIES. 

A NEW force was now to enter into this, which had been up to this time 
an unequal contest. France had long cherished a bitterness toward England 
for the loss of her possessions in Canada, caused by the defeat at Quebec. 
She had fondly hoped that America would avenge her for this loss by throw- 
ing off the British yoke. She had more than once despatched to the Colonies 
a secret agent to ascertain their temper; and since the troubles with the 
mother country had begun, her secret emissaries had been at work among 
them to offer sympathy and give pledges of commercial advantage. It was 
safe for her to foster the growing dislike of England in America, and to stir 
up the Americans to fit out privateers to prey upon British commerce. But 
there was one young man at this time serving in the French army, whose 
professions of friendship for America were not all flattery and inspired by 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 401 

hatred of the British. This man was a young French nobleman of large for- 
tune and strong love of liberty. He was less than twenty years of age, and 
had first heard of the American struggle from the Duke of Gloucester, while 
he was dining with some French officers. That conversation made a radical 
change in the young man's plans for the future. He had the keenest sym- 
pathy with the cause of liberty in which he believed the American States to 
be engaged, and no sooner had he become satisfied of this than he was ready 
to ally himself with the patriot army. He had just been married to a beauti- 
ful lady whom he left in France, and came to America in a ship fitted out at 
his own expense. He offered his services to the Continental Congress in the 
third year of the war, when the cause seemed to be at its lowest ebb. His 
presence with other foreign officers stimulated the hopes of the whole 
nation, for it was a visible proof that there was help and sympathy for them 
beyond the ocean. 

America has given this impulsive, generous young man a high place in her 
affection. The Continental Congress gave the zealous French youth a com- 
mission as Major General (July 31st, 1777), and three days afterwards he was 
presented to General Washington at a public dinner. Here on August 3rd, 
two men met for the first time whose names were forever after blended in 
grateful remembrance by a patriotic people, who regard them as deserving 
the highest love of the nation. George Washington, the plain Virginia 
planter, and the Marquis de Lafayette, th'e wealthy French nobleman, who 
had espoused the cause of the feeble Colonies with all his heai-t. Together 
these men were to play a grand and noble part in the Drama of Nations, and 
like brothers were to stand side by side through the darkest days of gloom 
until victory should crown their united efforts and a free people should sound 
their praises from the lakes to the gulf and from sea to sea. The Americans 
have delighted to do honor to the first and most faithful ally to their cause. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777 AND 1778. 

We left Washington after his victory at Princeton, in January, 1777, which 
caused returning enthusiasm of the patriots. He was too weak to attempt 
the capture of the large amount of British stores at New Brunswick, and 
therefore he hurriedly retreated to Morristown, where he established winter- 
quarters. He kept up his plan of harassing the enemy until, at the opening 
of spring, scarcely a British or Hessian soldier was left in New Jersey except 



402 OUR NATION: 

at New Brunswick and Amboy. No general m-ovement was made by either 
army until the first of June, and Washington remained in his winter-quarters 
till the last of May. His army was improving in health and numbers, in dis- 
cipline, spirits and material. A few slight movements had been made in the 
spring. The British had made an expedition up the Hudson and destroyed 
some stores, returning the same night. They had also marched from the 
Sound to Danbury, Connecticut, destroyed the town, and fought the militia 
under General Wooster, Silliman and Arnold. The first had been killed, the 
second barely escaped, but Silliman had discomfited and harassed them all 
the way to the coast and inflicted severe injuries upon them while getting on 
board of their ships at Compo, near Westport, Connecticut. 

May 22nd, Colonel Meigs had crossed the Sound from Guilford, Connec- 
ticut, attacked the British garrison at Sag Harbor, Long Island, burned a 
dozen vessels, destroyed stores, and returned the next day with ninety pris- 
oners. A similar exploit was performed in Rhode Island. A party in whale 
boats rowed across Narraganset bay amid the hostile ships and captured the 
British General Prescott in his bed (July loth), and he was sent under a 
strong guard to Washington. Colonel Barton led this expedition, and after- 
ward received a fine sword, as a testimonial of his bravery, from Congress, 

Thus the campaign was opening. Congress urged Washington to lose 
no time in attacking the enemy; but he could safely wait and bide his time, 
smiling at the vain confidence which had so quickly taken the place of dis- 
trusts and almost of despair. His army was being recruited every day, and 
the old soldiers whose time had expired were induced to remain by patriotic 
appeals and the promise of bounty. By the middle of June there were eight 
thousand men in the Continental army, tolerably well armed and clothed, 
and under a state of fair discipline. 

The Hessians had committed many depredations in New Jersey, and a 
strong thirst to avenge private wrongs induced many of the wavering citizens 
of that State to enter the service. Howe desired to capture the capital of the 
Confederation, Philadelphia, and advanced his army to do so, but Washington 
was so strongly intrenched across his way that he dared not attempt it. He 
prepared an expedition to sail to the Chesapeake, leaving New Jersey in 
complete possession of the Americans. 

At the middle of July, General Burgoyne, with a force of seven thousand 
men, had taken Crown Point and Ticonderoga from the Americans, and 
spread terror through Northern New York and Vermont. Sir Henry Clinton 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 403 

M^as left in command at the city of New York. The British forces under 
General Howe landed at Elkton, Maryland, on August 25th, and marched 
toward Philadelphia; and at Brandywine Creek a severe battle was fought 
with the Americans, September iith, in which Lafayette was wounded, just 
forty days after his introduction to Washington. The patriots were defeated 
with an estimated loss of twelve hundred men. The generals of that time 
were disposed to blame General Sullivan, who commanded the right wing, 
for this defeat, because of alleged lack of vigilance. Washington had lost 
the battle, but not by any want of skill or bravery. 

The British army was warmly received by the Tories of Philadelphia, 
and by demoralizing indulgence there during an entire winter it became so 
-weakened that Dr. Franklin said " Sir William Howe has not taken Philadel- 
phia, but Philadelphia has taken Sir William Howe," 

The Federal Congress had fled at General Howe's approach, and when, a 
bright September morning, the British troops marched into Philadelphia, 
there were many citizens eager to receive them with open arms. The British 
were in possession of the long-desired prize, the Federal Capital, but they 
could obtain no supplies by sea, on account of two forts on opposite sides of 
the Delaware River, a few miles below the city. On the morning of October 
22nd these forts were attacked by a large force of British under Howe. Fort 
Mercer was bravely held by Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Greene of Rhode 
Island, and Fort Miffin by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith, who both 
made a gallant defense and drove the British away. The forts were after- 
ward abandoned and the English had possession of the river to the sea. 
While the British were weakened by the large detachment which had gone 
down the Delaware, Washington decided to attack the main force of the 
enemy at Germantown, and a complete surprise was given them, which at 
first was successful. But in the obscurity of a fog, confusion arose among 
the regiments of the Continental army, and some of them mistook each other 
for enemies. The confusion increased to a wild panic and they fled in disas- 
ter. 

We must leave Washington preparing to go into winter-quarters, and turn 
northward to see about the army of Burgoyne which we left in possession of 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point. This English general had set out on an expedi- 
tion from Canada to subdue the northern part of New York. General Schuyler 
was in command of the Northern Department, but he had only a small force, 
chiefly of militia. These men were of different temper and spirit from the 



404 OUR NATION: 

citizens of Philadelphia and vicinity, and when they heard of the invasion 
they assembled from all over the country. Each man took down his musket 
from where he had hung it, and hurried away to join the army. They were 
undisciplined but resolute of purpose. The invader made slow progress until 
he found himself at Saratoga. A force had been sent to Bennington, Ver- 
mont, to seize cattle and provisions which were gathered there. Colonel 
John Stark had been commissioned to raise troops in New Hampshire, and 
with his men defeated one party of the British, while Colonel Seth Warner 
met and overcame another, August i6th. Burgoyne was in difficulty; he 
had been impeded by the efforts of Schuyler in his march, was in an enemy's 
country without supplies, and found but little help from the Tories. It was 
now October and the heavy fall rains made the roads impassable. Provisions 
were getting low and hard to procure. 

The Indians had been aroused in the Mohawk Valley and joined the 
British. They invested Fort Stanwix with a band of tories under Johnson 
and Butler, and had led. General Herkimer with his militia into an ambush, 
at Iriskany, and defeated them, mortally wounding the General. But the 
besieged party under the command of Colonel Willet made a successful 
sortie and broke the seige. Arnold came up with a body of troops to relieve 
the garrison, and the Indians and their Tory friends fled in confusion. 

The British general had little hope of fulfilling his promise to eat his 
Christmas dinner in Albany. He could not remain where he was; to retreat 
or to advance would be equally disastrous. He crossed the Hudson and 
fortified a camp on the hills of Saratoga. The American army was nine miles 
distant, at Stillwater. An indecisive battle was fought on the 19th of Sep- 
tember, on Bemis's Heights, both sides claiming the victory. The British 
fell back to their camp. Here Burgoyne resolved to wait for reinforcements 
from General Clinton, but after a few days, not hearing from Clinton, he 
prepared another attack upon the Americans. He was completely defeated 
October 7th, 1777. His army had become enfeebled by frequent desertions 
of the Tories and Indians, while that of the patriots was being strengthened 
by the militia which flocked to them, and the Indian warriors of the Six 
Nations who joined them. Ten days after his defeat, when he had only three 
days' rations in camp, he surrendered his whole force to General Gates. Six 
thousand men laid down their arms. Well drilled, armed and clothed, the 
English surrendered to patriots who were mostly ununiformed and fought 
with powder-horns slung from their shoulders, and with muskets many of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 405 

which had no bayonets. Such humihation had never befallen the British 
army before. But this American army behaved with noble spirit toward the 
conquered. General Gates kept his men within their lines that they might not 
see the vanquished lay down their arms. Not a word or look of disrespect 
was given the enemy. "All were mute in astonishment and pity." The posts 
on Lake Champlain now fell into the hands of the patriots. The Americans 
had gained a large amount of small arms, cannon, and munitions of war. 

England took this defeat very much to heart, and now too late, they 
resolved to redress the wrongs of the Colonies. The patriots were encour- 
aged, the Tories were put down, and France was urged to espouse the cause 
of America. Parliament abandoned all claim to tax the Colonies, declared 
that every obnoxious law would be repealed, and that all would be forgiven 
if America would return to her allegiance. Commissioners were hurried 
away to bear the olive branch of peace to Congress. But the time for peace 
with England, as Colonies, had passed forever. In a few well-chosen words. 
Congress declined the offer, and the war went on. America had chosen to 
be free, and proud England, whose armies had been victorious all over the 
world, could not tamely abandon her claim and retire defeated before the 
feeble Colonies. 

The war so far had cost the English twenty thousand lives and increased 
the national debt to an alarming extent. Her ablest generals had been de- 
feated by half-clad and half-armed yeomen. Trade was languishing, and 
there was^dissatisfaction among the laboring classes. Commerce was crippled 
by American privateers, which attacked English merchantmen, and for all 
this loss what had been gained ? Actually nothing but the satisfaction of 
having inflicted untold misery upon an industrious and frugal people, carry- 
ing sorrow and suffering to thousands of happy homes in America. They 
had caused men to leave their peaceful associations, their fields unsown and 
their shops silent. The trading classes had been impoverished, the fisheries 
and commerce well nigh annihilated, and solid money had disappeared from 
the country. That was all that England had gained ; for the Americans. 
were still determined to achieve their independence. 

On February 6th, 1778, a treaty of alliance between the United States 
and France was signed, and now the Americans were not left to fight the 
powerful British nation single handed. Spain also joined with France, and 
from this union the cause of American independence seemed to be secured. 

Washington had gone into winter-quarters with his troops, at Valley 



406 OUR NATION: 

Forge, where his poorly-clad and ill-fed army shivered in their log cabins, 
while the army of Howe were passing their time in luxury and ease within 
the comfortable homes of Philadelphia. If there is a spot on the broad 
Western Continent where a monument ought to be erected to perpetuate the 
memories of the Revolutionary struggle, it is at Valley Forge. Here Wash- 
ington held his army together without sufficient clothing or camp equipage, 
and but little provisions, through the long, dark period of that terrible winter 
■of 1777-78. The general shared with his men the privation and suffering of 
the winter, and neither lost hope in the justness of the cause, nor the final 
issue. And when the fearful ordeal had passed, and the troops received the 
news of the treaty with France in the early spring, shouts and cheers shook 
the air and were heard for miles around. 

This alliance with France gave the Americans great hope and added to 
their zeal. Nor was this all, for the French government began active meas- 
ures of aid at once. A fleet of twelve ships of the line was despatched to 
American waters to co-operate with General Washington, under the com- 
mand of Count D'Estaing. The British Ministry ordered General Howe to 
leave Philadelphia and concentrate his forces in New York. Nor did the 
British leave that city any too soon, for the French fleet appeared in the 
Delaware early in July. Lord Howe had sailed to Raritan Bay, off the New 
Jersey coast into which the larger French ships could not enter. The British 
■army at Philadelphia had started across New Jersey for Sandy Hook, under 
Sir Henry Clinton, pursued by Washington. He overtook them in Mon- 
:mouth County, and fought a severe battle with them on Sunday, June 28, 
1778. During that night the British army stole away, and were far on their 
way toward Sandy Hook the next morning. Washington did not follow, but 
;marched to New Brunswick. 

Washington urged D'Estaing to proceed to Rhode Island and assist in 
driving the British out of that province. General Sullivan was sent to take 
command of the troops there. John Hancock came with the Massachusetts 
militia. Several English ships reinforced the fleet at New York and appeared 
off Rhode Island the day the Americans landed. The French fleet came out 
to engage the English, but a storm disabled both fleets and the Frenchmen 
sailed for Boston to repair, leaving the land force to meet the British unaided. 
The Americans retreated to the north end of the Island, where General Sul- 
livan defeated the British at Quaker Hill, August 29th, and then to avoid 
being cut off by Howe retired to the main land the next day. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 407 

THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 

We come to a chapter in the American conflict which has no parallel in 
the scenes of carnage and cruelty that stain the pages of history, a tragedy 
that found no apologists in the nation in whose interests it was enacted. 
There were in all the provinces numbers of persons who still sympathized 
with the British. Some were born in England and loved the land of their 
birth better than the young Republic of the West; some were shocked by 
the fratricidal war and dreaded its consequences; some were conscientious 
loyalists who thought the patriots were guilty of treason ; some were rene- 
gades who had private grievances to settle, and some were bribed by offers 
of British possessions and gold. All of them, from the peaceful Quaker and 
Moravian who would rather suffer than fight, to the lawless assassin who 
would kill for pay, were termed Tories. We have spoken of two, Johnson 
and Butler. The latter. Colonel John Butler, was in command of a body of 
Tories from Niagara, and he came southward inciting the Indians to arise 
against the settlers. They gathered at Tioga early in June, 1778, and by the 
ist of July mustered eleven hundred white men and Indians, the latter from 
the head waters of the Susquehanna. They entered the beautiful Wyoming 
Valley on the 2nd of July. This was a part of the State of Pennsylvania, 
The strong men were mostly in the distant army on duty; the aged men with 
the women and children and a very few trained soldiers were all that were 
left in this defenceless valley. Colonel Zebulon Butler, a native of Connec- 
ticut, who had been in the early Indian and French wars, with a small force 
of four hundred men marched up the valley to drive the Tory, Butler, and his 
Indians back. They were met by the savage foe and after a fearful conflict 
were most of them killed or taken prisoners, July 4th, 1778. A few of them 
made their escape to Forty Fort, where the families of the settlers were 
gathered for shelter and defence. The invaders swept like a storm down the 
valley and surrounded the fort, where, contrary to expectation, they offered 
humane terms of surrender. The families returned to their homes in fancied 
security, but the Indians could not be held in restraint, and plundered and 
burned, slaughtered and butchered on every hand. They scattered in every 
direction at sunset, and when the darkness of night settled upon the scene 
twenty burning houses sent up their lurid flames to the sky. The cry of 
women and children went up from every field and house, and many who fled 
to the Wilkesbarre mountains and the black morasses of the Pocono, perished 



4o8 OUK. NATION: 

from exposure and starvation. That dark region between the valley and the 
Delaware is very appropriately termed the Shades of Death. Thus was en- 
acted the most shameful crime committed among the many that disgraced 
the action of the English during the war. Joseph Brant, a Mohawk chief, 
^\•ho had adhered to the English, had gone with war parties south of the 
Mohawk River, and joined, with their allies, the Tory leader Walter Butler, 
and together they attacked the settlement of Cherry Valley, killed many of 
the people, and carried many of them into captivity. Such was the alarm in 
all that region that for months no eye was closed in security. The country 
for a hundred miles around was called the dark and bloody ground. The 
record of that one county in New York, — Tryon County, it was then called, 
— for four years, would fill a large volume. To such severe straits had the 
British government come in their contest with a united people fighting for 
their freedom. The Americans had a great account to settle with the Tories, 
who had already been the cause of much bloodshed and misery, and were 
always a source of strength and information to the British. 

THE WAR IN 1 779- 1 780. 

The Continental army had gained much in the former campaign although: 
the spring of 1779 opened with the forces in the same relative position as the 
spring before. But the American army was in better condition and material 
than ever previous. France was in active sympathy with the States, and the 
latter were learning how to conduct naval operations and the art of civil 
government. The power of the British in the States north of the Potomac 
w^as becoming weak and the field of conflict was to be changed to the sparsely 
settled South. The French fleet had sailed to the West Indies to attack the 
English possessions there, and this drew away a part of the British force with 
some of their ships. Altogether the conditions of the conflict were bright for 
the side of America. The chief embarrassment was the fact that a large 
issue of bills of credit of the government was rapidly depreciating in value. 
This Continental currency had neither the binding force of a promise to pay 
in gold or silver, nor the pledge of public credit. 

In the spring of 1779, Washington, in conference with a committee of 
Congress, matured a plan of campaign for the year. He was to act on the 
defensive so far as the British were concerned, and on the offensive in dealing 
with the Indians and Tories. The British troops were to be confined to the 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 409 

;sea coast and the Indians and their allies were to be severely punished where- 
ever a blow could be struck. The British had already sailed to the South 
and subjugated most of the State of Georgia, making their head-quarters at 
Savannah, which they held until nearly the close of the war, even after the 
rest of the State had been recovered. The patriots of Georgia and South 
Carolina contended with the invaders bravely and punished them at many 
points, but were overcome by superior numbers. They were kept out of 
Charleston and obliged to retire to Georgia, when General Prevost came up 
from Florida to join the British and assume command of the forces. 

In the North the British were sending out marauding parties to harass 
the citizens along the sea coast. Such an expedition under General Tryon 
came to Greenwich, Connecticut, to attack General Putnam. The Americans 
were dispersed but rallied at Stamford and drove the invaders back, recap- 
tured a part of their plunder, and harassed them all the way back to New 
York. An expedition under command of Sir George Collier sailed from 
Hampton Roads into the Elizabeth River, and laid the country waste on 
both sides from the Roads to Norfolk and Portsmouth. The last part of the 
:same month two forts on the Hudson were captured by the same fleet, Stony 
Point and Verplanck's Point. These exploits ended. General Tryon went to 
New Haven, Connecticut, and burned that city, also East Haven, Fairfield 
and Norwalk, and boasted of his extreme clemency in leaving a single house 
.-standing on the coast. The Americans were not idle all this time, but were 
making ready to strike heavy and unexpected blows at different points. 
Three days after the burning of Norwalk the Fort at Stony Point was cap- 
tured by General Anthony Wayne, who secretly attacked it on the night of 
July 15th, 1779, "^^it^ ball and bayonet, and captured it after a strong resist- 
ance. This was one of the most brilliant exploits of the war. Another bril- 
liant achievement followed this, the capture of a British force at Jersey City 
by Major Henry Lee, August 19th ; but the joy which these events occasioned 
was changed to sorrow by disaster in the extreme East. Massachusetts fitted 
•out an expedition of forty vessels to sail to the Penobscot and take a fQrt 
Tield by the British at Castine. The commander delayed to storm the place 
for two weeks after his arrival, and a British fleet appeared, destroyed the 
vessels and captured the sailors and soldiers, all but a few who made their 
way back to Boston through the trackless wilderness. 

The settlers of the territories beyond the Alleghanies, who had been 
accustomed to fight the Indians from their first coming into the wilderness, 



410 OUR NATION: 

were fearless and bold, and now they turned their attention to the British 
outposts to fight the white soldiers. Colonel George Rogers Clarke (who 
finally broke the power of the Indians who were incited by the Tories and 
English) led an expedition into the far wilderness of the Northwest Territory, 
where Illinois and Indiana now are, and took the fort at Kaskaskia, and the 
strong post at Vincennes. This had happened in 1778. But the British 
from Detroit retook the post in January, 1779. Acting as a peace-maker, 
Clarke again penetrated a hundred miles beyond the Ohio River, to quiet the 
Indians in the Northwest. He went through the " drowned lands " of Illinois 
in the month of February, and then came upon the fort at Vincennes like 
men who had dropped from the clouds. On the 20th of February, the stars 
and stripes floated once more over the fort. 

The indignation of the people was thoroughly aroused by the massacre 
at Wyoming, and General Sullivan was sent to the very heart of the region 
held by the Six Nations to chastise and humble them. On the last day of 
July he marched up the Susquehanna and joined the forces of General James 
Clinton, a patriot soldier, in August, making an army of nearly five thousand 
men. On the 29th of August they fell upon a fortified band of Indians and 
Tories and dispersed them. Without waiting for them to rally, Sullivan went 
on dealing severe blows and chastising the savages on every hand. The 
Indians were awed and spirit-broken, for a while. 

The campaign in the South had closed with the unsuccessful attempt of 
the Americans to capture Savannah. The French fleet was withdrawn, and 
General Lincoln was in full retreat towards Charleston. Thus closed the 
campaign for 1779 with discouragement for the Americans, as nothing of 
great importance had been accomplished in the South. In the North the 
British were driven out of Rhode Island by the fear of a French fleet. 
Lafayette had gone to France and induced the government to send a larger 
fleet and six thousand troops to America. Sir Henry Clinton sailed for 
South Carolina in December, 1779, and Washington went to winter quarters. 

While at best there was no perceptible gain on the land, the American 
sailors were achieving wonderful success from their bravery and audacity. 
John Paul Jones had dared to attack the strongest ships in the British navy, 
and had followed them into the very chops of the British channel. The 
Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough had struck their colors to the Bon- 
hoinine Richard, the ship commanded by Jones, and he had taken in all, 
during the year, prizes to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars.. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 41 r 

The British had gained nothing in America, and had a great weight of trouble 
in other parts of the world. Spain had declared war with England, and the 
hands of the English were full. 

The campaign of 1780 in the South was a source of disasters to the: 
Americans, resulting in the loss of Charleston, the whole State of South. 
Carolina, the destruction of two armies, and the scattering of a good band of 
independent rangers. General Lincoln and his army surrendered at Charles- 
ton after a gallant defense of forty days. Thus the British took at one time 
between five and six thousand men, and four hundred pieces of artillery. 

Colonel Tarleton, a name which is held in contempt by all honest men„ 
and which appears on the pages of history as the synonym of the meanest 
treachery, surrounded a band of patriots, who were retreating from Charles- 
ton toward North Carolina, with a force twice the size of the Americans., 
and almost annihilated them, killing men after they had surrendered and 
while they asked for quarter. It was a cold-blooded massacre, which was. 
denounced by the liberal press of England in the most scathing terms.. 

General Gates and Baron DeKalb were defeated at Sander's Creek near 
Camden, after a sanguinary encounter, and the Baron was slain. The flower 
of the American army was now destroyed, and the hearts of the patriots 
were troubled with anxiety. 

General Gates had ordered General Sumter to command a detachment 
to intercept a detachment of British and take their supplies. But when he. 
heard of the defeat of General Gates, Sumter fortified his camp at the mouth, 
of the Fishing Creek. Colonel Tarleton fell upon him and scattered his 
band. Sumter escaped, but his power was broken. 

But while these misfortunes were spreading a pall of darkness over the 
American cause, a man hitherto very little known was waging a warfare on 
his own account upon the Tories ; and hanging upon the flanks of the British 
army, and dealing heavy blows to injure and cripple them. He was Francis 
Marion, a partisan leader of South Carolina, who had collected a band of 
Southern patriots after the fall of Charleston. He had been with the army 
in that city, but at the time of the surrender was at home with a wound, so 
he was not hampered by any parole. He came to General Gates just before 
the disastrous battle near Camden with a few ragged fellows, more grotesque 
than the soldiers of Falstaff. The general was inclined to ridicule them, but 
Governor Rutledge, who was present, knew the sterling qualities of the man, 
and made him a brigadier on the spot. The people of Williamsburg arose 



412 OUR NATION: 

in arms and sent for him to command them. He went and organized his won- 
derful brigade, which defied the British power after the disaster at Camden. 

Cornwalhs organized the State of South CaroHna as a royal province, 
himself as military governor, but he was so merciless, vindictive and selfish 
that even those who were friendly to the British fell away from him. On the 
7th of October a band of patriots fell upon a British and Tory force under 
Colonel Ferguson, at Kings Mountain, two miles below the North Carolina 
line, and defeated them. This gave the republicans renewed hope. On the 
seaboard Marion's men were doing wonders in driving back the British and 
redeeming the country. Cornwallis fell back to Winnsborough and fortified. 
Here he remained until he went in pursuit of Greene a few weeks later. 

Victory after victory crowned the efforts of Marion and his men, but he 
'had confined his operations thus far to forays upon the enemy. Now he con- 
cluded to try strength in an open assault upon the British post at George- 
town. The partisan warrior was repulsed but not disheartened. He had a 
camp on Snow's Island in the Pedee country, and would sally forth so sud- 
denly and attack the British unawares at so many and widely separated 
points in such a marvellously short time, that they became thoroughly 
alarmed, and determined to break up his rendezvous. This was not accom- 
plished until the spring of 1781, when a band of Tories led the way to his 
•camp in the swamp, while he was away, took the few men whom Marion had 
left there and destroyed his supplies. The hero, when he returned, was 
surprised, but not disheartened, and at once started in pursuit of the 
marauders. After following them, he suddenly turned and confronted the 
British colonel, Watson, who came up with fresh troops. 

But now we will turn to the North for a little while. In June, 1780, 
Clinton had made an incursion into New Jersey, burned Elizabeth and Con- 
necticut Farms, and had been driven back to Staten Island after a severe 
•defeat at Springfield, on the 23rd. A French army under Count de Rocham- 
beau had landed on Rhode Island with six thousand land troops, on July 10, 
1780. Lafayette had arranged the whole affair during his visit in France; 
and to prevent any conflict of authority, as in the case of D'Estaing, the 
French had commissioned Washington a Lieutenant General in their army. 
Rochambeau first met Washington at Hartford, and many of the French 
soldiers were sent to encamp at Lebanon, Connecticut, as the season had too 
far advanced for them to be of service in the campaign. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 413 

THE FHIST AND ONLY TRAITOR. 

Now we come to a sad chapter with which to wind up the record of 
the year 1780. At different times during the war the British officers had 
attempted, directly or indirectly, to tamper with Americans of high rank 
whom they thought were of easy virtue, but not till the very last of the war 
had they found a single one to listen to their advances. Now they ap- 
proached one whose personal ambition had led him to aspire to supersede 
his commander-in-chief, but he had failed in the attempt. Benedict Arnold, 
of Connecticut, the arch-traitor and the man whose name will go down to 
posterity covered with execration, was a brave man, but thoroughly bad. He 
had fought nobly at the outbreak of the war, as we have seen, and held a 
high command in the Continental army. He was impulsive, vindictive and 
unscrupulous; always in some sort of a quarrel with his fellow-officqrs, and 
unpopular with his command. When he was appointed to the command of 
Philadelphia, after being wounded at Bemis' Heights, he married the daughter 
of a prominent tory, and lived in splendor far beyond his means. To meet 
the exactions of his creditors, he resorted to a great many "fraudulent prac- 
tises, which caused him to be reported to the Continental Congress. He was 
convicted and severely reprimanded by a court martial appointed to try the 
case. Washington bestowed this reprimand, and Arnold, smarting under the 
disgrace, and pressed by the load of debt, attempted the grievous crime of 
l)etraying the post at West Point. He was regarded with suspicion, but 
Washington did not think him capable of treason. The price of his perfidy 
^was to be a major general's commission in the English army and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. Major John Andre was employed by Sir Henry Clinton to 
complete the negotiations, which had been going on for months. 

West Point was a fortified position on the Hudson, deemed of great im- 
portance to both parties, and was strongly garrisoned by the Americans. 
The plans were, that Clinton was to sail up the Hudson, attack the post, and 
after a show of resistance, Arnold was to surrender all the arms and men to 
him. But the final arrangements must be made by a personal conference, 
and Andre was sent for this purpose. He was taken up the Hudson on 
board of a British vessel, the Vulture, and landed on the West shore, where 
he met Arnold at about midnight. At daylight their conference was not 
ended and Arnold took Andr6 to a house within the American lines. Some 
patriots on a point of land off which the Vulture lay, fired round shot at 



414 OUR NATION: 

her with such effect that she dropped down the river, and Andre was left 
behind. He was compelled to cross the Hudson, and start for New York 
on horseback. At Tarrytown he was stopped by three young Americans, 
searched, suspected and taken to the nearest American military post then in 
command of Colonel Jameson, who unwisely allowed the prisoner to send a 
letter to Arnold, although he could not see why; and then the traitor aban- 
doned the unfortunate Andre, and escaped in his own boat to the Vulture. 
Andre was more to be pitied than blamed, but, found in the vile condition of 
an enemy taken in disguise, he was tried as a spy, found guilty and hanged, 
while the real miscreant escaped. Washington did his best to save the brave 
young officer, but the stern rules of war would not permit him to spare one 
engaged in such an act. There were dark intimations of other'treasons, and 
it would not do to pass this lightly by. Andre begged to die a soldier's 
death, but this was denied him, and he was hanged on the second day of 
October, 1780. The double traitor, Arnold, whose life was not to be com- 
pared with that of Andre, lived and enjoyed the price of his treason. 

And thus the campaign of the sixth year closed with a dark plot for the 
betrayal of the cause of the American States by one of its own high of^cers. 

THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE STRUGGLE. 

The events of the year 1781 opened with one of the noblest displays of 
true patriotism in the army. For long years the soldiers had endured every 
privation and suffering from the want of money and clothing. The bills of 
credit in which they had been paid depreciated in value until it was almost 
worthless. Faction and disagreement had agitated the Continental Congress, 
and prevented needed action upon important measures. The soldiers had 
enlisted for three years, or during the war, and this they regarded as meaning 
for three years'if the war did not sooner end, but the of^cers interpreted it 
for the entire war, even if it lasted longer than three years. The soldiers, 
asked for pay which was not given them. On the first day of January, 
thirteen hundred of the Pennsylvania line, who regarded their term of enlist- 
ment as having expired, marched out of their camp at Morristown and deter- 
mined to return to Philadelphia in a body and demand their rights from 
Congress. General Anthony Wayne, who was much beloved by his com- 
mand, tried by threats and promi.ses to dissuade them, but they would not be 
persuaded. The poor fellows thought, rightly enough, that they had a right- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 415 

eous cause of grievance. General Wayne stood before them and cocked his 
pistol, but they presented bayonets to his breast and said, " We love and 
respect you ; you have often led us to battle, but we are no longer under your 
command; be on your guard. If you fire your pistol we will put you to 
instant death." Wayne appealed to their patriotism, and they pointed to the 
unfulfilled promises of the Congress. He told them of the comfort and aid their 
conduct would give the enemy, and they pointed to their tattered garments, 
and poorly-fed bodies, but said that they were willing to fight for freedom, for 
it was dear to their hearts, but Congress must make adequate provision for 
their comfort and necessities, and declared that they were determined to go 
to Philadelphia to enforce their rights. Wayne went with them, and when at 
Princeton they halted and drew up a written programme of their demands. 
This was forwarded to Congress and resulted in a compliance with their just 
demands. This Pennsylvania line was disbanded, but when Sir Henry Clin- 
ton endeavored to treat with them and sent emissaries to promise them all 
their back pay, if they would join his army, one of the leaders said, " See, 
comrades, he takes us for traitors! let us show him that the American army 
can furnish but one Arnold, and that America has no truer friends than we." 
They seized the emissaries and their papers and sent them to Wayne, who 
executed them as spies. When a reward was offered to the insurgents they 
refused to touch it and sent back word : " Necessity compelled us to demand 
our rights of Congress, but we desire no reward for doing our duty to our 
bleeding country." Many of them re-enlisted for the war. On the i8th of 
January the New Jersey troops, emboldened by this success, also mutinied, 
but the mutiny was put down by harsher means. Congress was aroused to 
action, and devised means for the relief of the soldiers. Taxes were imposed 
and cheerfully paid ; money was loaned on the credit of the government ; a 
national bank was established, and Robert Morris, who had given his wealth 
and personal services to the country, and aided in establishing the national 
credit, was the president. He supplied the army with food and clothing 
bought on his own credit, and doubtless prevented it from disbanding by its 
own act. All honor to Robert Morris, who, though not a soldier, was a 
patriot and the soldier's friend. 

The military operations of the year were confined to the South, and 
opened with a series of depredations committed by the arch-traitor, Arnold, 
who seemed over anxious to inflict all the misery he could upon his suffering 
country, and earn the price of innocent blood with which his treason had 



4i6 OUR NATION: 

been rewarded. He made two expeditions up the James river, destroying 
public and private property at Richmond and Petersburg; and although the 
Americans did their utmost to capture him, he was too cautious, watchful 
and quick for them, and after plundering the people on every hand, returned 
with the British fleet to the New England coast, where an inhuman butchery, 
equalled only by the massacre of the Wyoming Valley, was enacted, of which 
we will speak hereafter. 

General Greene was appointed to supersede General Gates in command 
of the American forces in the South. The battle of the Cowpens was fought 
January 17th, 1781, and resulted in a brilliant victory for the Americans. 
Then followed the most remarkable military movement in the war, the retreat 
of General Greene through North Carolina to Virginia. He was not then 
strong enough to cope with the whole British army; but on the 15th of 
March, finding his force much increased in strength, he fought the battle of 
Guilford Court house, and although the Americans were repulsed and the 
British were in possession of the field, Charles Fox, in a speech in the House 
of Commons, declared "Another such victory will ruin the British army." A 
line in the Scotch ballad was fully illustrated : 

" They baith did fight, they baith did beat, they baith did rin awa'." 

Cornwallis could not maintain the ground he had gained, and the Ameri- 
cans retreated in good order. Greene rallied his forces and pursued the 
British to Deep River, Chatham county. On April 25th the American army 
was surprised and defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, but Creene conducted his 
retreat in good order. The British commander, Rawdon, set fire to Camden 
and retreated May loth. Within a week Greene captured four important 
posts, but was unsuccessful at Fort Ninety-six, from which he retired June 
19th. Successes at other points were being reported. Fort Galphin and the 
city of Augusta, Georgia, had been taken by the Americans under Major 
Henry Lee. Now the British were retreating and the Americans were the 
pursuers. 

The battle of Eutaw Spring, September 8th, resulted in a victory for 
Greene. The partisan bands under Marion and Sumter were winning vic- 
tories on the Santee waters. The French army left New England to join the 
Americans on the Hudson, and Washington succeeded in avoiding the watch- 
fulness of General Clinton in New York, crossed the Hudson into New 
Jersey, and was well on his way before Clinton was aware of his real inten- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 417 

tion. Arnold was sent to New England by the British to draw Washington 
back. Then followed the bloody and inhuman butchery of the garrison at 
Fort Griswold, opposite New London, in which nearly one hundred men were 
murdered in cold blood after they had surrendered, 

Cornwallis was now fortifying his army at Yorktown in Virginia. Clinton 
sent a fleet to aid him, but he was too late, for when the British ships came 
to the mouth of the Chesapeake they found the French fleet there, under De 
Grasse, to oppose their advance. The combined American and French forces 
under Washington and Rochambeau were soon investing the whole British 
force under Cornwallis. A desperate defense was made and repeated sallies 
were attempted to drive the assailants from their works, but all without suc- 
cess. The end was approaching. In a few days the defenses at Yorktown 
were captured by the armies of Washington and his French compeer. The 
British guns were put to silence. One night Cornwallis attempted to break 
the lines and get his men back to New York, but was prevented by the obsti- 
nate fire of the besiegers, and barely escaped to his intrenchments. All hope 
was over, and eight weeks after the seige began Cornwallis and his army of 
eight thousand men capitulated to the American commander-in-chief. 

Cornwallis felt the keenness of his humiliation and feigned sickness on 
the day of his surrender, and therefore sent his sword by an inferior officer. 
General Lincoln, who had before surrendered to Cornwallis under the most 
humiliating terms at Charleston, S. C, was -detailed to receive the formal sur- 
render. When the sword was handed to him he took it and at once returned 
it to the representative of the fallen English general. The war was virtually 
over; a little skirmishing was going on in Georgia and South Carolina, but all 
was rejoicing and gladness among the victorious Americans. 

Old King George was stubborn, but his Parliament would not sustain 
him, and although a treaty of peace was not signed until 1783, there was but 
little hostile movement in America by the British troops, while the Americans 
were constantly on the watch. Savannah was evacuated July nth, 1782. 
The last blood was shed in September following. Measures were taken by 
the American Congress and the British government to effect terms of peace. 
Peace was made with France and Spain. The Americans had become ex- 
hausted by the long struggle of eight years, and could show little more than 
their soil and their liberty in return for it all. Their commerce was dead ; 
their fields ruined ; some of their towns and cities desolated, and they had no 
money. The public debt had swelled to one hundred and seventy millions of 



4i8 OUR NATION: 

dollars, and there was nothing" which could be called a government. Five 
commissioners were appointed to meet the English commission in Paris, and 
effect a settlement. John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas 
Jefferson and Henry Laurens were the five chosen. A preliminary treaty 
was signed November 30th, 1782, but the final treaty was not signed till Sep- 
tember 3d, 1783. That treaty gave full independence to the thirteen United 
States of America, with ample territory to the great lakes on the North and 
westward to the Mississippi river, with unlimited rights to fish on the banks 
of Newfoundland. The two Floridas were returned to Spain. 

There is one little episode prior to this time which we desire to mention : 
After the surrender of Cornwallis on the 19th of October, 1781, and before 
peace was declared, everything seemed to be in a state of confusion. The 
thirteen States were loosely held together. Congress had but little power. 
There was no money to pay either officers or men, and they had been fighting 
much without pay. The army would be disbanded. They had fought 
bravely, heroically, and, as patriots, had won the victory. Now they must 
find a livelihood amid the desolations Avhich had been wrought by the fearful 
struggle. The gloomy aspect threw a pall over all classes. Congress voted 
to retire the of^cers on half pay for life ; but this was afterwards changed to 
full pay for five years, and the soldiers to full pay for four months, in part 
pay for their losses. Great dissatisfaction arose all over the country. Many 
attributed the trouble to the weakness of a Republican form of government, 
and desired a monarchy. Nicola, a foreign officer in a Pennsylvania regi- 
ment, in a well-written letter, advocated the claims of a monarchy, and pro- 
posed that the army should make George Washington king, but he was 
sharply rebuked for this by Washington himself, and it was never afterwards 
broached. 

The United States was now a nation recognized by England, France, 
Spain and Holland. But the feeble compact claimed by the Continental 
Congress, called Articles of Confederation, could not long hold them together. 
Each State might or might not comply with its demand, as she saw fit. That 
power could only discuss and advise. No taxes could be collected but by 
their authority; they could only apportion certain amounts for the States to 
raise or not, as they chose, and most frequently they did not chose, and it 
became utterly impossible to raise money by this method. The hardships 
and miseries of the people fell with a severe burden upon the laborers. The 
sufferings of a patient people could not endure everything, and their im- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 419 

patience showed itself in mutterings of discontent. A band of two thousand 
men in Massachusetts arose in revolt and demanded that the collection of 
taxes should cease for a time. It was some time before this insurrection 
could be put down. Four or five years of intense privation and suffering 
followed the Revolution ; and surrounded with the troubles of a misgoverned 
people, it almost seemed as if the war, after all, had been a failure. 

There had been dark days during the war, when men's hearts failed them 
and they sometimes lost confidence in Washington. Reverses and disasters 
came thick and fast, and he was retreating far too much. He adhered to a 
defensive policy when Congress was demanding quick and decisive blows to 
curb the invader. The people did not consider the utter insufficiency of his 
resources, but laid the blame of every reverse upon him. But when the tide 
of battle had turned, and Washington, with his well-disciplined army, was 
moving on the offensive, and victory brought glory to him, they feared that 
he would become too powerful, and, like other conquerors, assume kingly 
prerogatives. His army loved him with a fervor that amounted almost to 
idolatry, and he had but to speak the word, it was feared, and they would rise 
to hail him king. The country feared that he might prove another example 
of a successful military chieftain, who would be actuated by the lawless and 
vulgar lust of power which has disgraced the pages of history. 

But when the war was over, Washington sheathed his sword and resigned 
his commission. He had refused to receive pay for his services, and rendered 
to Congress a bill of his actual expenses, kept with neatness and precision, 
for the whole period from the time he assumed command to the close of the 
Avar. He then retired to cultivate the affection of men, and to practice the 
domestic virtues. He attended to his farm, and was thankful to escape the 
burden of responsibility which official position must bring. This exhibition 
of noble grandeur in its wonderful simplicity, endeared him forever to the 
hearts of the American people. Mount Vernon was to become the shrine to 
which the feet of patriots would turn, and where the measure of American 
devotion would be full. George Washington had won the proudest place in 
the hearts of his countrymen. The family of generals who composed his 
staff and his immediate companions loved him as a brother. The common 
soldier regarded him as much more than an ordinary being, and his presence 
would inspire them with intense enthusiasm. The great mass of the people 
all over the country hailed him as the deliverer of his people and esteemed 
him above all glorious names of those who had won them independence. 



420 OUR NATION: 

Washington and Lafayette were the two names that blended in all the public 
addressses and orations of the periods, and rested alike upon the lips of the 
rich and poor. 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 

Washington and the leading minds of this period saw the great need of 
modifying or changing the Articles of Confederation which had held the 
thirteen States so loosely together. Congress was only a name, and the 
league held the States only for a moment ; it might be sundered by any one 
or more of them at will. The lovers of their country could discover at a 
glance that there was imperative need of a central government which should 
exercise power over all, and be respected by all. In the absence of such a 
government, the liberties of the people Avould be constantly in danger from 
internal dissension within and foreign foes without. Some one might rise 
with the power to make himself king. Conspicuous among those who shared 
this view with Washington, was a New York man who had entered the army 
at nineteen, and had been the friend and companion of Washington through 
nearly all the war — Alexander Hamilton. He had risen to high rank in mili- 
tary command, and afterward he was called to high position in civil life. He 
brought order from the utter financial chaos which threatened the very 
existence of the army and country. It was he who first suggested the 
ground work of the CONSTITUTION OF THE United States. He was the firm 
friend and staunch ally of Washington all through the troublous times that 
tried the very life of the infant nation, before the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion. Hamilton was a brave and skillful soldier, a brilliant debater, a persua- 
sive writer and a true statesman. 

At the suggestion of Washington, a convention to remedy the defects of 
the Articles of Confederation was called to assemble at Annapolis, Maryland, 
in September, 1786; only five States sent delegates. John Dickinson was 
appointed chairman. They did little except to appoint a committee to revise 
the articles, and adjourn with a recommendation to Congress to call the 
meeting of a convention in Philadelphia the following May, to complete the 
work. Congress recommended the several States to send delegates to such a 
convention. The convention met with delegates from all the States except- 
ing Ne\v Hampshire and Rhode Island, but they had not gone far before they 
found that no amount of amending and tinkering could make the old "Arti- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 42r 

cles of Confederation " serve the purpose of a permanent government. For 
a number of days there was no progress. Such was the great variety and 
difference in opinion that everything was at a standstill. Franklin urged the 
necessity of imploring Divine assistance in a memorable speech. " How has 
it happened, sir," he said, " that while groping so long in the dark, divided in 
our opinions, and now ready to separate without accomplishing the great 
object of our meeting, that we have hitherto not once thought of humbly 
applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings ? In the 
beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we 
had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were 
heard and graciously answered. * * * The longer I live, the more con-^ 
vincing proofs I see of the truth that God governs in the affairs of men. I 
therefore move that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven 
and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning 
before we proceed to business." The resolution was not adopted. The con- 
vention, excepting three or four members, thought prayers were not neces- 
sary, because in this case they would be merely formal. 

After long and earnest discussion the convention referred all papers to a 
committee of detail, and adjourned for ten days. They reassembled and the 
committee reported a rough draft of the present Constitution. Amendments: 
were made, long and angry discussion followed, and the whole matter was. 
referred to a committee for final revision. This final report was made Sep- 
tember I2th, 1787, and the Constitution was submitted to the Legislatures 
of the several States for adoption. The convention had worked for four 
months, and was composed of the ablest and best men in the country^ 
George Washington was the president ; Benjamin Franklin brought the ripe 
experience of four score years to this crowning task of a noble life. Alex- 
ander Hamilton came from New York. And with such men came many 
vvhose names are held in enduring honor by a grateful people. These men 
were the peers of any in the country, and this assembly had not seen its 
equal since the Congress which adopted the " Declaration of Independence " 
had met in the same hall eleven years before. Their great work had gone 
out to the country, and the people were divided in sentiment upon it. There 
were many true patriots and lovers of their country who were opposed to it. 
They were strong in their argument, and conscientious in their opposition.. 
Some feared the most those evils which would arise from a weak government,, 
and sought relief from this in a close union of the States under a strong- cen- 



422 OUR NATION: 

tral government, and some feared the example of the over-governed nations 
of Europe and hestitated to give too much power to the central government 
for fear that a despotism might arise. State sovereignty, sectional interests, 
and radical democracy, all had their advocates, and were united only in 
opposing the ratification. Hamilton wrote pamphlets and articles for the 
public press in its favor. Washington threw the whole weight of his influ- 
-ence in its favor. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia was one of the most per- 
sistent opposers of the Constitution. Excitement ran high. Somewhat 
reluctantly, and in many cases by bare majorities, the States all ratified it, 
•and it became the organic law of the land. At once, ten amendments were 
proposed to meet the views of those who were apprehensive of too much 
•power in the central government. A trial of its powers for nearly a century 
has demonstrated the wisdom of those men who devised it, and asked the 
blessing of God upon their deliberations. 

This Constitution is the supreme law of the Ian.', Under its authority 
the President, the Congress, and the Judiciary act; and all the laws passed 
must be in conformity to it. Congress may pass an act unanimously and the 
President heartily sign it, but if the Supreme Court decide that it is contrary 
"to the Constitution, it has no binding force as law, and can never be exe- 
<cuted. The great love of law which predominates in the Anglo-Saxon race 
has caused a reverence for this document which rouses the nation to arms 
'when once it is assailed. 

When eleven States had ratified this Constitution, the Continental Con- 
!gress took measures to carry it out, and fixed the time for choosing the elec- 
tors of President and Vice President. They provided for an organization of 
'the new form of government, and a transfer of their power. On the fourth 
day of March the National Constitution became the supreme law of the 
land, and the Continental Congress passed out of existence. This was the 
vcommencement of the glorious career of the United States as a nation. 

One thing we should mention before passing to the Administration of 
'the first President. The old Congress had organized a territorial government 
for the vast region northwest of the Ohio river. In the bill in which this was 
■done tlicre were many important provisions. It contained a provision strik- 
ing at the old English law of primogeniture, in which estates descended to 
the eldest born. Instead of this law another was made which divided the 
property among all the children, or the next of kin. It also declared that 
" there shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory, 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 423 

otherwise than in punishment for crime whereof the party shall be duly con- 
victed," This was adopted July 13th, 1787, and very soon a mighty tide of 
immigration began to flow into that fertile region, amounting to twenty 
thousand in one year — 1788. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF WASHINGTON. 

When the vote of electors was opened by Congress it was found that 
George Washington had been unanimously elected for President, and John 
Adams for Vice President of the United States. 

There was much work to be done to get the new machine of government 
into working order. The first serious question was what to do with the 
public debt. Washington, perplexed, asked a friend, " What is to be done 
about this heavy debt ? " " There is but one man in America can tell you," 
replied his friend , " and that is Alexander Hamilton." The subject of the 
tariff was brought forward by James Madison, the acknowledged leader of 
the House of Representatives, two days after the vote of President and Vice 
President had been counted. He proposed a tax on tonnage and a duty on 
foreign goods brought into the United States, that were favorable to Ameri- 
•can shipping. Then three executive departments were organized, namely, of 
the Trcas2i?y, of War, and of Foreign Affairs, at the head of each was a secre- 
tary. These were to be appointed by the President with the concurrence of 
the Senate, ^and should form his advisory council, and report in writing when 
required. Alexander Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. 
He was the most able financier of his time, and made those remarkable 
•reports which for years formed the financial policy of the national govern- 
ment. He proposed the funding of all the public debt, registered and unreg- 
istered ; the payment of the interest ; the redemption of the Continental 
money, and the assumption of the State debts. The government certificates 
and Continental money had depreciated from their face value, and were held 
by speculators who had bought them at a low price, and some thought that 
the government ought not to pay full price for them, but Hamilton wisely 
claimed that the public credit was concerned in its full redemption. All 
these outstanding debts were to be funded, and interest paid at six per cent, 
until the government should be able to pay the principal. A sinking fund 
was formed by appropriating the receipts of post offices, and it was pro- 
phesied that in five years the United States could borrow money in Europe 



424 OUR NATION: 

at five per cent. A system of revenue from imports and internal duties was 
devised by Hamilton. All of his proposed measures were adopted by Con- 
gress at their second session. 

While the House was at work on the revenues, the Senate were engaged 
on the problem of the judiciary. Senator Ellsworth, of Connecticut, proposed 
a measure which was adopted, with some changes. Webster afterward said 
of Hamilton, in his eloquent style, " He smote the rock of national resources 
and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse 
of the public credit and it sprang upon its feet." 

The vigor of a government, so unlike the old Congress, renewed the 
public confidence, and commerce began at once to improve. Ships were 
built, and in a few years the new flag was floating on almost every sea and in 
every port. The people at home were recovering from their poverty imposed 
by the war. Agriculture and manufactures were prosperous, and a steady 
stream of immigration from the coast westward was opening up the wonder- 
ful resources of the regions beyond the Alleghanies and Ohio river. North 
Carolina and Rhode Island, the only States which had not adopted the Con- 
stitution, now came into the Union, the first, November, 1789, and the latter 
May 29, 1790. 

The third session of the first Congress met in December, 1790, and found 
all departments of government in good condition, ample revenue coming in, 
and general prosperity on all sides. During this session, the first of a long 
list of States which should come in to swell the original thirteen was admitted. 
Vermont came into the Union February i8th, 1791, and the territory south- 
west of the Ohio was formed. A national currency was established. The 
question of a national coinage of money was decided at the first session of 
the second Congress, and a mint was established at Philadelphia. The post 
ofifice department was organized at this session, but the Postmaster General 
was not made a cabinet officer until 1829. Most of the first term of Wash- 
ington as President was taken up in getting the government into working 
order, but such was the moderation, wisdom, and patriotism of these grand 
men who performed this gigantic but novel work, in which they had no 
model to guide them, that but few changes have had to be made, and none of 
these few were in any degree radical. 

There had been some disturbance with the Indians in the northwest, in- 
cited by emissaries from the British, who still held some of the posts on the 
frontier, contrary to the provisions of the treaty of Paris. Open hostilities 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 425 

began in 1790, and General St. Clair, the governor of the Territory, with two 
thousand troops, was surprised and defeated in Darke county, Ohio, Novem- 
ber 4, 1791. General Anthony Wayne was sent to take command and punish 
the savages, which he did so eiTectually that they caused little trouble after- 
wards until the war of 1812-15. Kentucky was admitted to the Union June 
1st, 1792. 

Party spirit assumed definite form during the second session of the 
Second Congress, just as the first term of Washington was coming to an end. 
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were the two men around whom 
two political organizations began to crystallize. They were both members of 
Washington's cabinet. Hamilton became the leader of the Federalists and 
Jefferson of the Republicans. The Federalists believed in a strong central 
government, and would concentrate the power of the national government, 
Avhile the Republicans would distribute the power among the States. Hence 
arose the strife between the two, and the country was being stirred by bitter 
discussion. In the heat of this excitement the second presidential election 
came on. W^ashington and Adams were re-elected by large majorities. The 
Republicans were gaining in numbers and strength, and when the French 
Republic had declared war against England, Spain and Holland, Genet came 
from France to procure aid and sympathy from America. The Republicans 
and many Federalists received him with open arms, and he began to fit out 
privateers to iight England and Spain. Washington prudently issued a pro- 
clamation of neutrality, May 9th, 1793, but Genet insisted upon carrying out 
his schemes, and tried to excite hostility between our people and their own 
government. Washington finally requested his government to recall him, 
which was done, and the French assured the United States that their govern- 
ment disapproved of the course Genet had taken. 

The first insurrection against the government arose in Pennsylvania, and 
is called the " Whiskey Rebellion." It was caused by Congress imposing an 
excise duty on domestic liquors. This measure was very unpopular, and 
awakened opposition. The insurrection broke out in the western part of 
Pennsylvania and spread over all that portion of the State, and into Virginia. 
At one time six or seven thousand men were under arms. The local militia 
were powerless, or in sympathy with the rebels. Washington issued two 
proclamations to them to disperse, but seeing that they would not disband 
by peaceful means, he ordered out a large body of militia from New Jersey. 
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, under command of General Henry 



426 OUR NATION: 

Lee, which quelled the rebellion, and thus the trouble that had threatened 
the stability of the government was averted. 

Another dark cloud arose above the horizon. England and America 
accused each other of infringing upon the terms of the treaty of 1783. The 
United States claimed that the British had not indemnified them for negroes 
carried away at the close of the war. That British posts on the frontier were 
maintained contrary to treaty. They had been inciting the Indians to hos- 
tility, and in the war with France the neutrality of our ships had been 
violated. The British claimed that the United States had not done as they 
agreed concerning the property of loyalists, and the debts contracted in 
England prior to the Revolution. War seemed inevitable, and was only 
averted by the prudence and wisdom of Washington, who sent John Jay as 
envoy extraordinary to England to compromise and settle. He effected the 
best arrangement he could by which the British might collect all debts act- 
ually due them before the war, but the United States would not pay for the 
slaves taken away. The British would pay for unlawful seizure in the war 
with France, and evacuate the forts on the frontier. This treaty was not 
satisfactory to most of the people, but Congress ratified it on the 24th of 
June, 1795. Soon afterwards John Jay proved his ability and patriotism by 
concluding a treaty with Spain, by which the United States gained the free 
use of the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans for ten years. 
Through the whole of Washington's administration, the greatest prudence, 
circumspection and wisdom were needed. No sooner had one dif^culty 
been surmounted than another appeared. The infant commerce, which was 
spreading all over the world, was attacked by the Algerian pirates, who cap- 
tured large numbers of American sailors, and held them in slavery in the 
Barbary States, until their ransom was paid. This gave rise to efforts to 
establish a navy. After many attempts had been made, Congress finally, 
in the spring of 1794, passed a law creating a navy and appropriating seven 
hundred thousand dollars to build and equip vessels. In the absence of the 
proposed navy, the United States, in common with other governments, 
entered into a treaty to pay the Dey of Algiers an annual tribute for the 
ransom of captives taken by his pirates. 

Washington's administration, which was drawing to a close, had been one 
of incessant care and action. The two parties that had arisen during his 
administration were ready to enter the political contest when Washington 
issued his famous Farewell Address. After retiring; from of^ce he lived for 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH.. 427 

nearly three years at his home, Mount Vernon,, and died December 14th, 
1799. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 

The two parties had but little time to engage in the contest for the 
election of a successor to Washington after the publication of his Farewell 
Address in September, for the election came in November. The contest was 
sharp and earnest, and resulted in a victory for both sides. John Adams was 
elected President, and Thomas Jefferson, Vice President. They were in- 
augurated March 4th, 1797, and were confronted at the very outset of their 
administration by a threatened war with France. The French Directory, 
which had the management of government at the time, had ordered Pinckney, 
the American minister, to leave the country; depredations were committed, 
upon American commerce and the French minister had insulted the United 
States. Adams took very decided and active measures to redress the wrong. 
He sent three ministers to France to settle the difificulty, with Pinckney at: 
their head. The French would not treat with them, and the Americans made; 
ready for war. The navy was finished and ships put in commission.. A large: 
land force was collected and equipped, and there was a naval battle in which 
the French man-of-war was conquered. But there had been no formal decla-- 
ration of war, and the French Republic, seeing the strong position of the 
United States, receded and made overtures of settlement. Three envoys. 
were sent and conferred with Napoleon, and concluded a treaty of friendship- 
and peace. The ambassadors returned to America, and the army was dis- 
banded. 

Two very unpopular measures were passed by the administration known, 
as the Alien and Sedition laws, which were repealed the next year. 

The death of Washington in the last month of the century was a sad; 
bereavement to the country, and every party voice was hushed, in silence 
while the nation did honor to his memory. Napoleon, then First Consul of 
France, rendered honor to his memory in a General Order to his army in 
which he said, "Washington is dead! This great man fought against 
tyranny; he established the liberties of his country. His memory will always 
be dear to the French people as it will be to all free men of the two worlds;, 
and especially to French soldiers, who, like him and the American soldiers, 
have combated for liberty and equality." 

The Congress of the United States, and the Legislatures of all the States,, 



428 OUR NATION: 

united with the whole people all over the land in paying the highest tribute 
to his memory. 

In the year 1800 the second enumeration of the population was taken, 
and the census reported 5,319,762, an increase in ten years of thirty per cent. 

There came another Presidential election in which party spirit ran high. 

The Democratic party nominated Thomas Jefferson for President and 
Aaron Burr for Vice President ; and the Federalists nominated John Adams 
and C. C. Pinckney. There was no election in the electoral college, and it 
was sent to the House of Representatives. After a severe struggle, in which 
thirty-five ballots were taken, Mr. Jefferson was elected President. Aaron 
Burr was chosen Vice President, by the House of Representatives. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

The inauguration address of Mr. Jefferson was waited for with much 
anxiety by the people throughout the country, as he was the first exponent 
of the new party who had been raised to the chief magistracy of the land. 
He surprised all classes by the manly and conservative views which he 
uttered, and at once all fears, were allayed. Although he made some re- 
movals from office and set vigorously at work to reform abuses and irregu- 
larities, his measures were so conciliatory and just that many Federalists 
came over to his party and heartily supported his administration. The 
obnoxious laws were repealed. The diplomatic system was put on a better 
footing, the judiciary was revised, certain ofifices were abolished, and vigor 
and enlightened views marked the beginning of his term. One State and two 
territories were added to the Union in his first term of oflfice. Ohio was 
admitted in the fall of 1802, and the territories of Louisiana and New 
Orleans were organized in the vast domain of Louisiana purchased of France 
for fifteen million dollars. This bargain had been effected in April, 1803, 
and the United States took peaceful occupation of the land in the autumn of 
the same year. It contained eighty-five thousand mixed population and 
forty thousand negroes. 

A naval expedition was sent out to the Mediterranean to put an end to 
the infamous extortion of tribute from the United States for the redemption 
of American sailors held in slavery by the Barbary States. 

Captain Bainbridge went to Algiers in 1800 with the tribute money, and 
when it was paid the Dey demanded the use of his ship to carry an ambassa- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 429 

dor to Constantinople. When Bainbridge refused, the Dey replied, " You 
pay me tribute, by which you become my slaves, and therefore I have a right 
to order you as I think proper." Although the captain was obliged to com- 
ply with that demand, the insult resulted in a severe punishment, which a 
few years later put an end to white slavery in the Barbary States. It is hard 
for us to realize that even in the nineteenth century our countrymen have 
been held in great numbers in the most degrading slavery in the north of 
Africa. The merchantmen who displayed the American flag made their 
appearance in the Mediterranean directly after the Revolution. The pirates 
of the Barbary States would attack them, and when captured would sell the 
:seamen into slavery. There were thousands of sailors from New England 
and the Atlantic coast thus held when the century began. The indignation 
■of the United States was aroused, and they determined to put an end to the 
infamy, which the government of Europe had long tolerated at their very 
doors. In 1803 Commodore Preble was sent to humble the pirates. After 
bringing Morocco to terms, he went to Tripoli. There he had the misfortune 
to lose a large vessel, the Philadelphia, which struck upon a rock, and before 
he could be got off she was captured. The officers were treated as prisoners 
of war, but the crew were sold into slavery. The next year, 1804, this disas- 
ter was somewhat repaired. Lieutenant Decatur with seventy-six volunteers, 
entered the harbor of Tripoli and boarded the Philadelphia, drove off her 
captors, and setting fire to her, made their escape without losing a man. 
This gallant act received ample acknowledgment from the Navy and the 
home government. 

In the first term of Mr. Jefferson the first exploration to the Pacific was 
•organized, and sent out under the command of Captain Lewis and Clarke. 
They left the Mississippi the 14th of May, 1804. 

Mr. Jefferson was re-elected for a second term, but Mr. Burr, who had 
'displeased the Democratic party, was not nominated by them, and George 
Clinton was elected Vice President. Burr, in anger, and feeling that he had 
lost the confidence of the people, resolved apparently to cause a revolt in the 
regions southwest of the Mississippi. He had murdered Alexander Hamilton 
in a duel July 11, 1804, and was generally shunned by all classes. The sup- 
posed attempt of Burr against the Government failed. He was tried for 
treason, but was acquitted. It was not proven. 

There were some indications of a war with Spain, but it was providen- 
tially averted. The United States were continually irritated by the British 



430 OUR NATION: 

claim to a right to search American vessels and take away any suspected 
deserters from their army or navy. An act of partial non-intercourse with 
England took effect November, 1806. 

In 1807, the first steamboat was built by Robert Fulton, and the applica- 
tion of steam to navigation became a fact. The ominous war cloud that 
threatened the country grew heavy and dark. France and England were at 
war, and they both were inflicting injury and insult upon our young but 
thriving commerce. England still seized and searched American vessels; 
issued orders and decrees against commerce; proclaimed blockades on paper, 
and was crippling the marine interests of the United States, in order to 
prevent them from reaping any benefit from the French carrying trade. 
Napoleon retaliated with like orders, decrees and paper blockades ; and be- 
tween the upper and nether millstones of these two powers the commerce of 
America was being ground to pieces. The crisis came. Four seamen of the 
United States man-of-war, Chesapeake, were claimed as deserters from the 
British ship, Mclanipiis, and Commodore Barron of the Chesapeake refused tO' 
give them up. A little while afterwards the Chesapeake was unexpectedly 
attacked by two English vessels, and was obliged to surrender some men. 
This aroused the nation, and Jefferson issued a proclamation in July, 1807, 
that all British ships should leave American waters. Great Britain continued, 
in her unjust course, and a general embargo was placed upon all shipping, 
detaining all American and English vessels in any of the ports of the United 
States, and ordering all American vessels in other ports to return home, that 
their seamen might be trained for war. This embargo was the cause of great 
distress, and put American patriotism and firmness to a severe test. This 
measure failed to accomplish the desired result, and was repealed three days 
before Jefferson retired from the office which he had held for eight yeai-s, and 
at the same time Congress passed a law forbidding any commercial inter- 
course with France and England so long as their unjust orders and edicts 
were in force. James Madison was elected President, and George Clinton 
Vice President, for the next four years. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES MADISON. 

There was no man in the unprejudiced judgment of the people of all 
classes better fitted to administer the government in this period of gloom and 
doubt than James Madison, who had been the Secretary of State under 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 431 

Jefferson. He made no change in policy, and pressed the claims of the 
United States for a redress of grievances upon both England and France. 
The latter acceded to the rights of America, but still continued to deal in a 
covert and underhanded way, while England, in a more honorable but wicked 
way, persisted in her right to impress and search. There was an important 
question at issue between the United States and the foreign governments- 
It was the right of changing allegiance from one country to another. Eng- 
land held that a man born under her flag was forever an English subject, and 
although he might settle in any part of the world, he could claim the privi- 
leges of a British subject, and was bound by the obligation of citizenship to 
render service to the English flag. America, on the other hand, claimed that 
a man had the right to choose the place of his citizenship, and could renounce 
his allegiance to the land of his birth, and become a citizen of any country he 
should choose to settle in. The Englishmen who had settled in America 
were regarded as American citizens and nothing else. America would defend 
the rights of her adopted sons, and maintain her position toward all the 
nations of the world. 

England had a system of obtaining seamen for her navy by impressment ; 
that is, she would take men who were engaged in the merchant service and 
compel them to serve on her men-of-war. This was a species of slavery, and 
the men thus obtained would embrace the first opportunity to desert. These 
desertions became frequent, and the natural refuge in America was in most 
instances sought and the protection of its flag obtained. Now it was very 
hard to distinguish between an English and an American sailor, and when the 
American ships were searched the English were not very exact as to nation- 
ality, provided they got a first class sailor. Thus things went on until 181 1, 
when the British sloop of war. Little Belt, was met ofi' the Virginia coast by 
the American frigate, Pi-esidcnt, and was obliged to pull down her flag, after 
a severe fight. 

This same year an Indian revolt broke out which was evidently the result 
of English intrigue. All the frontier tribes were engaged in it, under a 
crafty, intrepid and unscrupulous chief, Tecumseh. It was suppressed by 
General William H. Harrison, after winning a decisive battle at Tippecanoe, 
in which the whole Indian force was dispersed. The Americans were now 
ready for war. England had an immense navy of nine hundred vessels with 
one hundred and forty-four thousand men, while America had only twelve 
vessels, which carried about three hundred guns. It seemed the wildest folly 



432 OUR NATION: 

to cope with " the mistress of the seas " at such a fearful odds, but the rally- 
ing cry, " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights " was taken up from the 
Lakes to the Gulf, and war was formally declared June 19, 1812. The peo- 
ple of the West and North were no less enthusiastic than on the seaboard. 
The only region where the Federalists, or peace party, was predominant was 
in New England. Congress at once voted an appropriation of fifteen million 
dollars for the army, and three million for the navy, and authorized the 
President to enlist twenty-five thousand regulars and fifty thousand volun- 
teers for the army, and call out one hundred thousand militia for the defense 
-of the coast. 

THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, 

as this contest was rightly named, now began. Benjamin Franklin had said 
to a friend who had called the Revolution the war of independence, " Not the 
war of independence, but the ^zx for independence." And now the second 
act of the grand drama was to be presented to the world. There had been 
all along a suspicion that England had not relinquished her hope to regain 
the colonies she had lost. The constant intrigues with the Indians, the subtle 
arts of diplomacy, and her heavy armament in Canada pointed to this. The 
Americans were watchful and jealous, and now the whole force of their power 
•was engaged to settle the pending question forever. Four days after the 
declaration of war, England had repealed her blockading decree, and there 
remained only the question of the right of search and expatriation. The 
British minister at Washington had offered to peaceably settle the question 
.at difference, but his proposition was rejected by his government. 

The first attempts of the Americans, in the war, were signal failures. 
General William Hull was ordered to invade the British province of Canada, 
but after a feeble attempt he was compelled to retire and even afterwards 
to surrender. He was put on trial before a court martial, on his return to 
the States, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. But he had been a brave 
•officer in the Revolution, and for his past services he was pardoned. His 
reputation was afterwards vindicated, and the cloud was removed from his 
fair name, but he retired to private life. The war had been long threatening, 
and Canada had fortified her strong points and prepared for a threatened 
invasion. The able generals of the Revolution were now either all dead, or 
too old for active service ; and the army was either under the command of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 433, 

men who had been inferior officers in their young manhood and were now old 
men, or of men who had seen but little service except with the Indians. 

A second invasion under Colonel Van Renssellear was equally unsuccess- 
ful. The whole army of the Northwest had surrendered, and nothing was: 
gained at that point. But on the sea, the American sailor had dared to 
measure strength with the British, and had been remarkably successful in 
every engagement during the first year of the war. In spite of the tremen- 
dous odds in the navies of the two countries, the American was gaining vic- 
tory after victory. The British ship Giici-ricrc had been taken by the frigate 
Constitution, August 19, 1812. The Frolic had struck the English flag to the 
little Wasp Ozto\i&x i8th. ^\vq Macedonian 's,\xxx&x\<\^x&A to the United States 
October 25th, and \\i& Java to the Constitution December 29th, all in the same 
year. This rekindled the national spirit, and made up for the defeat on the 
land. The country was justly elated by these successes, and sustained the 
administration by re-electing Mr. Madison to a second term. 

The second year of the war, and the first of Mr. Madison's second term, 
was signalized by a series of important victories by the Americans in Canada;, 
and the naval victory of Commodore Perry, on Lake Erie, by which tlie 
United States became masters of the Great Lakes. These were cheering tO' 
the Americans. At sea, England was doing her best to retrieve the severe 
blows she had received the year previous, and regain her injured prestige as 
"mistress of the seas." The loss she had met the autumn before, of five 
ships, was a heavy blow to her pride, and her statesmen regarded this humilia- 
tion as greater than the loss of so many battles. No other country, before 
this, had produced sailors equal to hers. Now she had met her first disasters 
from an inferior, and strenuous effort must be made to undo this disgrace.. 
The British nation and navy felt this, and put fQ,rth their best endeavors to 
show their superiority. Two English ships cruised off Boston in the early- 
summer of 1 81 3, and Captain Broke sent a challenge to Captain Lawrence of 
the Chesapeake to come out and " try the fortunes of their respective flags." 
The English captain sent one of his ships away, and with the Shannon waited 
for the Chesapeake to come out. Captain Lawrence accepted the challenge, 
and went to his death. The fight lasted only fifteen minutes, but in that time 
the Chesapeake was discomfited, her commander killed, and her flag struck to 
the proud ensign of Britain. This was on June ist, 1813. This same Captain 
Lawrence, who exclaimed, " Don't give up the ship ! " with his latest breath, 
had, in February before, taken the English frigate Peacock, with the sloop 



434 OUR NATION: 

Hornet. In August another disaster befell the American navy. It was the 
loss of the Argus, which had taken Mr. Crawford, the minister, to France, 
which was obliged to surrender to the Pelican. The tide of victory now 
turned, and the English brig Boxer struck her flag to the brig Enterprise, 
September 5th. The complete naval victory of Commodore Perry, on Lake 
Erie, on September 11, in which he captured the whole English fleet of six 
vessels, followed. When the year closed, the balance seemed to be in favor 
of the Americans. On land, the war had been waged with varying fortunes. 

The British had talked of chastising America into submission, and the 
instrument they sent was a squadron under the command of Admiral Cock- 
burn, which was scattered to different points on the Atlantic coast and burned, 
robbed and slaughtered, zvithout mercy. In April, they destroyed the town 
of Lewiston, on the Delaware; in May, Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, George- 
town, and Frederickstown on the Chesapeake, and- all along the southern 
coast committed their fearful work of depredation and pillage. Commodore 
Hardy was sent to the New England coast, but his conduct everywhere was 
in strong contrast to that of Admiral Cockburn. He acted like a high-minded 
gentleynan and generous enemy. He landed at Castine, Maine, and sent a 
land force up the Penobscot to capture the sloop of w^y John Adams. 

The war was now carried on with renewed vigor by the United States 
and men and money were furnished without stint. The Americans were 
gaining victories and matters were progressing. Then came an act which 
was most reprehensible, and unusual in the annals of civilized warfare, for 
which the home government of England was solely responsible. Veteran 
troops of Wellington's Army, who had fought the French for years, were sent 
to America in the Spring of 18 14. Some of them, destined to attempt the 
capture of the National Capital, landed on the shore of Maryland and pushed 
on towards Washington City. On their way occurred a sharp battle in which 
the Americans were defeated. The British entered the city: plundered private 
dwellings, and the Capitol, the President's house and other public buildings, 
and then withdrew. The navy yard and some ships in process of building 
were burned by the Americans themselves. The bridge across the Potomac 
was destroyed, and then the British withdrew to the coast. The war was 
scattered over a wide region and the Americans gained victories here and 
there. Commodore Macdonough had gained a complete success over the 
whole British fleet on Lake Champlain and at Plattsburgh. Macomb's Ameri- 
can troops gained a great victory at the same time. The British sailor found 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 435 

Ills match on the ocean in his Anglo-American kinsman. Both sides were 
becoming weary of a devastating war and already there were negotiations for 
peace. A treaty Avas signed in December, 18 14, and sent to America, but 
before it had arrived or was known one of the most remarkable battles of 
history had been fought and won. This deserves record and we will here 
give a short account of it. 

THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

If there had been a submarine telegraph in 18 15 the battle of New Or- 
leans would never have been fought, and much English blood would have 
been saved. The treaty was signed December 24th, 18 14, and it was seven 
weeks before the news came to the southern portions of America. New 
Orleans was then a town of twenty thousand inhabitants, and, as now, the 
centre of a large cotton trade. The English Commander, General Packen- 
ham, saw that it was an important point and decided ';o attack it. He had 
the best English troops, fresh from their victories in Europe. Andrew Jack- 
son, then a Major-General in the army, arrived at New Orleans December 2d, 
and, declaring martial law, soon restored confidence. He fortified the city, 
and when the British squadron, bearing twelve thousand soldiers, made their 
appearance he was ready to give them a good reception. On the 23d of 
December he met the advance guard of the army, twenty-four hundred strong, 
and routed them at a place about nine miles below the city, and then he re- 
tired to a stronger position. He built a line of breastworks of earth to 
defend New Orleans, and awaited the attack that was made January 8th, 
18 1 5. These defenses were four miles from the city, and guarded the ad- 
vance. General Packenham advanced with his entire army, numbering twelve 
thousand, under the best military discipline in the world. Jackson had less 
than six thousand men and the most of them were militia, but all had become 
good r- arksmen in the western woods. All was silent as the grave while the 
British advanced in solid column to carry the works. "Trust in God and 
keep your powder dry," had been Jackson's policy in the swamps of Florida, 
and now his men put it in practice. Steadily the attacking army advanced 
and not a shot was fired until they were half a gun-shot distant, and then a 
terrific fire, every shot of which did good execution, burst upon the assailants. 
The British column wavered ; their general was killed, and they fled in con- 
fusion leaving seven hundred dead and more than a thousand wounded on 



436 OUR NATION: 

the field. The fugitives hastened to their camp and ten days after sailed 
from the coast of Louisiana. This battle saved the whole South from inva- 
sion and rapine, which would have followed before the news of peace was 
received. 

Thus the war closed, and both countries could point with pride to the- 
heroic courage that had been displayed on land and sea, and deck their brave 
defenders with the medals of honor. The president issued his proclamation 
that peace was declared, February i8th, 1815, and the people united in cele- 
brating the return of quiet all over the country. Business had become pros- 
trated, the ships were lying idly at the docks and industry was at a stand-still.. 
The echoes of the shouts of rejoicing had not died on the air before the ring 
of the woodman's axe was heard in the forest of the settler, and the sound of 
the carpenter in the deserted shipyard. Commerce revived and industry lifted 
its head. The Americans had the wonderful power of rapid recuperation 
from disaster. 

The treaty was not all that America could ask, but she had asserted her 
claim and maintained her rights. Never afterward was a sailor taken from 
an American ship as an English deserter; sailors' rights were maintained, 
and the flag of the United States respected as never before. The Americans 
had lost thirty thousand men, and one hundred millions of treasure, while 
England had suffered much more heavily. 

During Mr. Madison's term and after the peace with England, the 
Algerine pirates, thinking that the power of the United States on the sea had 
been broken, began their depredations again and were violating their treaty. 
Commodore Decatur was sent to punish them and forever put a stop to their 
infamous trafific. He bombarded Tripoli and the other capitals of the several 
Barbary States which were subject to Turkey, brought their rulers to terms 
and compelled each State to rc-imburse the United States for the losses 
caused to American shipping, and to free all the American and English slaves 
held by them. This put an end to the infamy for all time. 

The only events worthy of notice during the remainder of this Presiden- 
tial term, were the admission of Indiana into the Union December, 18 16, and 
the chartering of a United States Bank with a capital of thirty-five million 
dollars. 

The new election resulted in the choice of James Monroe as President 
and Daniel D. Tompkins as Vice President. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 437- 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES MONROE. 

The fifth President of the American RepubHc, James Monroe, had been-, 
the Secretary of State under his predecessor. His administration was distin- 
guished by the rapid growth in material wealth and population, and the expan- 
sion of all the resources of the Republic. The manufactories of the United" 
States, which had been kept busy during the war, suffered from the influx of 
foreign goods, and were obliged to contract their work. This compelled many 
who had been engaged in them to seek new homes in the fertile lands beyond 
the Alleghanies and Ohio, and a steady and uninterrupted flood of emigration 
flowed in from the seaboard. New States and Territories were formed and 
the natural resources of the country were being developed at a most rapid 
rate. Mississippi was admitted into the Union December loth, 1817; Illinois 
December 3d, 1818; Alabama December 14th, 1819; Maine March 3d, 1820; 
Missouri March 2d, 1821. The buccaneering pirates that infested the Gulf of 
Mexico were surprised and put down. Florida was bought of Spain for seven 
million dollars by a treaty signed at Washington, February, 18 19. It was an 
era of general prosperity and growth. But the continued presence of slavery 
was a menace to the Union, and in 1821 the measure known as the Missouri 
Compromise was approved by Congress, and Missouri M^as admitted as a slave 
State. The temporary excitement abated, and the re-election of Mr. Monroe- 
and his associates was the most formal and quiet affair ever known in Ameri- 
can politics. His administration had made itself popular by two measures 
which had been passed. The first was the pensioning of all the surviving 
soldiers of the Revolution, their dependent widows and orphans ; and the 
second, the settlement of the boundary line from the Lake of the Woods to 
the Rocky Mountains. 

The visit of Lafayette, the friend and companion of Washington, to this 
country, in which he was the nation's guest and received ovations in every 
town and city through which he passed, occurred in 1824-5. He was every- 
where greeted with the wildest enthusiasm and met men who had served 
under him in the war. He saw the wonderful improvement on all sides, and 
towns, countries, streets and public institutions on every hand had been called 
after him. When he was ready to return, the government placed at his 
service a vessel, named after the battle in which he first fought in the Revolu- 
tion — the Brandytvine. 



438 OUR NATION 

LAFAYETTE. 



■ THE FRIEND OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND AMERICAN FREEDOM! 

The Marquis de Lafayette was born in 1757, and was one of the most 
extraordinary and influential men of his time. He was, in the fullest sense, 
a member of the French aristocracy, and a gentleman of fortune. His pre- 
cocity may be inferred from the fact, that at the age of fourteen he displayed 
marked literary ability, and wrote with great fluency. When but sixteen he 
married ; and three years afterward, moved by a love of liberty, on hearing 
of the struggle in which the American Colonies were engaged, he resolved to 
leave wife, home and kindred, and draw his sword on the side of the op- 
pressed. Here was a sacrifice at the shrine of human freedom !— Young, 
noble, wealthy, the friend of princes, and the beloved of an adored and beau- 
tiful wife, he separated himself from all, and the advantages pertaining to his 
rank, to share the dangers and the fate of the brave handful of half-starved, 
half-naked patriots, who dared to stand up for the right in the face of one of 
the most powerful nations in the world. 

His freedom of action in this relation, however, was embarrassed, inas- 
much as the king, who objected to his leaving France, ordered his arrest so 
as to prevent his carrying out his noble project. But here the French mon- 
arch was powerless, for the object of this persecution, having fitted out a ship 
at his own expense, escaped to it in disguise after untold privations, and after 
having once been recognized by a young girl who found him asleep on some 
straw, but who never once thought of betraying him. 

He had heard of the loss of New York and New Jersey to the Ameri- 
cans, but this only served to increase his desire to hasten to the relief of the 
latter. And so, although pursued by two French cruisers, and menaced by 
the English men of war on the coast, he escaped all dangers and landed safely 
on the shores of South Carolina. Here everything was novel and delightful 
to him, as he observed in a letter to his wife shortly after his arrival, and he 
soon met Washington, at Philadelphia, for whom he formed an instant and 
abiding friendship, so impressed was he with the true nobility and command- 
ing virtues of that great and mighty man. 

When Lafayette first saw the poorly armed, ragged and half-fed forces 
of America in line before him at Philadelphia, nothing could exceed his sur- 
prise. But with a penetration beyond his years, he perceived in this stern. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 439 

self-sacrificing and dogged army, all the elements of future success; and this 
conviction often seemed to impart strength and hope to any whose spirits 
tended to droop beneath the weight of the reverses and great privations that 
pressed upon them. Washington also soon began to discover the true metal 
in the young Frenchman of nineteen, whose sword invariably leaped from its 
sheath at the word of command. Hence, when but twenty, he was made a 
Major-General. 

Lafayette's sufferings in our cause were severe, and his labors very great. 
He was wounded at Brandywine, and lay for six weeks at Bethlehem, whence, 
although scarcely able to move, he wrote letters constantly to France implor- 
ing its statesmen to attack England in India and the West Indies. Before his 
wounds were healed he rejoined the army. He performed in winter a journey 
on horseback of four hundred miles to Albany; he commanded at Rhode 
Island; fought like a lion, and bore all the hardships and privations of war. 
After this he was seized with a violent fever, and seemed for weeks at the 
point of death. On his recovery he set sail from Boston for his native land in 
1780. 

On returning to France, Lafayette was received with open arms by all 
the young nobles of liberal views, while the King pardoned him and sent him 
back to America with a promise of ships, money, clothes and men. Once 
again he rejoined Washington, who gave him his unbounded confidence. He 
was sent to Virginia, where he commanded with skill and bravery against 
Cornwallis, and with his illustrious chief planned the campaign which resulted 
in the taking of Yorktown and the close of a long and painful war. 

After the surrender of Cornwallis, Lafayette returned to France once 
more, when the Revolution there, prompted by the ideas and the success of 
the Americans, began to move in ever-increasing strength. He was now the 
favorite of the people, and was all powerful in the land, but in his path crept 
the Marats, Dantons and Robespierres of the hour, while the armies of Europe 
were gathered, ready to crush his republican projects. He was overpowered 
by French radicals and constrained to fly from France and seek shelter on 
foreign soil ; but instead of shelter, in a friendly sense, he found himself im- 
mured within the gloomy walls of Olmutz, where he remained for five years. 
For more than half that period he was cut off from all communication with 
the world; and could not even learn whether his wife and children were still 
alive. At length his wife, who had barely escaped from the guillotine, joined 
him with her two daughters, and shared his imprisonment — their son hav- 



440 OUR NATION: 

ino- been sent to America to the care of Washington. Nor was it until the 
armies of France, under Napoleon, began to shake Europe that they were 
released. 

Lafayette now became a leader in every movement pertaining to the ad- 
vancement of liberal government. He cultivated a large farm at La Grange, 
near Paris. On hearing of the death of Washington he wept bitterly; and in 
1824-25, after an absence of forty years, he again visited America, this time 
with his son. His reception was magnificent beyond measure — the gratitude 
of a generous nation was exhibited everywhere. He visited once more many 
of the old historic places, and met many of his comrades in arms, with such 
intense emotion that it would be almost profanation to attempt to put it in 
words. On his return to France he still stood firm in the principles he had 
espoused and fought for; but the time of his departure was drawing nigh ; for 
he breathed his last, in hope and in peace, at La Grange, in 1834, leaving 
behind him a character for all that was noble, self-sacrificing, courageous and 
just. His chateau at this place has been the shrine of many an American 
pilgrim, and it is still filled with reminiscences of the land he loved and aided 
so well. He left one son, George Washington, and two daughters. Edmund 
Lafayette, who visited America in 1881, is the son of that son, and the last of 
his name. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

The election of 1824 resulted in no choice by the people, and for the 
second time the election of President was referred to the House of Repre- 
sentatives. They elected John Quincy Adams, the second son of Ex-President 
Adams, to be President. John C. Calhoun had been elected Vice-President 
by the people. This administration was a quiet one and undisturbed by any 
very serious controversy. The trouble between the State of Georgia and the 
general government growing out of the claims of the latter, for the land of 
the Creek Indians, and their removal, was peaceably adjusted. The National 
Government took the position of defenders of the Indians, and quietly re- 
moved them to their reservation in a territory set apart for them. 

A gigantic work of internal improvement for the times was undertaken! 
and finished in the State of New York— the building of the Erie Canal. 

A remarkable coincidence occurred in the year 1826. John Adams and 
Thomas Jefferson, who had both been Vice Presidents and Presidents of the 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 441 

United States, and signers of the Declaration of Independence, died on the 
4th of July. 

The fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, July 4th, 1826, was 
made a jubilee through the entire Union. The celebrations were of the most 
patriotic nature, and reference was made in orations and addresses to the 
material expansion of the Republic. Better occasion for a jubilee the world 
had never known. The point to pause and look back had come. The rapid 
growth of the nation was unparalleled in the history of the world. The thir- 
teen States had become twenty-four, and the area of the country nearly 
doubled. Its domain stretched from the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific 
on the west. Its right was undisputed from the lakes on the north to the 
gulf on the south. Two wars had been fought and won. The debt incurred 
in the first war had been paid and the second war debt was fast disappear- 
ing. Prosperity was on every hand. Canals provided an avenue for the rich 
grain lands of the West to the seaboard by the way of the lakes and the 
Hudson. A steady tide of emigration westward had opened up this bound- 
less region to civilization, and the foreign trade of the country had swollen to 
two hundred millions per year. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

The hero of New Orleans was the seventh President of the United States, 
and John C. Calhoun was elected Vice President. His election was by a large 
majority. His inauguration was marked by incidents of peculiar interest. 
He came to the Senate Chamber escorted by a few survivors of the Revolu- 
tionary War, and in the presence of the heads of departments and the Houses 
of Congress he addressed them. Then he retired to the eastern portico of 
the Capitol and there took the oath of ofifice. Andrew Jackson was a man of 
strong passions, uncorrupt heart, and an iron will. His instructions to the 
first Minister whom he sent to England is a type of the man — "Ask nothing 
but what is right, submit to nothing that is wrong." His audacity annoyed 
his friends and alarmed his foes. There were not any middle-men. His 
friends loved and admired him ; his opponents hated and feared him. He 
caused an impassable gulf between himself and his enemies which no charity 
could bridge over. He ruled with an iron hand, and was the firm opponent 
of disunion and the United States Bank. The first thing which came up at 
the begirming of his administration was the settlement of the Georgia ques- 



442 OUH NATION: 

tion with the Cherokees. Jackson was in favor of Georgia, but the Supreme 
Court decided in favor of the Indians. 

At last General Winfield Scott was sent to remove them peaceably if he 
could, but forcibly if he must. General Scott by his justice and moderation 
accomplished his task without bloodshed. The Cherokees were far advanced 
in civilization, and had churches, schools and farms, but they were induced 
to move beyond the Mississippi River. 

Jackson was an implacable foe to the National Bank, believing it to be 
an institution fraught with mischievous power. He attacked it in his annual 
messages in 1830 and in 1831. When the of^cers petitioned for a renewal 
of the charter, and a bill for this purpose had been passed by both Houses 
with a decided majority, he vetoed it, and the charter expired by limitation 
in 1836. A commercial panic was threatened and business was injured. 

An Indian war on the northwestern frontier broke out in 1832, known as 
the Black Hawk War, but was quickly subdued. A more portentous war 
cloud overhung the South. The cotton-growing States were opposed to a 
protective tariff which favored the North, and South Carolina declared, by 
law, that the national tariff laws were null and void within that State, and 
proclaimed the usual threats, that any attempt to enforce those laws in 
Charleston, would be met by opposition and the withdrawal of the State from 
the Union. Preparations were made for war, and it seemed as if civil strife 
was at hand. Jackson issued his famous proclamation which denied the 
right of any State to nullify the laws of the United States, and declared that 
the laws should be enforced, and any one obstructing them would be guilty 
of treason and punished. This declaration and a modification of the tariff 
laws deferred Civil War for about thirty years. 

The contest of the President with the United States bank was renewed 
in 1833. The public funds were removed from it and placed in State banks. 
The amount of paper discounted by the bank was contracted, and much 
financial trouble arose. Jackson's fear of the power of the banks was 
prompted by much foresight and wisdom, though the immediate result of 
his course was disastrous to the commercial interests of the country. Then 
came the fearful business panic of 1 833-34, in which hundreds of business 
men went down, never to rise. 

There arose serious difificulty in 1835 with the Indians in Florida. The 
United States had set apart a territory west of the Mississippi for the use of 
all the Southern Indians east of that river, and Congress had provided for 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTFT. 443< 

their removal to that territory. We have seen that there was trouble with 
the Creeks and Cherokees in Georgia upon this question, and now the Semi- 
nole tribe were in open war in reference to the same matter. Osceola, a brave 
but crafty chief, had gathered his tribe to fight the white people and contest 
the right to his land. We cannot see how he could do otherwise than defend 
the graves of his fathers and the homes of his children. The story of the 
Indians' wrongs and sufferings is a dark one on the pages of our history. In. 
the Spring of 1836 General Winfield Scott, being in command in the South,, 
prosecuted the war with great vigor. So did other commanders after him. 
A war lasting seven years and costing millions of treasure and thousands of 
lives was entailed upon the country and the incoming administration. Jack- 
son's administration was marked with vigor and decision. He had compelled 
France to fulfill her promise to pay an indemnity of five million dollars in 
annual instalments for the losses sustained to American commerce by the 
decrees and orders of Napoleon. 

A great excitement was engendered by the last official act of President 
Jackson — the issue of the circular to all the custom houses ordering that all 
collectors of revenue be required to collect duties only in gold and silver. 
This specie circular was denounced as arbitrary and tyrannical, as it bore 
heavily on every kind of business. Congress passed a law for its repeal, but 
the President kept it without signing until after the final adjournment of 
Congress. Jackson did this to prevent speculation and for what he consid- 
ered wise reasons, but it caused a bitter feeling against him. Arkansas and 
Michigan were added to the Union during Jackson's term of office. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

The inauguration of Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States, 
seemed to mark the dawn of a new era in its history. The Presidents prior 
to him had all been descendants of the English, but Martin Van Buren was a 
descendant of an old Dutch family and was born after the first conflict for 
Independence. When he was inaugurated he found the country on the verge 
of a disastrous commercial panic which swept all over the land. The imme- 
diate measures for the relief of the panic of 1833-34 were only temporary. 
The' funds taken from the United States Bank and lodged in State banks 
were loaned to the people, and for a little time the relief was felt in business, 
circles, but this only sowed the seeds of a commercial disorder which would 



444 OUR NATION: 

bring its fearful harvest in the future. The banks, thinking these funds might 
be regarded as so much capital, loaned money freely and a sudden expansion 
of the paper currency was the result. 

In January, 1837, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Con- 
gress to distribute all the funds of the United States among the several States 
in proportion to population, reserving five million dollars. Consequently the 
funds were withdrawn from the banks January ist, 1837, and an immense 
financial pressure was the immediate result. On May loth the banks sus- 
pended specie payments, and a panic ensued which prostrated all kinds of 
business. An extra session of Congress was called to consider measures of 
relief, September, 1837. They authorized the issue of treasury notes to the 
amount of ten million dollars. 

A disturbance broke out in Canada in 1837 which threatened to involve 
the United States. An attempt was made to make that province an inde- 
pendent State. The laws of neutrality were violated by those in the States 
who sympathized with the movement. A secret organization known as 
Hunters Lodges was formed. The British government held the United States 
responsible for this breach of neutrality, and a war cloud overhung the northern 
border for nearly four years. The next Presidential election resulted in the 
• elevation of the Whig candidate, William H. Harrison, the hero of Tippe- 
canoe, to the Presidency and John Tyler to the Vice Presidency. The cam- 
paign had been spirited and intense. The battle cry of this party had been 
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Personal abuse and vituperation united to 
make the canvass scandalous and offensive. 

ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON AND TYLER. 

General William H. Harrison was an old man when inaugurated, 
and had passed through many hardships in wars, in the West, but he was 
vigorous and active with the prospect of a number of years of life. His in- 
augural address was well received and his cabinet chosen was confirmed. The 
only official act he performed was to call an extra session of Congress to 
meet in May to confer upon the financial condition of the country and its 
revenue. He died just one month after taking the oath of office — April 4th, 
1841, and the Vice President, John Tyler, succeeded to that position. 

Mr. Tyler retained the cabinet of General Harrison until after the extra 
session of Congress which had been called. At this session measures for the 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 445 

relief of the commercial troubles of the country were adopted. The sub- 
treasury act was repealed and a bankrupt law was passed. The chartering of 
a Bank of the United States was defeated by the veto of the President, who, 
like Jackson, saw great danger in the system. This led to a violent censure 
of the Executive by his own party, and to the resignation of his Cabinet. 

In 1842 the return of the United States Exploring Expedition from the 
South Atlantic Ocean; the settlement of the boundary line on the northeast 
frontier of Maine; the re-modifying of the tariff and the domestic difificulties 
in Rhode Island, were events of great interest. A tariff for revenue only was 
adopted. The boundary line of Maine was fixed by the Webster-Ashburton 
treaty, giving the United States jurisdiction over a large part of the disputed 
territory. Rhode Island had some difficulty in forming a State Constitution 
which divided the citizens into two parties, the " suffrage " and the " law and 
order " party. The threatened rupture caused the governor to invoke the 
aid of the general government, and the administration favored the " law and 
order " party, which resulted in the adoption of a constitution in November, 
1842. The old charter from England had been in force up to this time, but 
the new constitution, more in accord with the system of government in the 
other States, went into effect on the first Tuesday in May, 1843. 

Texas was an independent State and was seeking admission to the Union, 
.but on account of the introduction of slavery into its constitution there was 
strong opposition to it in the North. A treaty for its admission was signed 
April 1 2th, 1844, but was rejected by the Senate. The subject then came up 
in the form of a joint resolution which passed both Houses of Congress in 
March ist, 1845, and was signed by Mr. Tyler. This question had entered 
into the election of 1844, when James K. Polk, one of the candidates for 
President of the United States, who was pledged to the measure, was elected 
by a decided majority. The last official act of Mr. Tyler was to sign the bills 
for the admission of Florida and Iowa into the family of States, March 
.3rd, 1845. 

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK, AND MEXICAN WAR. 
The absorbing matters which demanded the immediate attention of the 
new administration was the annexation of Texas, and the settlement of the 
northwest boundary on the northern line of Oregon. President Tyler had 
sent a messenger to the Texan government informing them of the action of 
Congress, and a convention was called to accept the measure. They adopted 



446 OUR NATION: 

a State Constitution July 4th, 1845, and the " Lone Star State " was added tcy 
the American Union. The other question received immediate attention. A 
vast territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, had been 
in dispute between England and the United States. In 1818 they had agreed 
to occupy the bays, harbors and rivers in common. This was renewed in 
1827 for an indefinite period, with the promise that either government might 
rescind on giving a year's notice to the other. The United States gave such 
notice in 1846. The United States and Great Britain each claimed the whole 
territory to 54 degrees and 40 minutes north latitude, and the cry vvas " 54-40' 
or fight," but at last a peaceful settlement was agreed upon on the 49th par- 
allel of north latitude. 

The annexation of Texas, as had been predicted, caused a rupture be- 
tween the United States and Mexico. The latter government still claimed 
the right to Texas, although it had been acknowledged to be an independent 
State by the United States, England, France and other governments. The 
Mexican Minister at Washington demanded his passports, and on June 4th, 
1845, the President of Mexico issued his proclamation, declaring his intention 
to appeal to arms. The United States had also other questions to settle with 
that Republic, growing out of its treatment of United States' citizens. An 
American army was sent to the extreme southeastern confines of Texas, and 
erected a fortification within easy range of the city of Matamoras. General 
Zachary Taylor was sent by the President to take command of the forces, 
there. "An army of occupation " was organized and soon entered the terri- 
tory of Mexico. The first blood was shed at Fort Brown, on the Rio Grande 
opposite Matamoras, which the Mexicans cannonaded and attacked with a 
superior force. The Commander, Major Brown, was mortally wounded, and 
a signal was given for General Taylor to advance to the Rio Grande. He 
met and overcame an army of six thousand Mexicans under Arista, at Palo 
Alto, and hastened toward Fort Brown. The next day he overtook and con- 
quered a strongly fortified army at a place called Resaca de la Palma. A 
number of prisoners were taken and the army of Northern Mexico was com- 
pletely broken up. These two battles were fought on the 7th and the 9th of 
May. 

When the news of this first bloodshed reached New Orleans the whole 
country was aroused. Congress had declared, " by the act of the Republic of 
Mexico a state of war exists between the United States and that govern- 
ment." It authorized the Executive to raise an army of fifty thousand vol- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH, 447 

unteers, and appropriated ten million dollars toward defraying the expenses 
of the war. The war with Mexico was a series of victories for the United 
States. The Mexicans were driven out of Matamoras May i8th. Monterey 
was besieged September 21st, and surrendered September 24th. An armis- 
tice was then observed until November 13th. Saltillo, the capital of Coha- 
huila, was captured November 15th. Santa Anna, the Mexican General, sur- 
rendered Tampico the day before, November 14th. All these victories were 
gained by General Taylor, who had been in command ; but now there came 
a severe trial of his patriotism and patience. General Winfield Scott, who^ 
was his superior in rank, was sent to take command in Mexico, and General 
Taylor was left with a command of only five hundred regulars and five thou- 
sand volunteers. On February 22d, the anniversary of the birth of Washing- 
ton, the little band of General Taylor was attacked by twenty thousand 
Mexicans under Santa Anna, who, after a severe battle, were repulsed by the 
Americans. 

While these victories were being gained in Central Mexico, " The Army 
of the West " was sent, under command of General Kearney, to Northern 
Mexico. This army took possession of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, 
August 1 8th. Here Kearney received information that the conquest of Cali- 
fornia had already been achieved by Commodore Stockton and Lieutenant 
Colonel Fremont, who had aroused the resident Americans on the Pacific coast 
and captured Sonoma Pass, June 15th, 1846, and driven all the Mexicans out of 
that region July 5th. On the 7th Monterey had been bombarded and cap- 
tured. The Commodore and Lieutenant-Colonel had entered San Francisco 
on the 9th. The city of Los Angelos had surrendered on the 17th, and Fre- 
mont had been the true liberator of the whole Pacific coast. General Kearney 
on receiving this information pushed on his forces, and met Commodore 
Stockton, and Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont (December 27th, 1846); and with 
them shared the final honors which completed the conquest of California. 
Fremont wanted to be governor of the territory he had conquered, and his; 
claims were favored by Commodore Stockton and all the people, but General 
Kearney, his superior in rank, refused to allow it. Fremont would not obey 
him but issued a proclamation as governor. He was called home to be tried 
for disobedience of orders. His commission was taken from him, but the 
President offered to return it the next day. Fremont refused to accept it, 
and turned again to the wilderness to engage in exploration. 

While General Kearney was gone to California, Colonel Doniphan, with 



448 OUR NATION: 

one thousand Missouri volunteers, forced the Navajo Indians to sign a treaty 
of peace, November, 1846, and then led his troops southward to join General 
Wool. He met and overcame a large force of Mexicans at Braciti, in the 
valley of the Rio del Norte, on December 22d, The Mexican General sent 
word to him, " We will neither ask nor give quarter." With a black flag the 
Mexicans advanced, and the Missourians fell on their faces. The Mexicans, 
thinking them all killed, rushed forward to plunder them, but the whole force 
sprang to their feet and fired with such deadly effect as to disperse the Mexi- 
cans with great slaughter. Colonel Doniphan met another force of Mexicans, 
four thousand strong, February 28th, 1847, ^'"'^^ completely routed them. He 
raised the American flag over Chihuahua, a city of forty thousand inhabitants, 
March 2nd, and after resting six weeks marched to Saltillo, and turned over 
his command to General Wool. He had made a perilous march of five thou- 
sand miles, from the Mississippi, won two great battles, and then returned to 
New Orleans. All Northern Mexico and California were now in possession 
of the Americans, and General Winfield Scott was on his way to the city of 
Mexico. 

General Scott landed before Vera Cruz with an army of thirteen thou- 
sand men on March 9th, 1847. The squadron was in command of Commodore 
Connor. The city was invested March 13th, and held out until the 27th, when 
the Americans took possession of Vera Cruz, and captured five thousand 
prisoners and five hundred guns. Ten days after this. General Scott com- 
menced his march inland, and on the i8th of April he fought and won the 
battle of Cerro Gordo, at the foot of the Cordilleras. More than a thousand 
Mexicans were killed and three thousand taken prisoners. The latter Scott 
dismissed on parole, which they at once violated. The victorious army en- 
tered the city of Jalapa on the i8th, and on the 22nd of April, General Worth 
unfurled the Stars and Stripes on the summit of the Cordilleras, fifty miles 
beyond the city of Jalapa. But the victorious army did not halt here. They 
marched forward, and on the 15th of May, 1847, took possession of the well- 
fortified city of Puebla, containing eighty thousand inhabitants. Here they 
halted to rest for a while. In the short space of two months an army of ten 
thousand men had captured a larger number of prisoners than the army itself, 
taken possession of the strongest posts on the continent, and were waiting 
for the order " on to Mexico." In August, after being reinforced by fresh 
troops, Scott resumed his triumphal march to new victories. August 20th, 
the camp of six thousand Mexicans at Contreras was defeated by an Ameri- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 449 

can detachment under General Smith. Cherubusco was taken at the same 
time by General Scott. An army thirty thousand strong, in the heart of its- 
own country, had been broken up by one less than a third of that number. The- 
American army were at the very gates of the city of Mexico and might have 
entered in triumph, but General Scott held out the olive branch of peace and 
would have spared the Mexicans that disgrace. A flag of truce from Santa. 
Anna came asking for an armistice, which was granted. Mr. Nicholas P.. 
Trist, a commissioner of peace, appointed by the United States, was sent to- 
the city to treat with Santa Anna, but returned with the information that he 
had not only rejected the offer with scorn, but was violating the armistice by 
strengthening his defenses. 

General Scott began his demonstration against the city, September 8th, 
when a body of less than four thousand troops attacked a superior force at 
El Molinos del Rey, near Chapultepec, and at first suffered the only repulse 
of the war, but afterwards rallied and drove the Mexicans before them. On 
the morning of the 13th of September, the flag of the United States was un- 
furled over the ruined castle of Chapultepec, and Santa Anna was fleeing, a 
fugitive, with his shattered army and the officers of government. September 
14th, the army of the United States entered the city of Mexico in triumph, 
and planted the Stars and Stripes over the National Palace. Order was soon 
restored in that ancient capital, and when a provisional government could be 
formed, peace was declared. Mexico gave up California, Arizona and New 
Mexico, and conceded all the claims of the United States. Mexico was 
evacuated by the American army, and twelve million dollars were paid by the 
United States to Mexico in four annual instalments. The United States also 
assumed the debts due to private citizens to the amount of three millions. 

This treaty was signed on February 2d, 1848. The very next month gold 
was discovered in large quantities in California, and President Polk in his 
annual message, in December, 1848, published the fact to the world. The 
gold fever broke out all over the States, and spread to other countries; and 
during the whole year of 1849 ^ constant stream of emigration flowing across 
the plains and around Cape Horn, went to this Eldorado of the West to find 
the wealth which the early Spanish and French adventurers had sought in 
vain. Thousands came from Europe and South America, and ship-loads of 
Chinese came from Asia. The dreams of the voyagers in the fifteenth century 
seemed to be realized in the nineteenth. Emigrants continued to flock thither, 
and yet (1888) the supply is not exhausted. 



450 OUR NATION: 

The popularity which General Taylor had acquired in the Mexican war 
by his victories and his patriotism, led to his nomination and election to the 
Presidency, with Millard Fillmore as Vice President. 

Two domestic measures during the administration of James K, Polk had 
been very popular. The establishment of a national treasury system, and a 
protective tariff. Wisconsin was admitted to the Union, May 29th, 184.8, 
making thirty States in all. At this point we will stop for a while to review a 
dark episode in American history. 



THE PERIOD OF AGITATION. 



We have brought our readers down the Hne of events to the time the 
twelfth President was about to take his seat of ofifice. We have seen the 
continent relieved from the sway of its savage and barbarous inhabitants and 
settled with an active, energetic population of freemen who had acquired 
their independence; subdued the wilderness; developed its resources; spread 
their white-winged commerce on every sea; explored their own territory and 
made discoveries in other parts of the world ; driven the pirates from their 
own borders and humbled the pirates in the Mediterranean ; compelled the 
respect due to their flag from other nations, and established their widest 
boundaries by peaceful diplomacy or glorious war. They had grown from 
thirteen States to thirty and their domain now stretched in one broad belt 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes to the gulf, with no nation 
to challenge their right. They were prosperous at home and respected abroad. 

The industry, intelligence and enterprise of our citizens are unparalleled, 
and their inventions, discoveries and mechanical arts are astonishing the 
inhabitants of the old world. The inventors and discoverers of the United 
States have revolutionized the commerce, the manufactures and the travel of 
the past. The steamboat, the electric telegraph, the cotton gin and the in- 
ventions in every department of trade have startled the inhabitants of Europe 
from their dream of centuries. But in spite of the growth in material 
strength, in national domain and wealth, there was for a long period a dark 
blot upon the country, and the agitation and strife which it was continually 
causing, gave reasons for constant alarm to our wisest and best statesmen. 
How to deal with this subject was a serious question to the moralist, the 
patriot and the philanthropist. That question was the presence of American 
slavery and its insatiate demand for more territory. 

To go back to the beginning: England had forced the African slave trade 
upon the unwilling colonists, and her parliament had watched with fostering 
•care this hideous traffic. In the first half of the eighteenth century there 



452 OUR NATION: 

was constant legislation in its favor, and every restraint upon its largest 
development was removed with solicitous regard. Twenty negro slaves were 
sold to the planters of Virginia in the same year when the pilgrims landed at 
Plymouth (1620), and these were the first brought into the present domain of 
the United States of America. In December, 1671, Sir John Yeamans, Gover- 
nor of South Carolina, brought two hundred black slaves with him from the 
West Indies. Tn 1641, the blacks were recognized in law as slaves by Massa- 
chusetts. In Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1650; in New York in 1656; 
in Maryland in 1663, and in New Jersey in 1665. There were some slaves in 
Pennsylvania and Delaware about 1690. In North and South Carolina, they 
were introduced at the time of settlement. In Georgia the use of slaves was 
prohibited by law, but the planters evaded the law by hiring servants for one 
hundred years, paying their owners in the other colonies the value of such 
slaves. In New Hampshire the slaves came with the settlers from Massa- 
chusetts. So we see that slavery could be found, under the sanction of law, 
in every one of the original thirteen States, at the opening of the eighteenth 
century. The British government seemed determined to encourage the 
importation of slaves into the West Indies and the American Colonies by 
every means in its power. The Colonies sought to check the increase by 
imposing a tax on slaves brought into them, but Parliament compelled its 
repeal. A hundred acres of land in the West Indies was given to every 
planter who would keep four slaves. Forts were built and manned on the 
African coast to protect the men who were engaged in this traffic. The 
most humiliating chapter in the history of England was in regard to this sub- 
ject. As late as the year 1749, the English Parliament passed an act bestow- 
ing still greater encouragement upon the traffic, in which it was stated : " The 
slave-trade is very advantageous to Great Britain." 

The moral sense of New England was opposed to slavery, and very early 
the idea became prevalent there that it was unscriptural to hold a baptized 
person in slavery. They did not however liberate their slaves, but often 
withheld religious instruction from them. The magnates of the church and 
the officers of the crown endeavored to put them right on this question, and 
the Colonial Assemblies passed* laws to reassure the people that it was right 
to hold Christians in slavery. 

Before the Revolution three hundred thousand slaves had been brought 
into the Colonics from Africa, and at that time there were half a million slaves 
scattered over the country. These were in every Colony, although there were 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 453 

but thirty thousand in the North. The children of the Puritans owned 
Indians, and in due time came to hold Africans, but the soil was hard and 
sterile and required that the tiller should be a person of thought and intelli- 
gence. All kinds of labor demanded brain as well as physical force, and for 
this reason slave labor in the North was never remunerative, and gradually 
the slave population steadily diminished. The moral sentiment as well as 
the condition of the soil and climate of the North was opposed to the whole 
system of involuntary servitude. 

There were different conditions in the fertile and sunny South. The 
climate was congenial to the African and the soil was productive to the 
extreme of luxuriance. The crops were such as the unskilled labor of the 
slave could produce with profit to his master — tobacco, cotton and rice. The 
land in the South was divided into large plantations and the cities were 
mostly engaged in the export of the staple products of the soil. Yet for all 
this, at the time of the Revolution there was a very wide-spread opposition to 
the institution of slavery. The free spirit which influenced the patriots was 
antagonistic to the whole idea of human bondage. The leaders of the conflict 
were many of them slaveholders, but they regarded the institution as odious 
and wrong. Washington provided in his will for the freedom of his slaves. 
Hamilton and Jay were members of a society w^iich aimed at the gradual 
abolition of the whole system. John Adams was deadly opposed to it. Patrick 
Henry, Franklin, Madison and Monroe, were outspoken against it. Jefferson, 
who 'wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, himself a 
Virginian, said " I tremble for my country when I remember that God is 
just." When the convention that met to frame the Constitution assembled 
in Philadelphia, the feeling was strong against slavery, and had the majority 
followed their own conviction of right, a provision would have been incor- 
porated for its gradual and final extinction. But the desire to frame a docu- 
ment that would be acceptable to all the States led to a tender treatment of 
the subject, and finally to one of those compromises which have marked the 
whole course of legislation upon the subject for more than eighty years, and 
in time resulted in the most destructive internal war which has ever come to- 
any nation. It was proposed to prohibit the importation of slaves at once,, 
and all the Northern and most of the Souther» members were in favor of it. 
But the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia threatened to withdraw 
from the convention if this was done; and instead, it was provided that the 
traffic should cease at the expiration of twenty years, or at the close of 1807.. 



454 OUR NATION: 

Using the same threat of disunion, the slaveholder of the extreme South 
gained other concessions of great importance. First, that if a person escaped 
from a slave State to a free State that circumstance did not make him free; 
and second that in the apportionment for representatives to Congress the pop- 
ulation of white citizens should be enumerated, and to this should be added 
three-fifths of all other persons excluding Indians not taxed. While the 
words slave and slavery are not to be found in the Constitution, by these 
concessions to the slaveholders the institution was intrenched within the 
■organic law of the land. So the first and most important victory was gained 
•for the abettors of the evil. 

Even in the South there was a strong public sentiment against the 
system. Slave owners acknowledged its evils and freely discussed it. The 
-pulpit preached against it, and men prophesied its extinction. The meanest 
black might hope that the time vvould come when the words of the Declara- 
tion of Independence would apply to him. 

The purchase of the vast domain of Louisiana from France opened up a 
mighty region to the profitable cultivation of sugar cane and cotton by slave 
labor. The growth of cotton was becoming a matter of great importance. 
The invention of the spinning jenny by Richard Arkwright in England, in 
1768, followed by the introduction of steam power by James Watts, had 
■ created an extensive demand for cotton, which Great Britain could only find 
in sufificient quantity and proper quality in the Southern States of the American 
Union. Eli Whitney, a New England farmer's son, was a born mechanic. ' In 
1792, he was on a visit to the home of Mrs. General Greene, in the State of 
Georgia, and heard of the trouble which surrounded the cotton planters in 
separating the fibers of the cotton from the seed, and the wish that some device 
should be invented to overcome this. Young Whitney set his inventive genius 
■at work to construct a machine for this purpose, and after much study, many 
improvements, and oft-repeated failures, finally invented the cotton gin. The 
planters of Georgia saw in the rudely constructed machine exhibited to them 
in the back room of Mrs. Greene's residence, the possibility of untold wealth 
for them, and heeded it as a sign of their deliverance from this trouble. The 
cotton gin made the growing of cotton ^'astly more remunerative than ever 
■before. But the South treated the brain work of the eminent mechanic with 
great injustice. The secret of the inventor was stolen and used in making 
machines without remunerating him. The inventor of the instrument which 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 455 

gave the cotton-growing States their supremacy in the markets of the world, 
and brought a constant flow of wealth to their doors, died a poor man. 

To return from this digression : 

Ten years after Whitney's cotton gin had been invented, Louisana was 
added to the United States, and there was a great demand for slaves. The 
northern tier of slave States began to grow slaves for the southern market. 

The interstate slave trade became pecuniarily profitable to both sections 
of the groups of slave States, and public sentiment on the subject of the 
wrongfulness of slavery became materially modified. 

The new generation that came upon the field of active life saw only the 
remains of the old order of things, and found the slave system almost univer- 
sally approved as an economic instrument and only mildly condemned by a 
few as contrary to Christian ethics. They accepted the situation as a matter 
of course. It was their heritage, and their right as guaranteed to them by 
law. 

The new generation found in their midst an inferior class of human 
beings, intellectually, a vast majority of whom appeared to be content with 
their lot, and, as a rule, were happy. They were dependent; devoid of care; 
docile; obedient; easily won to the embraces of Christianity as presented to 
them; and many good men and women saw in the corresponding relations 
of the two races which circumstances had created, a field for the exercise of 
widespread benevolence. They persuaded themselves that the slave system 
was a civilizing and Christianizing force, providentially designed to place the 
Negro upon a higher plane of intelligence and surround him with more ele- 
vating influences than he could ever have obtained in his native land. Such 
sentiments were widely promulgated by the Pulpit and the Press, the most 
puissant utterers of doctrines and principles, religious and political. 

The change in the sentiments of the clergy, in the slave States, during 
the twenty-five years preceding the Civil War was most remarkable. We 
will notice only two or three instances in a single religious body — the Presby- 
terians. In 1835, representatives of that denomination in South Carolina and 
Georgia, in convention assembled, made an ofificial report against the perpe- 
tration of the system of Slavery. 

"We cannot go into detail," they said : "it is unnecessary. We make 
our appeal to universal experience. W^e are chained to a putrid carcass. It 
sickens and destroys us. We have a millstone about the neck of our Society 



456 OUR NATION: 

to sink us deep in the Sea of Vice. Our children are corrupted from their 
infancy, nor can we prevent it," etc. 

In November, i860, an eminent Doctor of Divinity in the Presbyterian 
Church said, in his pulpit in New Orleans, after speaking of the character of 
the South : — " The particular trust assigned to such a people becomes a pledge 
of Divine protection, and their fidelity to it determines the fate by which it is 
finally overtaken. What that trust is must be ascertained from the necessities 
of their positions, the institutions which are the outgrowth of their principles, 
and the conflicts through which they preserve their identity and independence. 
If, then, the South is such a people, what, at this juncture, is the providential 
trust ? I answer, that it is to conserve and to perpetuate the institution of do- 
viestie slavery as nozv existing'' 

Ten or fifteen years before the Civil War, an eminent Doctor of Di- 
vinity in Charleston, S. C, in a pamphlet, referred to the Declaration of 
Independence as the product of Presbyterians and as of almost Divine 
origin. In November, i860, he said, in his pulpit, that he "found in the in- 
fidel, atheistic, French Revolution, Red Republican principle, embodied as 
an axiomatic principle in the Declaration of Independence," the root of all 
our evils. 

The President of a Theological Seminary, at Columbia, S. C, asserted his 
convictions that the African slave-trade was " the most worthy of all mis- 
sionary Societies." 

Happily, the logic of events has relegated such sentiments to the shadowy 
realms of the past, and the " New South " is working out its noble destiny on 
a higher plane of action. We have alluded to these things only to illustrate 
the changeful phases of public opinion during the period of agitation which 
we are considering. 

When the State of Louisiana was admitted into the Union, in 1812, the 
vast northern part of the purchase from France was without white inhabitants. 
This region was rich in natural resources. Iron, copper and coal enough to 
supply the earth lay beneath its surface. Large rivers flowed in natural 
highways to the seas. The climate was genial and mild. Gradually settlers 
came flocking thither. The slave-holder with his bond-servants was the first 
in the field, and the free settler turned aside to the northwest, from which 
slavery had been excluded by the act of the Continental Congress. So Mis- 
souri became a slave State. In 1818, there were sixty thousand persons in 
the Territory of Missouri, and she was knocking at the doors of Congress for 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 457 

admission. The slave States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi, had been admitted before this without any controversy, but now the 
slave power was becoming too aggressive and reaching far to the north. The 
first great contest between the North and the South was fought over this 
question. For more than two years the conflict waged, and after a desperate 
fight in the Halls of Congress and before the people, resulted in the Com- 
promise measure. There had been heated debates which had agitated the 
whole country from Maine to Louisiana. The compromise was, that slavery 
should be allowed in all States south of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude, 
and excluded from all States and territories north of that latitude. This 
■conflict ended with a decided victory for the slave power. The cotton gin, 
the admission of Louisiana, and the teaching of events, all had their efTect 
in making the South a unit, and the slave power very strong in the nation. 
The institution required more territory for its expansion ; and this policy 
never changed. The agitation which had begun would rage over the country 
for fifty years, and find its solution only when the institution lay in ruins at 
the end of a gigantic struggle inaugurated to uphold it by an atteippted dis- 
solution of the Union. Indeed this was the threat all through the contro- 
versy that had led to the compromises which were always in favor of the slave 
power. 

The active hostility of the North against slavery began to grow in the 
time of John Quincy Adams (1825-1829). General Andrew Jackson was 
President from 1829 to 1837, and during a part of the same time, John C. 
Calhoun was Vice President. This question was the overshadowing one for 
that period. The South found a faithful ally in a certain class at the North. 
People in the Free States participated in gains from the slave system in the 
South. The planter borrowed money in the North, and sold his cotton to 
the Northern manufacturer, and Northern ships were engaged in the cotton 
conveying trade. They were coining money out of the peculiar institution 
and had no scruples of conscience about it. There was a wide-spread opinion 
that the slave of the South was in better condition than the poorly paid 
laborer of Europe; and that was all that could be asked. It was claimed 
that cotton could not be grown without slave labor. And thus the institu- 
tion, intrenched in the constitution, became united in the South, and had its 
friends in the North. There seemed no hope for the poor black now, and 
the South began to exercise absolute political domination in the National 
Legislature. But there was an influence at work in the free States, at first 



458 OUR NATION: 

weak and insignificant, but like the leaven hidden in the three measures of 
meal, affecting the whole mass. 

On the first day of January, 1831, there appeared in Boston the first 
number of a paper, called the " Emancipator," published by a journeyman 
printer, William Lloyd Garrison. It was devoted to the furtherance of the 
abolition of slavery. It was an insignificant opening for a noble enterprise, 
which found its consummation in the necessity of a civil war that threatened 
the very existence of the Republic. But every word spoken or written upon 
the subject found some willing hearer or ready reader, and gradually the in- 
fluence reached the pulpit, the political caucus, and the Halls of Congress. 
An abolition society was formed, at first composed of twelve members. In 
three years there were two hundred such organized, and in seven years in- 
creased to over two thousand anti-slavery societies. The contest began in 
earnest. The conflict was long and fiercely waged. 

The question of the tariff had its northern and southern side ; and when 
the nullifiers of South Carolina, in 1832, resisted the government, it was in the 
interest of their cherished institution. 

There is another side to the topic of the annexation of Texas to the Union 
than the one we have presented. Texas was a large, uninhabited tract on 
the southwest border of the country, and the South looked upon it as a de- 
sirable region for the spread of the slavery system. The climate was genial 
and the soil rich. It was of uncertain ownership, but it was recognized as 
belonging to Mexico. Under a grant of territory to a citizen of Missouri,, 
by the Spanish authorities in 1820, citizens of the slave States flocked into 
Texas; and when, in 1833, there were 20,000 Americans there, a revolutionary 
movement for achieving the independence of Texas began under the leader- 
ship, chiefly, of Samuel Houston, of Virginia. Mexican troops under Santa 
Anna invaded Texas, and were defeated in battle, by Houston with a Texan- 
force. The Mexicans were driven from the country; the independence of 
Texas was achieved in 1836, and it was speedily acknowledged by the United 
States, Great Britain, France and other nations. 

The grateful Texans made Houston President of the Republic which he 
had thus saved. 

Mexico still claimed the territory. A warm debate arose in Congress,, 
and the first proposal from Texas to enter the Union was rejected. The 
conflict became bitter. If Texas was admitted she would come as a slave 
State; on this ground the North opposed it, and the South favored it. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 459 

Daniel Webster said, " We all see that Texas will be a slave-holding State^ 
and I frankly avow my unwillingness to do anything which shall extend the 
slavery of the African race on this continent, or add another slave-holding 
State to the Union." The Legislature of Mississippi said in resolutions on^ 
the subject, " The South does not possess a blessing with w^hich the affections 
of her people are so closely entwined, and whose value is more highly appre-- 
ciated. By the annexation of Texas, an equipoise of influence in the Halls 
of Congress will be secured which will furnish us a permanent guarantee of 
protection." Such was the plain statement of the question from both sides. 
The matter went to the people and resulted in a victory for the South. Texas 
was admitted, two votes for slavery were gained in the Senate, and unlimited 
room for the expansion of the ancient institution. But the victory cost a war 
with a sister Republic, in which might was arrayed against right, and the 
United States won the questionable glory of conquering a weaker power and 
dismembering her territory to a vast extent. In this Mexican war we find 
the names of many men who won their first military honors in the " country 
under the sun," and afterwards took a conspicuous place in history. Ulysses. 
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee took part in this war; but never met face to face 
until many years afterwards, when they had a conference under an historic 
apple tree, near Appomatox Court-House in Virginia, to arrange for the sur- 
render of a brave but conquered army. General Franklin Pierce, and General 
Zachary Taylor were also in the war with Mexico, and became Presidents of 
the United States. There was a strong opposition to this war, and in the 
North dominant public opinion was instantly aroused in regard to the de- 
mands of the arrogant slave power. 

Thus far in the conflict of agitation and argument the South had gained 
at every move, and in their pride of success they considered themselves safe 
to demand that their institution should be considered a national one. But 
there came other agencies into the field, and the very war which had been 
waged in Mexico became, under Providence, the means of checking their 
supremacy and putting an end to the acquirement of any more slave States. 
Of the original thirteen States, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia, were slave-holding. Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, 
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas had been added 
to their number. But now there was to be a halt, and the voice of Providence 
seemed to say " Thus far shalt thou go and no further, and here shall thy 
proud waves be stayed." The discovery of gold, and the rapid increase of 



46o OUR NATION: 

population in California, made up of men who came to carve out their for- 
tunes, was unfavorable to the introduction of slavery, and the people framed 
a State Constitution and asked and obtained its admission as a free State. 
This was a grievous disappointment to the slave States which had been so 
•enthusiastic in pressing on the Mexican war, for the sake of gaining the con- 
trol of new States, more votes in the United States Senate, and a large area 
for the spread of slavery. The people from the North had flocked to the 
Pacific Coast and quickly decided the fate of the first State formed on that 
coast. 

But we will now resume the line of general history at the end of Mr. 
Polk's administration. General Zachary Taylor, who had been conspicuous 
for his bravery and patriotism in the war with Mexico was elected to the 
Presidency by a large majority, as we have said. 

ADMINISTRATION OF ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

The twelfth President of the United States was inaugurated March 5th, 
i849_the4th being Sunday — and from the start had the sympathies and best 
wishes of a large majority of the people. The administration of the newly in- 
augurated incumbent promised to be one of unusual happiness and prosperity. 

The Constitution framed by the people of California at Monterey was 
adopted by the convention on the first day of September, 1849. The birth 
and formation of a crude State had been so sudden as to surprise the coun- 
try, having been only twenty months from the time of the discovery of gold. 
Edward Gilbert and G. H. Wright were sent as delegates to Congress and 
John C. Fremont and William M. Gwin were elected Senators, and appeared 
at Washington with the State Constitution in their hands, and presented a 
petition asking to be received as a free and independent State. Then there 
came a severe struggle in the two Houses of Congress over the anti-slavery 
clause, and the excitement ran high all over the country. The old and oft- 
repeated threat of disunion was raised, and again another compromise was 
effected. Henry Clay appeared as a peacemaker and implored the people to 
make any sacrifice but honor to preserve the Union. Daniel Webster warmly 
seconded the efforts of Mr. Clay and the compromise measure was passed 
September 9th, 1850. This is known as the "Omnibus Bill," and provided 
" for the admission of California as a free State ; second, the formation of the 
territory of Utah; third, the formation of the territory of New Mexico, and 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 461 

ten million dollars be paid to Texas for her claim on this territory; fourth, 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; fifth, the fugitive slave 
law." This last measure was extremely unpopular in the North. Its pro- 
visions were excessively obnoxious to the whole non slave-holding States, 
and raised a storm of opposition, evasion and violation, which led to serious 
•disturbances and much bitter strife. In the midst of this excitement the 
President died, and was succeeded by the Vice President, Millard Fillmore, 
July 9th, 1850. 

In the brief administration of General Taylor, there had been a number 
•of important events which affected the issues of the impending Civil War. 
One of these was the invasion of Cuba by General Lopez, a native of that 
island, who had come to the United States and raised, organized and equipped 
a force in violation of the neutrality laws. He landed in Cuba the 19th of 
April, 1850, expecting to find the Cubans ready to rise and make a strike for 
freedom from Spain. But in this he was disappointed, and returned to the 
-States to raise a larger force. Of this we shall speak further on. The other 
■event was the establishment of Mormonism in the region called Utah, a large 
tract of country midway between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. The 
Mormons composed a religious sect who had accepted the delusion of Joseph 
Smith, in 1827, and had emigrated from the State of Illinois. They came 
.across the plains and founded their settlement, after many hardships and 
trials, in a land among the mountains in mid continent which they called 
Deseret. They were fanatical in their notions, and had adopted a system of 
marriage which was antagonistic to the religious and moral sentiment of the 
whole country. They recognized the right and held to the practice of 
polygamy, or a plurality of wives. They spread their doctrines by means of 
missionaries over all parts of the world and converts came in large numbers 
to Utah. They have long had sufificient population to form a State, but up 
to this writing — 1888 — have been kept out of the Union on account of their 
peculiar institution of polygamy. 

ADMINISTRATION OF MILLARD FILLMORE. 

The compromise measure adopted, as we have seen, was the first move- 
ment of importance during his term of ofifice. The cabinet of General Taylor 
resigned at the time of his death, but the incoming President retained them in 
office, and zealously carried out the policy which had been inaugurated by his 
predecessor. 



462 OUR NATION: 

The Fugitive Slave Law was supported by the Elxecutive power, and oc- 
casioned wide-spread dissatisfaction all over the non-slave-holding States. 
Before this time, while the slave-owner could claim, and recapture his so- 
called property when found, he could not demand the aid of northern officials 
or citizens in aiding him in the search ; but this law authorized him to employ 
the representatives of the general government in the search and delivery of 
his fugitive slaves, and any citizens could be called upon to assist in this, when 
a United States Marshal demanded it. This was at utter variance with the 
spirit of free institutions in the North, and the people of that section, and a 
large number of the South, were in favor of its repeal. This led to a fearful 
struggle on the part of both sides to carry their points, and the final result 
was most disastrous to the nation for a time. 

In the spring of 185 1 there were enacted the most salutary changes in 
the Post Office laws, and a great reduction in rates of postage. The electric 
telegraph had been perfected, and thousands of miles of wire were binding 
together cities, countries and States. Thus instantaneous communication 
could be held between distant points. Fulton and Morse, by their discoveries, 
had annihilated time and space, and bound the distant States into a more 
solid union than had ever been known before. 

In the summer of 1851, there was increased excitement over the proposed 
invasion of Cuba a second time under General Lopez. The watchfulness of 
the government was awakened, and the United States' marshals were ordered 
to arrest any persons suspected of violating the neutrality laws. The steamer 
Cleopatra was detained in New York harbor, and several respectable citizens 
were arrested for complicity in the matter. General Lopez made his escape 
from the authorities, with four hundred and eighty men, and landed on the 
northern coast of Cuba, August nth. He left Colonel N. L. Crittenden, of 
Kentucky, with one hundred men at that point, and went into the interior 
with the rest. Crittenden with his party was captured, taken to Havana, and 
shot on the i6th. Lopez, was attacked on the 13th, and his band dispersed. 
He had been deceived in finding any of the natives ready to aid him. There 
were no indications of any uprising and he was a fugitive. He, with six of 
his men, was arrested on the 28th, and on September 1st, 185 1, they were 
all executed. 

In the Fall of 1851, there was more accession of territory for the United 
States. Many millions of acres of land were purchased of the Sioux Indians 
and they were removed to the reservation appointed for them. The territory 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 465 

of Minnesota was organized, and emigration soon filled it with a white popula- 
tion. The number of Representatives and Senators in Congress had increased 
so much since the war of 1812, that it now became necessary to enlarge the 
Capitol building in Washington, and the corner-stone was laid for a new wing 
July 4th, 185 1, by the President, with appropriate ceremonies. 

The expedition of Elisha Kent Kane, M. D., a surgeon in the United 
States Navy, started for the Arctic Ocean, in 1853, and resulted in many 
scientific discoveries which settled the fact of an open Polar Sea, but the 
object of the search, to find Sir John Franklin, was not accomplished. 

The visit of Louis Kossuth, an Hungarian patriot to this country during 
Mr, Fillmore's term of of^ce, was an occasion of much interest in awakening 
the sympathies of the people for his oppressed country, but the government 
did not give him the material aid he sought. 

There was much ill feeling engendered between the United States and 
England, growing out of the Newfoundland fishery question ; but it was set- 
tled in October, 1853, without any rupture. 

An event of great commercial interest occurred in the same year in the 
distant East. Commodore Perry, — a brother of the hero of Lake Erie, — 
made a treaty with the Government of Japan, in which it was agreed that 
part of that Empire should be opened to American commerce ; that the 
steamers from California to China should be furnished with coal, and that 
American sailors shipwrecked on the coast of Japan should be hospitably 
treated by the natives. 

The relations between the United States and Spain became involved in 
unpleasantness, growing out of the Cuban matters, and for a time war was 
threatened. There was a feeling in Europe that the United States wanted 
Cuba, to hold command of the entire Gulf of Mexico. England and France, 
asked that the United States should enter into a treaty with them which 
should secure Cuba to Spain, and disavow, " now and forever hereafter, all 
intention to obtain possession of the Island of Cuba." Edward Everett,, 
Secretary of State, answered this demand in a logical, and unanswerable argu- 
ment, which was praised for its power and patriotism, and the subject was: 
dropped. 

The most important event at the close of President Fillmore's term was 
the organization of the Territory of Washington, from the northern half of 
Oregon. This became a law on March 2d, 1853, two days before the newl)r 
elected President, General Franklin Pierce, took his seat. William R. King, 



464 OUR NATION: 

of Alabama, had been elected Vice President, but failing health prevented 
him from entering upon the oflfice. 



ADMINISTRATION OF FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

The day on which Mr. Pierce was inaugurated, March 4th, 1853, there 
was a bitter storm of sleet and rain, the most severe ever known in Washing- 
ton, and seemed to augur a tempestuous administration. So it proved in the 
sequel. The first serious difficulty that arose was in regard to the boundary 
line between Mexico and the United States, and for a time war seemed in- 
evitable. The Mexican army occupied the disputed territory: but the matter 
was amicably settled by peaceful negotiation, and friendly relations between 
the two republics have existed ever since. 

In the early part of this administration a large exploring expedition was 
sent to the Pacific coast of Asia, which was of great importance in view of 
the establishment of numerous steamship lines between the ports of Asia and 
the United States. The question of connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific 
coasts with railways, was agitated in connection with this subject. Four ex- 
plorations were sent out by the government to survey as many routes: one 
from the head waters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound ; one from the same 
river to the Pacific along the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude; one by way of 
the Great Salt Lake to San Francisco,^which line was completed in 1869; 
the fourth from the lower Mississippi to Southern California. The explora- 
tions were made, and a vast amount of scientific, geographical and natural in- 
formation was gained. 

A world's fair of Industry and Mechanical Arts was opened in New York, 
in the spring of 1853 and modelled after a similar one held in Hyde Park, 
London, England, in 185 1. This gave great encouragement to the manufac- 
turers and the mechanical arts in America, and showed the nations of Europe 
what strides the young republic was making in the march of improvement. 

The lull which precedes a fierce storm had fallen upon the country at the 
time Congress met, in December, 1853. There was an unprecedented calm 
in the political world, and the quiet of a settled peace rested upon the coun- 
try, rippled only by a wave of trouble with Austria, which was soon smoothed. 

Important treaties with Mexico and the Central American States were in 
progress of settlement in regard to various inter-oceanic communications by 
railway or water. In the distant Pacific there was a kingdom whose inhab- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 465 

itants had become civilized, Christianized, and established in a civil govern- 
ment, with a wide extent of commerce in a single generation, namely, the 
Sandwich Islands. The king and his people desired to unite with the Ameri- 
can States, and took steps to bring that about. France and England at once 
were jealous, and charged the whole scheme upon the American missionaries. 
The United States Minister and the missionaries denied that they had influ- 
enced the natives. The American government denied the right of foreign 
governments to interfere, and a treaty for the annexation of the Sandwich 
Islands was in preparation when King Kamehameha died, and his successor 
discontinued negotiations. These were revived in 1866, by Queen Emma, 
when she returned from her visit to England. 

The slavery question which had been so quiet for a few years, suddenly 
presented itself just as Congress was sitting down to work on the important 
matters of commerce and internal improvement. Stephen Douglass, United 
States Senator from Illinois, introduced a bill which aroused the people to 
the most intense excitement, and broke in upon the harmony of Congress. 
Near the centre of our continent there was a vast domain embracing one- 
fourth of all the public land of the country. It extended from the thirty- 
seventh parallel of north latitude to the British possessions, and w^as the most 
fertile and best watered portion of America. The bill of Mr. Douglass pro- 
vided that this domain should be organized into two territories — Kansas and 
Nebraska — and contained a provision to repeal the Compromise of 1820, and 
allow the people to decide whether or not slavery should be permitted. The 
thunder storm broke over the country in renewed fury, and violent discussion 
arose in the North and South. The bill was discussed in the Senate from 
January 30th to March 3d, 1854, and thousands of remonstrances poured in 
from all parts of the North, but it passed the Senate by the decided vote of 
thirty-seven to fourteen. In the House of Representatives it was shorn of 
its worst features by amendments, and the final defeat seemed almost certain. 
A bill for the construction of a railroad to the Pacific was reported to the 
Senate. A Homestead Act, giving one hundred and sixty acres of land from 
the public domain to any white male citizen who would occupy and improve 
the same for five years, was introduced in the House of Representatives. An 
amendment graduating the price of land was passed in its stead. Another 
victory for slavery. But the excitement quieted down till the 9th of May, 
when the Nebraska bill was called up again. At once the public pulse ran 
up to fever heat. The debate was fierce and intense; the suspense of the 



466 OUR NATION: 

people was fearful, but on the 22d of May the bill as amended passed the 
House, was rushed through the Senate, and signed by the President the last 
of May. Every barrier to the lawful spread of slavery over the public domain 
was now removed ; but the end was not yet. 

Another chapter in the controversy concerning Slavery opens at once. 
Spain had a cause of grievance with the United States in regard to Cuba. 
The American steamship Black Warrior was seized in the port of Havana 
by the Cuban authorities. The Spanish government justified the act when 
the American Minister at Madrid asked for redress. But the Cubans became 
alarmed and offered to give up the ship by the owners paying a fine of six 
thousand dollars. The owners complied under protest. The matter was 
amicably adjusted between Spain and the United States. The slave power 
used the irritation caused by this incident as a pretext for a gigantic scheme 
of propagating slavery. 

In 1854 President Pierce appointed James Buchanan, then ambassador at 
London, James M. Mason, ambassador at Paris, and Mr. Soule, ambassador 
at Madrid, as a commission to confer about the difficulties in Cuba, and to 
get possession of that island by purchase or otherwise. The famous Ostend 
Circular was issued by them, on the i8th of August, 1854, in which they said, 
" If Spain, actuated by pride and stubborn sense of honor, should refuse to 
sell Cuba to the United States," then, "by every law, human and divine, we 
shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the power." This is 
the argument of the highway robber, and why it should not have been rebuked 
at Washington can only be understood in the light of future events. In the 
light of these events, we learn that the stupendous design embraced the plot 
of " the Golden Circle," which was to establish an empire with Havana as its 
centre, embracing an area of sixteen degrees of latitude and longitude, to 
take in the slave States, the West Indies, and a great part of Mexico and 
the Central American States. 

We find a little relief in turning from this subject for a moment to others. 

The boundary line between Mexico and the United States was established 
upon satisfactory terms, as we have already stated. The United States was 
to pay ten millions of dollars, and be released from all obligation imposed in 
the former treaty of 1848 — seven millions on the ratification of the treaty and 
three millions when the line should be established. These conditions were 
faithfully carried out. 

An important reciprocity treaty was made with Great Britain, which was 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 467 

x)f great advantage to both parties, and removed to a considerable extent the 
restrictions on free trade between the United States and Canada. The t\\ o 
governments agreed to the introduction of many articles, such as breadstuffs, 
coal, fish, and lumber, from one to the other, free of duty, England gave 
the United States the free use of the St. Lawrence, and the canals of the 
provinces, and in return enjoyed the right of fishing, as far as the thirty-sixth 
degree of north latitude, and other privileges. This treaty continued until 
1866. 

The attempt on the island of Cuba had failed ; but there was started at 
once an expedition to Central America to get possession of a portion of the 
Golden Circle. This was organized by a warm personal friend of Jefferson 
Davis, Secretary of War, under the administration of Mr. Pierce. His name 
was William Walker. He invaded the State of Nicaragua, on what is known 
as the Mosquito Coast, under the pretext that the British were attempting to 
take this coast, in violation of the principle of the " Monroe doctrine." Many 
persons had emigrated hither from the Southwestern States. The guns of 
the United States Navy had already awakened the echoes of the tropical 
forests. The Mosquito King had sold a large tract of land to two British 
subjects, and emigrants, led by Colonel H. L. Kinney, had settled there. The 
attention of our Minister to the State of Nicaragua had been called to this 
matter, and our government could not wholly ignore the subject, but dealt 
Avith it so mildly as to leave the inference that the emigrants would not be 
molested by the United States. Captain William Walker went to the aid of 
Colonel Kinney, and with his band attempted to capture the city of Rivas, 
but his attack was repulsed, and he escaped to the coast. 

Walker returned, with armed followers, in August, 1855, ^'"^^ '^^'^ Septem- 
ber the emigrants assumed the independence of Nicaragua. Walker, after 
gaining some victories, placed General Rivas in the Presidential chair of the 
independent " State of Mosquito," and drove Colonel Kinney away. He 
strengthened his military power, and was recognized by a British consul. 
The other States of Central America became frightened at this display of 
audacity, and combined to drive Walker out of his position. Costa Rica 
formally declared war against this new power. Walker raised a strong band, 
and shamelessly proclaimed that he was there by invitation of the liberal party 
of Nicaragua. The army of Costa Rica came to attack him, and he overcame 
them. Walker then became arrogant, forced a loan from the people, and 
after Rivas had abdicated the presidency, Walker was elected President, by 



468 OUR NATION: 

two-thirds of the popular votes. He was inaugurated June 24th, and our 
government hastened to recognize the new nation. It was the opening chap- 
ter in the grand plot. He held his position for two years, and finally was 
obliged to surrender his army of two hundred men, and flee to New Orleans. 
He attempted to raise another expedition, and on the 25th of November 
landed at Puntas Arenas, where he was captured by Commodore Paulding, of 
the United States Navy, and with two hundred and thirty-two men was taken 
to New York. President Buchanan privately commended Commodore Paul- 
ing for the act, but for " prudential reasons " publicly censured him in a special 
message to Congress, January 7th, 1858. Walker was discharged, and 
preached a new crusade against Nicaragua all through the Southern States, 
collecting money to aid him in a new invasion. He sailed from New Orleans, 
on a third expedition, but was arrested, and tried before the United States 
Court, for " leaving port without a clearance," but was acquitted. Then he 
went to Central America, recommenced hostilities, was taken, and shot at 
Truxillo by the natives. Thus ended another act in the civil strife which A\as 
raging. 

In 1855, there was serious trouble with the Indians in Oregon and Wash- 
ington Territories, and the United States Army was sent to quell it. The 
barbarians overcame them, and a massacre of white families followed. In the 
season of 1855-6, it seemed that the combination of Indians was so strong 
that the settlers would have to abandon the territories named, but General 
Wool was sent to Oregon to organize a force against the savages, and the 
trouble was settled the following Summer. 

A slight trouble arose between Great Britain and our government, grow- 
ing out of the enlistment of men in the United States for the Crimean war. 
This was done under the sanction of several British consuls in this country. 
After some diplomatic correspondence the ofTending consuls were dismissed ; 
also the British minister was sent home and his place was filled by another. 
The British Parliament disavowed any complicity in the matter. 

The remaining events in the administration of Franklin Pierce were full 
of incidents having immediate reference to the great struggle going on in the 
country between the advocates of the spread of slavery and the advocates of 
free soil. The contest was most intense and bitter in Congress, and in the 
political canvass. Silently there were unseen and complicated moral forces 
at work, but none the less potent because unseen. A great party sprung into 
existence in the North, and found many adherents in the South. John C 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 469 

Fremont of California, and William L. Dayton, were the candidates of this, 
party for President and Vice President. This was the Republican party. 
Another organization throughout the country known as the An"^erican or 
Know-Nothing party, who were opposed to the foreign element in the national; 
politics, nominated Ex-President Fillmore and A. J. Donelson of Tennessee,, 
for the same offices. The Democratic party put James Buchanan and John 
C. Breckenridge, in nomination for the same. The political canvass of 1856 
was the most exciting and antagonistic that the country had ever seen. The 
press, the pulpit and the rostrum rang with the utterances of men who were 
alive to the questions of the hour. In every hamlet and village of the North, 
and most of the South, the party lines were distinctly drawn,, and families 
and neighborhoods were stirred with the agitation of the all-absorbing subject. 
The day of the election came and the whole country waited in breathless 
anxiety for the returns. The election of James Buchanan for President, and 
John C. Breckenridge for Vice President, was the result. 

THE STRUGGLE IN KANSAS. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN. 

The virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 led to a renewal 
of the contest between the two contending forces, and Kansas became the 
battle-ground of the decided champions on the two sides. The people from 
the North began to pour into the new territory and it became apparent that 
they would largely outnumber the settlers from the slave States. People of 
the South were the first in the field and took possession of land in all parts.. 
Missouri was near at hand and Kansas was easy of access, but the Southern 
people were not an emigrating class and their numbers came slowly. There 
were people enough to form a State, in time, but the Northern settlers could 
outvote the Southern. The time for election was coming and some decisive 
steps must be taken. Large bodies of Missourians went in 1854, and when a 
delegate was chosen from the Territory, out of nearly twenty-nine hundred 
votes cast over seventeen hundred were by Missourians who had no legal right 
to vote there. These men from " over the border " were in tents and had 
artillery with them as if arrayed for battle. A legislature was illegally chosen 
to meet at Pawnee City, nearly one hundred miles from the Missouri line. 
This body immediately adjourned to meet on the very borders of that State,, 
and proceeded to enact laws in favor of slavery. They were vetoed by the 



470 OUR NATION: 

governor and passed over his veto. The actual settlers of the territory ap- 
pointed a convention to meet at Topeka, October 19th. 

Governor Reeder was nominated for Delegate to Congress, and was at 
once elected by the legal voters. On the 23d of the same month a conven- 
tior. chosen by the actual citizens of Kansas adopted a Constitution providing 
that it should be a free State and asked admission to the Union under this 
instrument. Governor Reeder and the pro-slavery delegate appeared at 
Washington as contestants for seats. In the meanwhile (January 17th, 1855), 
an election was held and the State ofificers were chosen by the legal voters of 
the Territory. President Pierce (January 24th) sent a special message to 
Congress representing the action of the people in Kansas in forming a State 
government as a rebellion. 

Then there came a reign of terror for Kansas in which violence, blood- 
.shed and fraud were rampant. The actual settlers resisted the efforts of their 
pro-slavery neighbors in forcing upon them a condition of things obnoxious 
to their sense of right and justice. The struggle seemed to be like the death 
grapple of giants. Finally a committee of investigation was sent from Con- 
gress, and a majority of them agreed in their report to sustain the acts of the 
legal voters and refuse the frauds by which Whitfield, the pro-slavery delegate, 
had been elected and the pro-slavery constitution passed. The member of 
the Committee from Missouri alone dissented from the report, and the mis- 
sion failed to accomplish any result either way. Then came the election of 
Buchanan as fifteenth President of the United States. 

There had been an important case pending in the United States Supreme 
Court in which a decision had been reached before the election, but it was 
withheld from the public until the result of the popular vote should be known. 
It was the famous Dred Scott decision. Scott was a slave of a United States 
ofificer who had taken him into a free State, and while there he had married 
the slave girl of another of^cer, both masters giving their consent. Two chil- 
dren had been born of this marriage on free soil. The master of Scott bought 
the wife of his slave, and took the parents and their children to Missouri and 
held them all. Scott claimed his freedom on the ground of his involuntary 
service in a free State and the District Court had given him the case. It 
went to the United States Supreme Court of the State, which reversed the 
decision. Then it came before the Supreme Court upon the question of 
jurisdiction solely. The Chief Justice of that court decided against Scott, 
•and announced that no person " whose ancestors were imported into this 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 471 

'Country and sold as slaves " had any right to sue in the courts of the United 
States. The majority of the Court agreed with him. After the election was 
decided they published their decision, and went beyond the question at issue 
to say that our Revolutionary fathers " for more than a century before " re- 
garded the African race in America as " so far inferior, that they had no rights 
which the white man was bound to respect,''' and they zvere never thought or 
.spoken of except as property. President Buchanan in his inaugural address two 
days before this strange decision had been promulgated, referred to a mys- 
terious something which would settle the slavery question " speedily and 
finally," and expressed the hope that thus the long agitation of this disturbing 
■question was approaching its end ! Bui the end was not yet. Kansas was still 
a battle-ground and the contending parties had not given up the struggle. 
Peace was for a while restored, but the two forces were energetic and active. 
The question of a free or a slave State was not yet decided. 

The pro-slavery party had met in convention and framed a constitution 
favorable to their side, at Lecompton, in September, 1857. It was submitted 
to the people in this way: They could vote "For the Constitution with 
slavery" or "For the Constitution without slavery;" in any case they must 
vote for this Constitution, which was " all one way," and that protected 
.slavery until 1864. Of course the free-soil men would not vote at all, and the 
pro-slavery Constitution was adopted by a large majority. An election for 
the territorial legislature was held under assurance from Governor Walker 
that the people should not be molested, and although there were many frauds, 
the anti-slavery party had a large majority. The legislature ordered that the 
Lecompton Constitution should be sent to the people to vote "for" or 
■" against " the measure as a whole. It was rejected by over ten thousand 
majority. But in spite of this the President sent the Lecompton Constitution 
to the Senate (February 2d, 1858), by whom it was at once passed. The 
House of Representatives amended the bill by referring it again to the people 
<of Kansas for acceptance or rejection. It was again rejected by over ten 
thousand majority, and finally Kansas was received into the Union as a free 
State. In the year 1862 the opinion of the Supreme Court was practically 
rejected as untenable, by the Secretary of State granting a black citizen a 
passport to travel in foreign countries. Such were some of the skirmishes 
which preceded the war of 1861—65. 

The " Southern Commercial Convention," convened at Vicksburg, voted 
■on the nth of May, 1859, that "all laws. State or Federal, prohibiting the 



472 OUR NATION: 

slave trade, ought to be abolished," and a scheme was soon started to promote 
the African slave trade, under the specious disguise of an "African labor- 
supply Association." The withdrawal of American cruisers from the coast 
of Africa, was discussed in the United States Senate by Mr. Slidell, of 
Louisiana, and Mr. Buchanan protested against the right of British men-of- 
war to search suspected slave-traders who flew the United States flag. Ship- 
loads of slaves were landed in southern ports directly from Africa. The 
northern States had, in many instances, passed personal-liberty laws, restrict- 
ing the Fugitive Slave law so far as they could do without a violation of the 
national law. This exasperated the other party. A National Emancipation 
Society was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, which aimed at the gradual extinction 
of the institution of slavery. 

The attention of the country was turned to the disturbing Mormon ques- 
tion. These people in Utah were rising in a revolution because they could 
not gain admission as a State. They destroyed the records of the United 
States District Court, and by orders of Brigham Young, their governor and 
spiritual guide, they were to look to him for all law. Colonel Cummings, the 
actual governor of the Territory, was sent with an army to enforce the United 
States law. The Mormons destroyed a provision train, committed sundry 
depredations, but finally Young surrendered the seal of the territory, and 
threatened to gather his people and leave the country rather than submit to 
Gentile rule. But he thought better of it, and in a short time Utah made 
another unsuccessful attempt to enter the Union. 

This little episode made scarcely any impression upon the great excite- 
ment that was agitating the country. The " Mormon War " had ended in 
smoke. The South American troubles were settled. Walker's operations in 
Nicaragua had ceased to interest the public mind, and Congress was engaged 
upon the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railroad bills, Soldiers' Pensions for 
the war of 1812, and other peaceful and unexciting measures, when suddenly 
the smouldering flame of excitement broke out afresh, and startled the whole 
country. John Brown, an honest enthusiast, with a handful of followers as- 
sembled at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and with a written Provisional Constitu- 
tion and Ordinance for the People of the United States, he was ready to 
make opposition to the government as far as slavery was concerned. His 
little band consisted of seventeen white men and five blacks. The whole land 
was informed by telegraph from Baltimore, that " an armed band of Aboli- 
tionists have full possession of the Government Arsenal, at Harper's Ferry.'* 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 473 

All the border States were thrown in a ferment of anxiety; their homes, their 
sacred altars, and their institutions were in danger. Governor Wise, of Vir- 
ginia, summoned the State Militia, and General Robert E. Lee, with United 
States troops and cannon, was hastened to the spot to suppress the insurrec- 
tion. Two of Brown's sons were slain, and he was arrested. He was tried 
for exciting the slaves to insurrection, for treason and murder, found guilty, 
.and hung on the 2d day of December, 1859. This was the raid of John 
Brown, The excitement and terror of Governor Wise, of Virginia, was very 
great. The most exaggerated rumors concerning the affair spread over the 
whole country, and Governor Wise prepared to repel the invasion which he 
was sure was being organized in the Northern States to sweep over Virginia. 
A thorough investigation developed the fact that Brown had less than twenty 
persons associated with him in his undertaking, and had no open sympathizers 
in the whole land. 

The indications of the election of 1858 and 1859 pointed to a loss of su- 
premacy of the party which had held the national government so long, and 
something must be done to protect their own interests. The designing poli- 
ticians had a gigantic plot in view, and while the great mass of the people in 
the South were a law-abiding people, who would abide by the Constitution 
and the laws of their country if left to their own judgment, these men, com- 
paratively few in number, deliberately set about the scheme of severing the 
Union, and establishing a Confederacy of Slave States in the South. The 
time had come for their action, for the new party were growing strong. If 
they did not strike at the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration, although 
they might succeed in electing a President in sympathy with them, their power 
in Congress would be much weakened. Now if they could give the people 
of the South another cause for their action, and succeed in " firing the Southern 
heart " to the sense of wrong, they would gain a material advantage when the 
blow should be struck. It would not do, then, to have their candidate of the 
Democratic party elected, and the first point was to assure the election of a 
Northern man to the ofifice of President, by the vote of Northern States. 
How could this be done ? The answer was easy enough. Divide the grand 
old Democratic Party into two factions. Then with the plea that the Repub- 
lican party was a sectional one, and would oppress the South, inflame the 
people of the slave-owning States with the idea that their State institutions 
were in danger, and arouse them to patriotism and an active defense of their 
respective States. 



474 OUR NATION: 

Now the people of the South were brave, her men were conscientious^ 
and her so-called upper classes were the peers of any community in intelli- 
gence. The doctrines of Jefferson had been the theme of her orators for two 
generations, and the theory of State Sovereignty had taken root in a rich and 
productive soil, where it had grown to a stalwart tree. The training of years 
had taught the great mass of her people to believe that Slavery was right, or 
if not morally right, was a necessary evil in the very condition of things. The 
North had agitated, discussed, and stirred up strife when the whole land had 
been prosperous and at peace, and had caused contention and unreasonable 
commotion in their internal affairs. What though the North disavowed any 
intention of interfering with Slavery in the States where it then existed, the 
very agitation of the subject on their borders made them restless and stirred 
up their slaves. The conspiracy of a few score men could magnify all this 
into a grievous wrong, and stir the warm blood of the South to the intensest 
heat, and unite the people in a common cause, as dear to them as that which 
moved the hearts of their Revolutionary sires. 

For months there had been indications that the Democratic convention 
which was to meet in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, would be a 
stormy one, and there were mutterings of the coming tempest, that should 
shake the country to its centre. The gathering of the six hundred delegates, 
from all the States in the Union, began on the 23d of April, i860; and from 
the hour of the opening of the Convention there was the strong pressure of 
the conspiracy felt. Caleb Cushing was chairman, and Stephen A. Douglass,, 
of Illinois, was the strongest candidate whose name had been proposed before 
the convention. He had won the title of " Little Giant of the West." His 
idea of popular sovereignty had been engrafted into the platform of the party 
at Cincinnati four years before. The Opposition were in favor of a speedy 
adoption of the institution of Slavery as a national institution, but the friends 
of Douglass were not ready for this. The Convention, by a handsome ma- 
jority, re-afifiirmed the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and at once the plot 
was sprung. The leader of the delegation from Alabama announced that he, 
and his colleagues, would formally withdraw from the Convention. Other 
delegates followed, and a new Convention was formed in another Hall. 

The dismemberment of the Democratic Party was now complete, and 
the plot was subsequently unmasked by Mr. Glenn, of Mississippi, who said 
in the new convention, " I tell Southern men here, and for them I tell the 
North, that in less than sixty days, you will find a united South, standing side 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 475, 

by side with us." Charleston was the scene of great deHght that night, for 
South CaroHna understood what that utterance signified. The result of this.; 
secession was that John C. Breckenridge was nominated for President by the 
seceding Democratic Party, and Stephen A. Douglass was the candidate of 
the Regular Democratic Party. The Republicans afterwards nominated 
Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, 
for Vice President. A fourth party, The Constitutional American Party, 
which adopted the Constitution of the United States for its platform, nomi- 
nated John Bell, of Tennessee, for the Presidency and Edward Everett, of 
Massachusetts, for the Vice Presidency. 

The political contest was fought with vigor such as had seldom been' 
known before. The Republican and the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic 
party were antagonistically opposed, and William H. Seward had said there 
is "an irrepressible conflict between Freedom and Slavery;" "The Republic 
cannot exist half slave and half free," and " Freedom is the normal condition, 
in all the Territories." This was the Republican side of the question. Mr., 
Breckenridge claimed that no power existed that might lawfully control slavery 
in the Territories, and it existed in full force wherever a slave-holder, and his 
slaves, entered it ; therefore it was the duty of the National Government to> 
protect it there. The issue was plain and decided ; no one need misunder- 
stand it. Abraham Lincoln was elected by a majority of the votes in the 
electoral college; but since there were four candidates in the field he had a 
large minority of the popular vote. This was a part of the plot, to claim 
that he was a sectional President, and received only a minority of the votes of 
the people. There would be four months in which to mature and carry out. 
the plans already working so well. 

Two years before this, William L. Yancey had written to a friend : " Or- 
ganize committees all over the Cotton States; fire the Southern heart; in- 
struct the Southern mind; give courage to each other; and at the proper 
moment, by one organized, concerted action, precipitate the Cotton States 
into revolution." Mr. Yancey had been an active public speaker in the South 
during the canvass of i860, and when the result was known, the leaders in the 
South were as much elated over the election of Lincoln as any one in the 
Republican party. Now the pretext that the platform and the policy of the 
Republican party, and the utterances of the President elect,, with the fact that 
he was a sectional candidate, elected by Northern votes, and these a minority 
of all the votes cast, led the people of the South to f.ear that he would be a 



476 OUR NATION: 

usurper of their rights, and they listened until their righteous indignation was 
stirred, and they were easily led to make one bold and united stand for their 
inalienable rights. In the third year of the war, a Southern gentleman wrote 
in a letter to a friend, " Perhaps there never was a people more bewitched, 
Ibeguiled and befooled, than we were when we went into this rebellion." 

In President Buchanan's Cabinet, there were three, if not four men, in 
active sympathy with the movement, and they were anxious to wait until the 
end of the term before the blow should be struck. There were arsenals, for- 
tresses, custom houses, and other public property in the South. The forts 
and arsenals in the North were stripped of movable military stores, and were 
sent South. The United States Navy was scattered to the four quarters of 
the globe, and most of the ships in commission were beyond the reach of 
speedy recall; others were lying in ordinary in the navy yards under the pre- 
tense of being repaired, but no work was being done upon them. The United 
States Army Ofificers, in suspected sympathy with the North, were sent to the 
extreme West, and the credit of the government was purposely injured. A 
small loan could not find a market at twelve per cent, interest. This was 
the condition of things. Some wanted to strike the blow as soon as the 
election was over ; others had another plan, which was this, as avowed by a 
disunionist who was in the plot : 

" We intend to take possession of the army and navy and the archives of 
government; not allow the electoral votes to be counted; proclaim Buchanan 
Provisional President if he will do as we wish, if not choose another; seize 
Harper's Ferry Arsenal and the Norfolk Navy Yard, and sending armed men 
from the former, and armed vessels from the latter, seize the city of Washing- 
ton and establish a new government." Why was this not done ? Lewis Cass 
was Secretary of State, and he discovered the treason of his associates; but 
being powerless to avert the danger, he resigned. The Attorney General was 
promoted to be Secretary of State, and Edwin M. Stanton was called to be 
Attorney General. Joseph Holt and John A. Dix, who had been called into 
Buchanan's Cabinet, were loyal men, and brought a pressure upon the Presi- 
dent that he could not withstand, and while he did nothing to openly aid the 
plot, he was obliged to make a show of sustaining the National government. 

The first step to open revolt was made by South Carolina. A convention 
of delegates in Charleston, adopted an Ordinance of Secession December 20th, 
i860. This was signed by one hundred and seventy members. A similar 
ordinance was passed by the following States in the order given : Mississippi, 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 477 

January 9th, 1861; Florida, January loth; Alabama, January nth; Georgia, 
January 19; Louisiana, January 26th; Texas, February ist; Virginia, April 
17th; Arkansas, May 6th; North Carolina, May 20th; Tennessee, June 8th. 

On the fourth of February, 1861, delegates from six of the States above 
named met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a league styled The Con- 
federate States of America. A provisional Constitution was adopted, 
and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen Provisional President, with 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice President. This organization of a 
few conspirators, — since no Ordinance of Secession was ever submitted to 
popular vote, — became a self-styled government, and made war on the United 
States; seized its public property; put a loan upon the markets of the world; 
issued letters of marque and reprisal, and raised armies to overthrow the 
government, while yet the passive friend of the slaveholders was in the presi- 
dential chair at Washington. To increase the difficulties which now beset 
the President, his former Attorney General, J. S. Black, had declared substan- 
tially, that the Executive possessed no constitutional power to use the Army 
and Navy for the preservation of the life of the Republic. 

A Peace Convention was held at Washington in February, 1861, but its 
efforts to effect a compromise were futile. All propositions for compromise 
made in and out of Congress were rejected by the loyal National legislature. 
The poor, distressed President Buchanan had to do his best for the time 
which remained of his term of office. The Southern members of his Cabinet 
holding on to their positions as long as they could be of any service to the 
South, had left their chief to fill their places with Northern men. The first 
overt act of war was perforhied when Major Robert Anderson, a loyal Ken- 
tuckian, refused to give up Fort Sumter, into which he had retired from a 
weaker fort, Moultrie. 

The General-in-chief of the army was Lieutenant General Scott, who was 
enfeebled in body and mind from age, and although he was loyal he was 
unable long to cope with the mighty problem. He, however, was vigilant and 
took efficient measures to secure the safety of Mr. Lincoln on his arrival after 
his perilous journey through Baltimore, on the 23d of February, 1861. He 
secured peace and quiet in Washington until after the inauguration of the new 
President. 



478 OUR NATION: 

THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-5. 

ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The sixteenth President of the United States was inducted into his office 
in the midst of bitter enemies on every side, on March 4th, 1861. General 
Scott had arranged the mihtary forces at his disposal in such a way that they 
could be called upon in any exigency that might arise from any suspected 
outbreak in the National Capitol. But all passed off quietly, and the Presi- 
dent took the oath of office, as his predecessors had done, in the open air, at 
the east portico of the Capitol. The Senate confirmed his nominations at once. 

The new administration set itself at work with great zeal to ascertain the 
resources of the government and found what we have already hinted at. The 
public credit was injured, but the now loyal Congress set at work to restore it. 
The Army and Navy were of little use. Of the former there were only 16,000 
men, and most of them were on the frontiers. Sixteen forts with all their 
equipments were in the hands of the South, and all the arsenals there. The 
value of the public property in the hands of the insurgents was thirty million 
dollars. There were forty-four vessels in commission, and of these only one, 
the Brooklyn, of twenty-five guns, and a storeship were ready for immediate 
service. Many officers of the navy were Southern men and had resigned, 
leaving this branch of service very weak and crippled. 

The first gun fired at Sumter, April 12th, 1861, awoke the slumbering 
nation, which had thought that all this array in the South was for effect. 
Before Major Anderson and his heroic band tirought away the flag from 
Sumter, which Jic evacuated but did not surrender, there was a divided senti- 
ment in the North ; some thought that there could be no war and that a 
peaceful solution was still possible; others comprehended the spirit of the 
revolt and were satisfied that the struggle would produce bloodshed. The flag 
was lowered from Sumter on April 14th, and a terrible civil war was at once in- 
augurated. Such an uprising the land had not seen before. Men of all grades of 
society at the north, and every political and religious creed, were ready to spring 
to arms in defense of the Union, at the call of the President two days later. 
Seventy-five thousand men were called for a three months' service, and were 
hurried to the front from all the Northern States. The six slave States, to 
whose governors a requisition for troops was sent, treated the whole subject 
with utter scorn. The crusade was spontaneous; in every town and hamlet 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 479 

and village the Stars and Stripes were displayed^ and brave men enlisted with 
alacrity, and marched to the front. Nothing like it had been known since the 
crusades of the Middle Ages to redeem the tomb of the Saviour from the 
Moslem. The Nation was in danger, and the old spirit of the fathers now 
glowed in the bosoms of their sons. But little did they know what was before 
them. Three months they thought would suffice to put down the revolt. 
Three months and they would come home as heroes, and a grateful country 
would honor them as the preservers of their nation. They soon found that 
the South was organized for war, and fighting at its own doors on the defen- 
sive. They had mistaken the spirit and temper of the men in arms against 
the government. * 

In the South there was also a wide-spread mistake in regard to the North. 
They thought that the Northern people would not fight, and that their friends 
of the pro-slavery party there would make a strong resistance in their favor. 
Within seven days after the attack on Sumter, the South had an army in the 
field ready for battle, and the shout " On to Washington," was as enthusiastic 
as the cry " On to Richmond " was afterwards in the North. The South and 
the North were of the same race, but under the sunny sky the former had 
warmed up to fever heat, and were ready for war at the instant ; the latter, 
under a colder climate, was longer in being aroused, but when once in thor- 
ough earnest they had entered the strife with the determination to conquer 
or die. These were the two parties in the contest, and now, in dead earnest, 
there could be no cessation in the deadly grapple until one or the other should 
succumb to superior strength and determination. 

Governor Pickens had said to the people of the cotton-growing States, 
" Sow your seed in peace for old Virginia will have to bear the brunt of 
battle." So prompt was the uprising of the people in the North that three 
days after the issue of the call for troops several companies of militia arrived 
in Washington ready for service. The Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts vol- 
unteers were attacked on the streets of Baltimore, and the first blood was 
shed in the war on the 19th of April. Communication by rail and tele- 
graph was severed between that city and Washington, and for several days 
the President and his Cabinet were virtually prisoners in their Capital, but 
General Benjamin F. Butler with Massachusetts men found a way there by 
water to Annapolis, and partly by rail across Maryland, and relieved the 
anxiety of suspense. Troops of hopeful men began to throng to the Capital, 
but they were none too soon, for an army was being collected in Northern 



48o OUR NATION: 

Virginia to march to Washington and take the city. Harper's Ferry Arsenal 
and the Norfolk Navy Yard had fallen into the hands of the insurgents. 

There was an opinion on both sides that the war would be brief, and the 
South thought that she had only to march on to the Capital of the United 
States, seize, hold it and dictate terms of peace favorable to herself; while 
the North regarded the Southern uprising as a formidable riot that could be 
crushed in ninety days, so little did either party understand the grit and 
persistency of the other. The truth was that six millions of people in the 
South, high spirited, possessing a fertile soil, with a great industry upon which 
the manufactories of England were dependent for a supply, had risen against 
the government after months, if not years, of careful preparation. The 
problem before the loyal States, taken at a fearful disadvantage in the matter 
of preparation, was how to conquer. The new flag of " stars and bars " was 
floating over Alexandria in full view of the National Capital. Preparations 
were being pushed to fortify Arlington Heights from which the Confederates 
could shell the city of Washington. At Manassas Junction a large army were 
encamped only thirty miles away. It would seem to a casual observer that 
the proper course to pursue would have been to act on the defensive, but the 
North were now fully aroused. They had been deceived by the threats of 
disunion so many times before that it had taken some time for them to realize 
the fact now, but once awake to its stupendous existence they bent all their 
energies to its suppression. A blockade of all the Southern ports was de- 
clared, and in a few weeks ships enough were manned to shut every Southern 
port of any considerable size. 

The government had gained much in a short time but there was a general 
•cry for some decisive battle. The Secretary of War, at this time more san- 
guine of a short contest than he was a few months later, yielded to the popular 
pressure and ordered the imperfectly disciplined army of citizen soldiers to 
battle. General MacDowell, with an army variously estimated from thirty to 
forty thousand, marched from Arlington Heights and vicinity for Manassas 
Junction, on Sunday, June 17th. The volunteers, not yet inured to hardship, 
suffered much on this march, and when they reached Bull's Run, which was 
to become famous as the scene of a great battle, they were met by the Con- 
federate army of General Beauregard, when a general engagement took place 
on the 20th, in which the loss was heavy on both sides. The Union army was 
repulsed and fled in a precipitate rout to Washington. The men were 
hurrying in wild confusion from the field of conflict. The defeat had caused 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 481: 

a general panic, and baggage trains, artillery, cavalry, infantry, and civilians 
were mixed in a promiscuous mass. The Confederates had won the battle, 
but showed no disposition to follow up the advantage. In fact they had suf- 
fered severely, and in this first general engagement each side was equally 
astonished at the force displayed on the other, and awoke to the consciousness 
of the fact that there was equal determination and bravery in both armies. 
The North were taught that the work of putting down the insurrection was 
a more stupendous task than had been imagined, but their purpose was not 
shaken. 

On the day after the battle Congress voted to raise five hundred million 
dollars and five hundred thousand men to put down the insurrection. A few 
days afterwards a resolution passed both Houses, saying that it was a sacred 
duty of the nation to put down the revolt, from which no disaster should deter 
them, and to which they pledged every resource, national and individual. Mr.. 
Lincoln said: " Having chosen our course without guile and with pure pur- 
pose, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with, 
manly hearts." 

The spirit of the North was fully aroused, and no thought of any other 
issue than of success came to them. Thousands of earnest youth and middle- 
aged men thronged into the ranks, animated with the same lofty spirit of 
patriotism. Many of the three months' men re-enlisted for three years. 
Regiments and brigades, divisions and army corps, were organized, and the 
army was rapidly disciplined and prepared for the fearful task imposed. 
Public credit was established and the warmest patriotism was aroused. The 
money to pay the soldiers of a Connecticut Regiment was not ready on time, 
and a private in the ranks drew his check for one hundred thousand dollars 
to advance the pay of his comrades. This man was Elias Howe, Jr., of Bridge- 
port, the inventor of the sewing machine. He had a physical infirmity which 
would have exempted him from military service, and when a commission was 
offered to him he refused it on the ground of his inability to perform the 
duties; but he enlisted as a private to encourage other men who could per- 
form good service, to do the same. 

After the disaster at Bull's Run, General George B. McClellan was placed 
in command. He was a skillful engineer and organizer and set about the task 
of forming this incongruous mass of patriotic volunteers into a well-arranged, 
and thoroughly disciplined army. His friends knew that he was the man to 
mold the army and make it what it should be, an obedient, disciplined and 



482 OUR NATION: 

Avcll-officered instrument of the government. In October, 1861, he was the 
commander of two hundred thousand fighting-men, the largest army the 
United States had ever known. The men loved him with an enthusiasm that 
had been unequalled since the days of Bonaparte, and the army delighted to 
call him "The young Napoleon of the' West." 

After the secession of Virginia the Confederate government removed its 
seat from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, and now the capitals of the 
two contending forces were within a few hours' travel of each other. The 
most severe fighting of the entire war was occasioned by each endeavoring 
to capture the capital of the other, and the brave obstinacy displayed in the 
defence of each. 

General Robert E. Lee became the commander of the Confederate army. 
He had been educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, 
and was an ofificer in the United States Army when his native State, Virginia, 
joined her fortunes with the Confederacy, and following his sense of duty and 
honor, he allied his fortunes with those of his native State. He was a brave, 
conscientious and skillful general, and a calm, thoughtful, unpretending man. 
He contended almost always with a force superior in number and armament, 
— such was the fortunes of war — but he made up more than the deficiency by 
his genius and skill with the aid of very able assistants. By his consummate 
ability, and his devotion to the cause, the war was maintained after the hope 
of success was gone, and when at length the overpowering resources, and 
numbers of the North compelled his surrender, he was esteemed even by his 
enemies, who were proud of this noble but erring son, who had been educated 
by the nation against which he had, with mistaken judgment, drawn his valiant 
sword. 

Thomas J. Jackson, who earned the epithet of " Stonewall " Jackson, was 
the most celebrated of Lee's generals. He was an earnest, religious man of 
stern, uncompromising integrity, which won the admiration of friend and foe 
alike; and he had gone into the war from a high sense of duty, and showed 
how a brilliant man can be sadly mistaken in judgment. He was scrupulously 
exact in his own private life, led a class in Sunday School, taught his negroes, 
and delivered lectures on the authenticity of the Scriptures. He firmly be- 
lieved in the justness of slavery, and ordered his slaves to be flogged when he 
thought the circumstances required it. General Jackson worked and fought 
for the preservation of the Slave system with the earnestness of a conscien- 
tious zealot. He was the strone: risrht arm of General Lee after the latter 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 483 

became the chief of the Confederate Army. He was a brave, expert and suc- 
cessful general, and died regretted by honest men in both armies. 

In January, 1862, President Lincoln ordered General McClellan to ad- 
vance with his finely equipped army upon the enemy, and by the end of March 
he was ready to move. 

At the opening of the new year we will glance back over the history of 
the year 1861, Fort Sumter had been evacuated by Major Anderson, April 
14th. President Lincoln had issued his call for troops on the 15th, The 
sixth Massachusetts had been mobbed in the streets of Baltimore on the 19th. 
The offensive operations were begun by the United States Army on the i8th 
of May. The engagements of Big Bethel, Philippi, Fairfax Court House, 
Paterson Creek, Mather's Point, York Bridge, Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, 
Beverly, Carricksford, Bunker Hill, Barboursville, all in Virginia, had been 
fought before the disaster at Bull Run, of which we have written. They were, 
for the most part but preliminary skirmishes, and in no sense decisive. The 
insurrection in Maryland had been strangled at its birth, and that State was 
saved to the Union. In Missouri, engagements of considerable importance 
had been fought, namely at Boonville, Carthage, Dug Springs and Wilson's 
Creek. The Confederate privateer Petrel was sunk by the St. Lawrence, 
August 1st. Fort Fillmore in New Mexico was treacherously given up by 
Major Lynde, with seven hundred and fifty men ; Lovettsville, Grafton, Boone 
Court House, Carnifex, Lucas Bend, Lewinsville Elk Water, Cheat Moun- 
tain, Darnstown, Romney, Fall's Church, Chapmansville, Greenbriar, Bolivar, 
Balls Bluffs, Vienna and Drainsville, all in Virginia, were places where more 
•or less blood was shed during the opening years of the war. In the State of 
Missouri, whose governor was determined to take her out of the Union, a 
severe contest ensued, which resulted in driving the Confederates from her 
borders, and preserving her to the United States. Potosi, Wilson Creek, 
Charlestown, Lexington, Blue Mill Landing, Papinsville, Fredericktown, 
Springfield, Belmont, Mount Sion, were the names of places where engage- 
ments were fought in that State. 

In Kentucky the Confederates gained a slight foothold in the southern 
and western part. The governor encouraged the secessionists whilst he kept 
up a show of neutrality. He allowed them to establish recruiting camps for 
the Confederate Army, and looked with complacency upon the invasion of 
the State by a Confederate force under General Polk, who took possession of 
Columbus, on the bank of the Mississippi River. Union ofificers took vigorous 



484 OUR NATION: 

opposing measures. General Grant took possession of Paducah at the mouth 
of the Tennessee River. The " neutraHty " of Kentucky was soon ended, and 
the State finally took a positive stand for the Union. There had been con- 
siderable skirimishing on its soil during the year, and severe battles were 
fought there afterwards. 

In the fall of 1861, there occurred an event which for a time threatened 
to cause a rupture with Great Britain. The Confederate government had 
sent two commissioners as ambassadors to the English and French courts, 
which had already acceded belligerent rights to " The Confederate States of 
America." These gentlemen, each with his secretary, had succeeded in run- 
ning the blockade at Charleston on the stormy night of October 12th, 1861, 
and proceeded to Cuba. Here they took passage on the British steamer 
Tren^ for St. Thomas, intending to take the regular packet steamer from that 
port for England. The United States vessel, San Jacinto, Captain Charles 
Wilkes, took them from the Trent and carried them to Boston, where they 
were incarcerated in Fort Warren, then used as a military prison. This act 
was in the strictest accord with the British interpretation and practice of the 
act which the war of 181 2 led to, and which was left undecided in the treaty 
of peace at the close of that war. But it was in direct opposition to the 
avowed theory and policy of the American government. England now 
claimed, as the Americans claimed in 1812, that this was a violation of the 
rights of neutral powers. Thus after fifty years, in which she had strenuously 
maintained the right to do the very thing which the United States had now 
done, that proud nation acknowledged that the principle was wrong. A de- 
mand was made for the return of the ambassadors, James M. Mason and John 
Slidell. The American government were too glad to vindicate their policy, 
and to rid themselves of the burden, by giving up the men on January ist, 
1862. The ambassadors did not gain the advantage they sought, and the 
event silenced forever the arrogant claim of England to search the ships of 
neutrals. 

THE OPERATIONS OF 1862. 

The year 1862 opened with preparations to establish the national 
power on the Atlantic coast of the Southern States. An expedition under 
command of Major General A. E. Burnside, sailed from Hampton Roads 
January nth. The result was that Roanoke Island and the waters of Albe- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 485-: 

marie Sound fell into the hands of the Union forces. The Confederate force 
fled from Port Royal, South Carolina, January 2d. 

In Kentucky there had been a fight near Prestonburg, in which General 
J. A. Garfield, defeated the Confederate General Humphrey Marshall, January 
loth. General Thomas had defeated General Zollicoffer in a battle at Mill 
Spring, Kentucky, where the latter was killed. Kentucky was saved and a 
path of escape made for the Union men in East Tennessee by these two de- 
cisive victories. The Confederates fled into Tennessee. 

A flotilla of gun boats had been built and equipped under the direction 
of General John C. Fremont, of California fame, at Cairo on the Mississippi. 
Commodore A. H. Foote had been put in command. An expedition against 
Forts Henry and Donelson had been organized, and General U.. S. Grant had 
been put in chief command. Commodore Foote was ordered to the Tennes- 
see River with his gun boats. On February 3d, he was in front of Fort 
Henry, and on the 6th, the fort surrendered. General Grant made immediate 
preparation to attack Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, while Com- 
modore Foote hurried back to Cairo to obtain mortar guns for the siege. The 
battle began on the 13th, continued on the two following days, when the fort 
was surrendered on the i6th with thirteen thousand three hundred prisoners 
of war. The Confederate Generals, Floyd and Pillow, fled the night before 
and left General Buckner, who was the only brave man of the three, to sur- 
render the fort. This was the first brilliant victory for General Grant during 
the war. The fall of Fort Donelson was a heavy blow to the Confederates,, 
but the news caused wide-spread rejoicing all through the loyal States. It 
was regarded as a crushing blow to the Southern cause, and lost to them the 
States of Misso]uri, Kentucky and all northern and middle Tennessee. 

The campaign in Arkansas resulted after a few skirmishes in a decisive 
victory for the Union forces under General S. R. Curtis, at Pea Ridge, on 
the 7th of February, 1862, in which the five Confederate generals, Van Dorn, 
McCulloch, Mcintosh, Pike and Price were engaged. McCulloch and Mcin- 
tosh were mortally wounded, and Van Dorn retired behind the mountains.. 
The Confederate army lost thirty-four hundred men in killed and wounded,. 
and sixteen hundred prisoners. 

While these important victories were going on in the West there were- 
events of interest occurring in Virginia. The Confederates had taken an old 
frigate which they sheathed in iron and roofed her with iron rails and fitted: 
her up as a formidable iron-clad vessel. There was no ship in the United 



.486 OUR NATION: 

States Navy which could withstand her attack. On the 8th of March she 
steamed down to assault the Union vessels in Hampton Roads. This mon- 
ster, which had been re-christened the Merrimac, came into the very midst of 
the wooden ships. Not a man was seen on board, not a gun was fired, and 
the broadsides poured in upon her rolled off her iron sides and left her un- 
harmed. She destroyed the Congress and Cumberland, and no power could with- 
stand her assault. The Union vessels there were apparently doomed, and this 
monster seemed able to devastate the whole Northern coast. There were anx- 
ious hearts that day through all the North as the news of this encounter flew 
on the wires over the country. The Confederates had the advantage of them 
now, and could rest on their laurels for one night at least. The next day she 
came down the James to complete her work of destruction so well begun the 
<iay before. But at midnight a mysterious something came in from the sea, 
lighted on her way by the burning Congress. The thing looked like a cheese 
box on a raft; and there had been nothing like it in the whole history of naval 
warfare. It was the Monitor on her trial trip from New York. That day was 
the trial of strength between the inventive genius of the two sections. The 
Yankee cheese box won the prize. In the novel naval engagement she was 
the victor, and the Merriniac crawled back to her moorings disabled and use- 
less. The United States Navy had found a champion that could defend her 
from the monster that but yesterday threatened her annihilation. 

The army of the Potomac under McClellan was transferred to Fortress 
Monroe, and began his march up the Virginia Peninsula. General Banks was 
sent up the Shenandoah Valley to confront General Stonewall Jackson. The 
battle of Winchester was fought on the 23d of March and resulted in a victory 
of the Union arms. 

The month of May found General Fremont in the mountains of Virginia; 
General Banks at Strasburg in the Shenandoah valley; and General McDowell 
at Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock, for the two-fold purpose of defend- 
ing Washington and helping McClellan. The swift-moving General Ewell 
had joined Jackson, and on May 8th struck Fremont a heavy blow, and May 
23d sent Banks flying down the valley to Winchester. Then the tide turned 
and Ewell was driven back, pursued by Fremont and Shields. Jackson rallied 
his forces, joined Ewell and, on the 9th of June, the national armies began 
their second great race down the Shenandoah Valley followed by the Con- 
federates. 

The two main armies were face to face with each other on the first of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 487 

June, within six or seven miles of the Confederate Capital. The army of the 
Union were anxious to enter the city of Richmond at once, and the time had 
come for a decisive blow. The leader was wanting ; McClellan's habitual 
caution and desire to save human life led him to be over anxious for the safety 
of the army, every man of which loved him. They were burning to win glory 
and honor, and were in good condition to march directly into the city. Lin- 
coln urged him daily to make the attack, but still he hesitated. The Con- 
federates came out to attack him, and after several battles the general made 
preparations to retreat to the shelter of the gunboats on the James River. 
He would save his army or '' at least die with it and share its fate." 

The army of patriots were anxious to fight on the offensive and could 
decide the question of its own fate, but the general, over-solicitous, moved 
away from the enemy, and his army was daily attacked by the Confederates, 
and as often gained the victory; but still they held back. Once they drove 
the enemy fleeing before them and the soldiers demanded to be led into Rich- 
mond. The army was strong enough but its leader was weak. McClellan 
was loyal and desired the success of the North, nor would we for an instant 
hint at any improper motives. He lost fifteen thousand men in seven days' 
fight from Gaines' Mills, June 28th, to July 3d, 1862. The army of General 
Lee had sustained a loss even larger, and when McClellan was fortifying his 
camp near the James River, Lee was glad to rest his shattered and discom- 
forted troops behind the fortifications of Richmond. The retreat was a mas- 
terly and skillful one, and showed good generalship no doubt, but neither the 
army nor the country were in a humor to appreciate the greatness of a General 
whose skill consisted in conducting a successful flight. The prize had been 
within the grasp of a hand powerful enough to seize it, but the brain that 
directed that power was conservative and cautious, and therefore the city of 
Richmond was to be a bone of contention between the magnificent army of 
the Potomac and the brave army of Virginia for nearly three years longer. 
The Confederates were exultant, and the North was sadly disappointed with 
the results of the campaign of the Spring of 1862. 

We will turn in this swiftly changing panorama to the West. The silent, 
determined and persistent General U. S. Grant was doing valiant service for 
the Union army, and rising in rank and influence. After the fall of Fort 
Donelson, Johnston saw that he could only save the Confederate army by 
evacuating Bowling Green, and Columbus, Kentucky; he then marched his 
forces to Nashville, Tennessee, closely followed by General Buell, and at the 



488 OUR NATION: 

same time the national gunboats moved up the Tennessee River with land 
troops in gunboats. Nashville was surrendered to the Union forces February 
26th, and on March 4th Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Governor, 
with the rank of Brigadier-General. Columbus was taken by Commodore 
Foote and General W. T. Sherman, March 4th, 1862. 

Island Number Ten, a thousand miles from New Orleans, was now re- 
garded as the key to the Mississippi River, and was strongly fortified by the 
Confederates. This was flanked by General Pope; and Commodore Foote 
hammered away at the defenses from his gunboats until it surrendered, April 
fth. This was another heavy blow to the Confederates, and they never re- 
covered from it. General Grant had sent the gunboats up the winding Ten- 
nessee River, from Fort Henry, and they penetrated the country as far as 
Florence, Alabama, under Lieutenant-Commander Phelps, United States 
Navy, who found an intensely loyal feeling among the people. The army 
were anxious to advance to their aid, and General Grant attempted to do 
this. The objective point was Corinth, a city on the Memphis and Charleston 
Railroad. The large Union army was encamped at Shiloh, or Pittsburg 
Landing, about twenty miles from Corinth, on the first of April. General 
Buell was trying to join Grant with his forces from Nashville, leaving General 
Negley in command in that city. Huntsville, Alabama, was captured April 
nth, by a part of Buell's army under General Mitchell. 

The battle of Shiloh had been fought and won by Grant, on the 7th. 
The Southern army had advanced from Corinth to within four miles of the 
Union army unperceived on the morning of the sixth, Sunday, and fell upon 
Generals Sherman and Prentice. The battle raged all day, and the Union 
army at night was driven, discomfited, to the shelter of their gunboats, on 
the Tennessee. General Johnston had been killed. Beauregard, then in chief 
command, telegraphed a shout of victory to his chief at Richmond, but Buell 
and Lew Wallace arrived in the night, crossed the river, and Grant's army 
was saved. The next day, when the fight was renewed, Wallace charged on 
the Confederate left, and pressed Beauregard back. The battle became gen- 
eral, and the Southerners were driven from the ground that they had taken 
the day before. Then they fled in precipitate rout, covered by a strong rear 
guard. The South lost ten thousand men, the North fifteen thousand; and 
that night the Union army buried the dead on the battle field, while the 
enemy fled to Corinth. General Hallock came from St. Louis, April 12th, 
and assumed command, but instead of marching directly upon Corinth, he 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 489 

moved by slow approaches with spade and pick, fortifying as he advanced. 
On the morning of May 30th, when he sent out skirmishers " to feel the 
enemy's position," there were no enemies, for Corinth had been evacuated, 
and the city burned. 

Seventy-five miles above the mouths of the Mississippi the Union fleet 
under Commodore Farragut, with land troops under General Butler, had cap- 
tured Forts Jackson and St. Philip. New Orleans had been occupied -by 
General Butler, who declared martial law April 29th. Commodore Foote, 
with his flotilla, beseiged Fort Pillow, May loth, and on the 4th of June the 
Confederate forces fled to Memphis, where Commodore Davis, who had suc- 
ceeded Commodore Foote, had a severe engagement on June 6th, but soon 
after the flag of the United States waved over the city. All this was going 
on in the west while the army of the Potomac was moving so cautiously under 
General McClellan. 

The expedition to North Carolina was accomplishing much in gaining 
that State back to national control. The battle of New Berne was fought on 
March 8th, and a fight occurred upon the nth of April, near Elizabeth City. 
The Northern troops had taken the coast, and were moving into the interior. 
The national forces captured Fort Mason, at the entrance of Beaufort Harbor, 
April 25, and now held undisputed sway from the Dismal Swamp to Cape 
Fear River. 

While General Burnside was engaged in this work in North Carolina, 
General T. W. Sherman and Commodore Dupont went upon a similar expedi- 
tion to the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Fort Pulaski was taken 
after a severe pounding. April 12, and this commanded the entrance to the 
Savannah River, The coast of Florida was easily seized in the early winter. 
Fort Clinch, the first of the national forts re-occupied since their seizure, was 
taken in February; Jacksonville, Florida, March iith, St, Augustine and 
Pensacola, opposite Fort Pickens, which never had been in possession of the 
South, were captured in Ma^'ch, Thus in less than a year from the fall of 
Sumter, the United States was in possession of the Atlantic and Gulf Cast, 
as far as Pensacola bay, with the exception of Charleston harbor. 

The scene will change again to the army of the Potomac. General 
TMcClellan had disappointed the country, and when the news of disasters to 
the Union forces, in front of Richmond, swept over the North, the hearts of 
the people sank within them. The commander assured the government, three 
days after the battle of Malvern Hill, that he did not have " over fifty thou- 



490 OUR NATION: 

sand men with their colors." What had become of the one hundred and 
sixty thousand men who had been sent to him within the one hundred days 
previous ? Lincohi with an anxious heart hastened to the head-quarters of 
McClellan to solve this question and answer his request for more troops. 
The result of this conference was that Lincoln found forty thousand men 
more than the general had reported, and yet there were seventy-five thousand 
men missing. ' Orders were given to remove this army from the Peninsula, 
and concentrate it before Washington, but McClellan was opposed to this 
plan, and he was slow to obey. 

In the month of August, 1862, the national Capitol was in great danger. 
The battle of Cedar Mountain had been fought on the 9th of that month. In 
this fight the national troops were under command of General Banks. They 
were driven back, but by the timely reinforcement of General Rickett's divi- 
sion, were able to check the Confederate advance in one of the most desperate 
encounters of the war. Both sides claimed the victory. General Pope was 
reinforced by Burnside's army, and moved to the Rapidan, intending to hold 
that position until the arrival of McClellan, but was driven back by Lee. The 
Confederate general found that he could not force a passage in this direction, 
and he moved toward the mountains to outflank Pope. This general did his 
best to thwart the plan of Lee, but his army was much weakened, and 
McClellan protesting against moving from the James delayed reinforcements 
from that quarter. Pope, therefore, concentrated his forces at Rappahannock 
Station, August 23d, 1862, that he might be able to fall with a superior force 
upon the flanking army under " Stonewall " Jackson. This adroit and skillful 
general, with accustomed swiftness, crossed the Bull Run Mountain at Thor- 
oughfare Gap, and placed his large force between Pope and Washington. 
His cavalry swept as far as Fairfax Court House and Centerville, and his 
main army were at Manassas, waiting for a heavy column under Longstreet, 
who was advancing. Pope moved with quickness to attack and capture Jack- 
son before Longstreet could come up. But the latter succeeded in joining 
Jackson, and Pope, who was now assured that he need no longer wait for re- 
inforcements from McClellan, saw that he must fight. The second battle at 
Bull Run was fought with great loss and defeat to the Union army, August 
30th. Pope fell back to Centerville, where he was joined by Franklin and 
Sumner. Lee did not now attack them, but made another flank movement 
August 31st. This resulted in a battle September ist, at Chantilly where 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 49F 

Generals Kearney and Stevens were killed, and the whole army driven within 
the fortifications of Washington. 

The Confederates now had the advantage and determined to follow it 
up. The time had come when they could make a formidable advance upon 
Washington, and carry the war into the land of the enemy. September 7th, 
Lee crossed the Potomac with almost his entire force, and marched into 
Maryland with the belief that thousands of people in that State would join 
his army and fight, to rescue her from the Northern forces. In this he was, 
sadly disappointed. McClellan with the Army of the Potomac, numbering 
90,000, came to the rescue, and the army of Virginia was merged into it.. 
Mc Clellan moved cautiously. At the middle of September his forces fought 
and won the battle of South Mountain, in which the gallant General Reno, 
was killed. Harper's Ferry was captured by Lee's army, where Colonel D.. 
H. Miles, a Marylander, surrendered nearly 1200 United States troops. 

The crisis was coming and the issue must be met at Antiatam. The- 
Confederates had possession of the right bank of the stream, and the Union 
army the left. The contest opened with artillery firing from the former.. 
McClellan was not ready to move until noon. Hooker crossed the Antietam 
and had a successful fight on the Confederate left, and rested on his arms: 
that night to renew the fight in the morning. The fight opened early the 
next day, by Hooker charging on Lee's left again; Burnside on the right, was 
doing good execution against Longstreet. The contest raged all day, and at 
night the Confederate army retreated from the scene. Fourteen thousand 
fresh troops came to the aid of McClellan, and it would seem as if he might 
have followed up his advantage, and taken the Confederates; but when he 
was ready to move, thirty-six hours later, Lee's shattered and broken army 
were behind their own defenses on the south side of the Potomac, whither 
they had hastened under cover of darkness the night before. 

McClellan came to Harper's Ferry, which he found abandoned by the 
Confederates, and ten days after the battle of Antietam, while the North were 
hourly expecting to hear that his victorious army had pursued and overcome 
Lee, he coolly declared his intention to remain where he was, and " attack 
the enemy should he attempt to re-cross into Maryland." On October ist^ 
President Lincoln instructed the Commander of the Army of the Potomac 
to move at once across the river; but twenty days were spent in corre- 
spondence, during which the beautiful October weather, which was favorable 
for military movements, had passed, and Lee's army was resting, recruiting 



492 OUR. NATION: 

and fortifying. Then, November 2d, McClellan announced that his whole 
army were in Virginia, prepared to move southward, on the east side of the 
Blue Ridge, instead of pursuing Lee on the western side. The patience of 
the government and the loyal people of the North was exhausted, and 
McClellan was relieved November 5th, and General A. E. Burnside was placed 
in command. This ended the military career of Major-General George B. 
McClellan, the commander of the army of the Potomac, who was over-cautious 
and careful of the lives of his men. 

General Burnside reorganized the army and formed a plan to capture 
Richmond. For this purpose he made his base of supplies at Acquia Creek, 
and took position at Fredericksburg, from which he intended to advance. 
But before'he was prepared to cross the Rappahannock, Lee appeared with 
an army 80,000 strong, on the heights in the rear of the city, and destroyed 
all the bridges on the river. Burnside was obliged to cross upon pontoon 
bridges. The Union army advanced under a heavy fire, and a bloody battle 
ensued, which lasted from the 13th to the i6th of December. The Unionists 
were defeated with great slaughter. Lee took possession of the city, and the 
National forces retired under cover of darkness. Burnside was superseded 
by General Joseph Hooker January 26th, 1863, when the army were in winter- 
quarters. We must here leave them, while we turn our attention to the stir- 
ring events on the Mississippi. 

We left the Northern army June ist, 1862, in possession of the Missis- 
sippi below New Orleans, and from its sources to Memphis, Tennessee. Col- 
onel John H. Morgan, of Tennessee, had organized an independent band for 
guerilla warfare, and was overrunning his native State with his horsemen, 
making long and swift raids through the country in all directions preparatory 
to an invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky by a Confederate force. By these 
raids much damage was done to private and public property, and many 
tributes were wrung from the people. General E. Kirby Smith, with a large 
Confederate force, entered Kentucky from East Tennessee, and toward 
Frankfort, the capital. A desperate battle was fought August 30th near 
Richmond, Kentucky, in which the Union army under General Manson 
was defeated. The affrighted Legislature, in session at Frankfort, fled to 
Louisville. The Southern army pressed on toward the Ohio River, with the 
intention of crossing that stream and destroying the city of Cincinnati. They 
found their way obstructed by strong fortifications on the south side of the 
river and a force under General Lew Wallace. Smith then turned toward 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 493 

Frankfort, captured the city, and waited for General Bragg. Bragg crossed 
the Cumberland River September 5th with 8000 Confederates, and September 
14th the advance guard was repulsed by Colonel T. J. Wilder; but two days 
afterward Colonel Wilder was compelled to surrender to a superior force. 
Thus far the Southern army had had it their own way, but now there came a 
change. General Buell fell upon the combined armies of Bragg and Smith at 
Perryville, and after a severe fight drove the Confederates from Kentucky, 
with severe loss, October 8th. General Buell like General McClellan was too 
cautious and careful. If he had acted with vigor and decision, the invasion 
of Smith and Bragg would have been crushed at once by the capture of the 
•entire force. As it was it was harmful rather than beneficial to the Southern 
■cause, and General Bragg, who was responsible for it, was relieved of his com- 
mand by the Confederate government. 

While all this was going on in Kentucky, Generals Van Dorn and Price, 
were invading Tennessee with another Confederate force. General Rosecrans 
with a small force overcame the Confederates in a closely contested battle at 
luka Springs, September 19th. The beaten army fled southward, and at Riply 
were reinforced, and prepared to attack Corinth, now held by Rosecrans, and 
in both engagements of October 2d and 3d, the Southern army was repulsed, 
and finally driven back to Riply. Then there came a period of quiet in the 
department over which General Grant was then in command. 

In the meantime there were important events transpiring on the Great 
River. The forces under Admiral Farragut, had move dup the river from 
New Orleans and taken Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, as early as 
May 7th. Farragut's vessel ran up to Vicksburg and exchanged salutations 
with the gun-boats of Admiral Davis, which came down from Memphis, June 
29th. Farragut, with the Hartford and other vessels, ran by the forts of 
Vicksburg and joined the fleet above. He besieged the city, and attempted 
to cut a canal across the peninsula, and avoid it altogether, but this failed, 
and the fleet returned down the river. There was an attack by the Confed- 
erate troops under General Breckenridge, at Baton Rouge. The Union 
General Williams was killed, but the assailants were repulsed. The Confed- 
erate ram, Arkansas, was destroyed by the United States gun-boat Essex, 
Captain Porter, commander, August 6th. Captain Porter went up the river 
to reconnoitre and had a sharp fight at Port Hudson, September 7th. A 
large part of Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi, was brought 



494 OUR NATION: 

under control before the close of the year. General Butler was relieved of 
the command of New Orleans by General Banks, December i6th. 

The account of one more battle will end the record for the year 1862. 
General Rosecrans had taken the sadly demoralized army of- the Cumberland, 
and thoroughly reorganized and disciplined it. It was in the vicinity of 
Bowling Green when he took command. Bragg had a large force at Stone 
River, near Murfreesborough, and was preparing to annihilate the Union 
army. A most sanguinary conflict was begun there on the 31st of Decem- 
ber, and was fought all day. At night the Unionists were so completely 
overcome that Bragg expected that they would see safety in flight during the 
darkness, but to his astonishment they were still in his front, ready to renew 
the encounter. The contest was fierce and sharp, and the day seemed to be 
irretrievably lost to the North, when a charge of seven regiments under the 
leadership of Brigadier-General W. B. Harzen, sent the Confederate lines 
flying in confusion, and won the prize of victory from the very teeth of defeat. 
Bragg retreated to Chattanooga, and Rosecrans held possession of Murfrees- 
borough. 

Thus begins the year 1863, with a decided and a glorious victory for the 
Nationals on the field of battle ; but there was a moral victory also won on 
this day, which decided the fate of the country for future generations. 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

The National Government had disavowed any intention to make war 
upon slavery in the States where it existed. The contest was for the suprem- 
acy of the Nation, and the enforcement of its laws and Constitution. There 
came a mighty revolution of feeling among those in the North, who had sym- 
pathized with the peculiar institution of the South. They came to see that 
this institution was the fundamental cause of the insurrection, and at the 
same time a means of prolonging the strife. The negroes could plant, gather 
the crops, and attend to domestic affairs, while the white men were doing 
military duty. The course of many of the Northern generals in returning 
the fugitive slaves who came into their lines, was very unpopular. 

The Republican party in Congress was pressing upon the attention of 
President Lincoln the importance of emancipating the slaves held by those 
who were fighting the national government. Congress had abolished slavery 
in the District of Columbia, and on the 22d of September, Abraham Lincoln 
on the authority of Congress, issued a preliminary proclamation, in which he 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 495 

declared his purpose to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation on the first day 
of January, 1863, forever setting free the slaves of all men found that day in 
open rebellion against the United States. The Confederates sneered at this, 
and their Northern sympathizers, of whom there were some still remaining, 
called it a " Pope's Bull against a Comet." 

The war went on, as we have seen, prosecuted with vigor on both sides. 
The dawn of the New Year came, and " The EMANCIPATION PROCLAMA- 
TION " was issued under the seal of the United States. The friends of free- 
dom hailed it all over the world as the harbinger of success to the North. At 
once the fetters were stricken from over three millions of human beings, and 
they were free before the law to enter the union lines, and as fast as new 
territory in the South was occupied by Union arms they were set at liberty. 
It was a severe blow to the South, and took away their hope, but it allied all 
the real friends of human liberty in the world to the cause of the Union. 
While the North was engaged in this work, the Confederacy was engaged in 
extensive preparations to destroy the commerce and the power of the nation. 
Privateers, built in British shipyards, equipped with British guns and seamen, 
and fitted out in British waters, were sent to prey upon American commerce, 
with the " stars and bars " flying at their peak. When the people of New 
York heard the cry of the starving operatives at Manchester, England, whose 
supply of cotton had been cut ofT by the blockade of the South, they sent a 
ship-load of provisions to aid them. This vessel, laden with the voluntary 
bounty of America to the starving citizens of England, was guarded upon her 
voyage by an armed government vessel to preserve her from the piratical 
torch, lighted by British hands. 

The course of Great Britain, during all the period of the Civil War in 
America, was a peculiarly inconsistent one. With the proud boast that no slave 
could live under her flag, she hastened to recognize the belligerent rights of 
the " Confederate States," then holding millions of human beings in bondage, 
gave the moral aid of her indifference and apathy if not support to acts of 
illegality, and stultified herself in regard to her national policy of eighty years 
on the question of neutrality; she gave a ready market to the bonds of the 
"Confederate States," and sheltered and abetted the enemies of a country 
with which she was at peace, and furnished ships, munitions of war, and men 
to fight against the same country. All this for the sake of aiding a cause 
avowedly resting upon slavery as its chief cornerstone, for her supposed 
commercial advantage. 



496 OUR NATION: 

The Confederate privateer Alabama, the principal one of the craft fitted 
out by the British, committed fearful depredations on American commerce 
during the last ninety days of the year 1862. 



THE MILITARY OPERATIONS OF 1863. 

We will open the account of the year with the operations on the Missis- 
sippi. A portion of this great river was still in the hands of the Confederates, 
from Vicksburg to Port Hudson. The Confederates had erected strong for- 
tifications at the latter place, a distance of twenty-five miles from Baton 
Rouge. Grant had a large amount of supplies at Holly Springs, which, 
owing to the carelessness or something worse of the commandant there, fell 
into the hands of the Confederates December 20th. Grant was forced to fall 
back, and thus a large force of Confederates was able to come to Vicksburg. 
Sherman had planned to attack the city in the rear, but in an engagement on 
the Chickasaw Bayou was defeated with great loss December 28th, 1862. He 
was compelled to abandon that enterprise, and January 2d, 1863, he was 
superseded by General McClernand, who out-ranked him. About the middle 
of January the Confederate fort at Arkansas Post was captured and many 
supplies destroyed. Grant had come down the river from Memphis, and 
Vicksburg was placed under siege. The army was organized into four corps, 
and after a series of movements, which would in themselves fill a volume, he 
finally struck upon a plan which he followed to the end. Some of the naval 
fleet ran down by Vicksburg to destroy the Confederate fleet below, but were 
themselves taken and destroyed. A strong force went down the west bank 
of the river in command of Generals McClernand and McPherson, in the 
direction of New Carthage. Porter determined to run by the batteries at 
Vicksburg, and succeeded in doing so with most of his fleet and transports 
on the i6th of April. On the 22d six transports accomplished the same feat, 
and now Grant prepared for a vigorous attack upon the flank and rear of the 
city. A most wonderful cavalry raid under Colonel Grierson through the 
very heart of Mississippi had assured Grant that the bulk of the Southern 
army of that region was in Vicksburg. 

Porter attacked and again ran by the batteries of Vicksburg April 29th, 
and on May ist Grant's troops gained a victory at Port Gibson. Sherman 
joined the Union army May 8th. The Confederates were defeated near Ray- 
mond, May 1 2th, and again at Jackson May 14th. The Confederates were 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 497 

driven northward and another victory was gained for the Union army at 
Champion Mills. On the i6th and 17th Grant drove them from Big Black 
River, and on the 19th he had the whole Confederate army penned up at 
Vicksburg. He had lived off the enemy's country for two weeks, in which 
time his army had gained repeated victories. The very day on which he 
arrived before Vicksburg Grant made an assault, but was repulsed. This 
he followed up with another unsuccessful attempt on the 22d. Then he 
settled down to a regular siege of the city, for forty days, pouring shot and 
shell into the beleaguered town day and night. The citizens were safe only 
in caves which they dug in the banks of the hills with which the city abounds. 
The army and people were reduced to the verge of starvation and were in 
great distress. They were driven to the necessity of eating mule meat. 
Fourteen ounces of food for two days was the extent of the ration issued. 
General Pemberton, the Confederate Commander-in-chief at Vicksburg, gave 
up all hope of being relieved by Johnston, who he thought would strike 
in Grant's rear, and on the morning of July 3d he sent proposals to surrender. 
The formal surrender was made on the fourth of July, and there was great 
rejoicing, for on the same day another hard-fought battle was won in the 
East. Twenty-seven thousand stand of arms were taken and the strongest 
fortified post on the Mississippi fell into the hands of the Unionists. 

Port Hudson, which had been bravely besieged by General Banks for 
forty days, surrendered on the 9th. 

We will recount the doings of Banks in the Lower Mississippi Gulf 
region prior to this. He had sent troops to the support of the Union forces 
at Galveston, Texas, but the Confederate General Magruder had repulsed 
them and retaken the city. ' This was a barren victory to the Confederates, 
for Admiral Farragut maintained a strict blockade over that port. After this 
a land and naval force was sent into the Teche region, and made a successful 
expedition to repossess the western part of Louisiana. An expedition up the 
Red River under Banks penetrated the country as far as Alexandria, where 
the general proclaimed that all Southern and Western Louisiana was free 
from Confederate rule. With this impression he led his troops to Port 
Hudson and invested that point. He made an assault on this fortress on 
May 29th, but was repulsed with much loss. The siege went on for forty 
days, and after Vicksburg fell into the hands of the Unionists, the Confeder- 
ates saw that it would be useless to try to hold out longer and capitulated. 
Now the river was open to the sea, and the Confederacy was severed in two 



498 OUR NATION: 

parts. The blow was a severe one, and the wiser men of the Confederacy 
saw that their cause was hopeless from this point in the contest. 

We left the army of the Potomac in winter-quarters at the opening of the 
year, Major-General Joseph Hooker in command. There followed a period 
of three months in which he was busily engaged in re-organizing that army. 
A large number of officers and men were absent from their regiments. There 
w^ere officers who were opposed to the Government's policy on the question 
of slavery, and many were crying out it is a " war for the negro " and not a 
"war for the union." These men were removed, and their places were filled 
by energetic men in full sympathy with the administration. Order and disci- 
pline became thoroughly established, and Hooker had over one hundred 
thousand available troops on the first day of April. The period of rest and 
reformation of the army had done much to add to its tone and strength. 
During this same time General Lee had been engaged in strengthening the 
army of Northern Virginia. A rigid conscription act had been enforced and 
all the available men were hurried into the ranks. He had made the defenses 
of Richmond almost impregnable, and with wonderful energy and skill had 
put his army into the best condition for the coming struggle. In April, Lee 
had a well-organized and enthusiastic army of more than sixty thousand men. 
A part of his army under Longstreet were in South-eastern Virginia, but Lee 
was behind the strong fortifications and able to cope with a much superior 
force. 

Early in April Hooker determined to make an advance upon Richmond. 
He threw a mounted force of ten thousand men in the rear of Lee's army, 
and moved with another large force to Chancellorsville, within ten miles of 
Fredericksburg. The left wing of Hooker's army, consisting of the First, 
Third, and Sixth Corps, was near Fredericksburg, under General Sedgwick, 
and by their demonstration on the Confederate front so completely deceived 
General Lee that Hooker was well on the way before Lee was aware of his 
real design. But Lee did not turn back to Richmond, as Hooker thought he 
would when he discovered his peril, but pushed the column of Stonewall 
Jackson forward, and compelled Hooker to fight at Chancellorsville, with his 
army divided. There was great peril for both armies. The bloody battle of 
Chancellorsville was fought the ist and 2d of May, and resulted in a bitter 
defeat for the Union army. The struggle was severe and sanguinary, and 
Hooker's army was driven back on the road leading to the Rapidan and the 
Rappahannock. Lee's forces were united, but Hooker's were divided. Sedg- 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 499 

Avick,, near Fredericksburg, was in danger and could not come to Hooker's 
aid. When he received the orders of his chief, he moved at once and took 
possession of Fredericksburg — stormed the heights, and drove General Early 
back, May 3d. He then moved on to join Hooker's main body, but was 
checked at Salem Church, a few miles from Fredericksburg, by the whole of 
Lee's army. Now, instead of being able to join Hooker, he was driven across 
the Rappahannock May 4th and 5th. Hooker, hearing of the disaster to 
Sedgwick, was obliged to also retreat across the river. The Union forces 
united and fell back on May 5th. The whole movement had resulted in a 
severe loss to the Union army, and a decided victory to the Confederates. 
Longstreet had made a spirited and vigorous attack upon General Peck, but 
had been repulsed at Suffolk at the head of the Nansemond River, in south- 
eastern Virginia. Longstreet, hearing of the disaster at Chancellorsville, 
joined Lee and made his army as strong as that of the Nationals. The 
Union army had been out-generaled once more, and the skill and energy of 
the Confederate commander had won the day. 

Under the impression that there was still a large body of people in the 
North who would manifest active sympathy with the Confederates if they had 
the opportunity to do so, and highly elated by their successes at Chancellors- 
ville, the Confederate authorities ordered Lee to prepare for another for- 
midable invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. But they misunderstood 
the temper and the resources of the North. - Hooker suspected this design, 
and reported his convictions to the government at Washington. The term of 
enlistment of a large number of troops that had volunteered for nine months 
had expired, and Hooker's army was being weakened by their discharge, but 
other recruits for three years or during the war were coming in. 

By a flank movement Lee compelled Hooker to break up his camp on 
the Rappahannock and move toward Washington. Lee at the same time sent 
his left wing up the Shenandoah, and a battle was fought at Winchester, in 
which General Milroy was driven back and the Union forces suffered severe 
loss, but escaped into Maryland and Pennsylvania with their supply and am- 
munition trains. A large cavalry force pursued Milroy into Pennsylvania, 
and destroyed the railroad up the Cumberland Valley to Chambersburg, in 
Pennsylvania, plundering the people all along the march. The Confederate 
army was upon Northern soil on June 25th. Hooker had been vigilant and 
active in the meanwhile, and crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry. A 
disagreement arose between General Hooker and General Halleck — then 



500 OUR NATION: 

Commander-in-chief — and Hooker resigned. General George G. Meade was 
placed in command of the army of the Potomac June 28th, and retained it to 
the close of the war. 

At this time the Union army were in Frederick, Maryland, ready to cut 
off Lee's line of communication, fall upon his columns in retreat, or follow 
him on a parallel line toward the Susquehanna River. Lee was then prepar- 
ing to march on to Philadelphia, but learning of the danger which threatened 
his flank and rear he recalled Ewell, who was within a few miles of Harris- 
burg. The rapid gathering of the militia of Pennsylvania and surrounding 
States alarmed him, and Lee, therefore, concentrated all the army of Northern 
Virginia in the vicinity of Gettysburg. He did this for the purpose of falling 
upon the army of the Potomac with crushing force, and then march upon 
Baltimore or Washington, or, in case of defeat, have a line of retreat to the 
Potomac River. General Meade did not comprehend this design of Lee until 
June 30th, and then at once he prepared to meet the shock of battle on a line 
a little south of Gettysburg. This was the pivotal battle of the war, and 
deserves more than a passing notice. 

The Confederates had invaded a Northern State, and were now to meet 
the Union army on its own soil. The great cities of the North were threat- 
ened. The Southern army had touched its highest point, and upon this issue 
the fortunes of the country hung. A new general had assumed the command 
of an army with which he was unacquainted two days before the contest was 
commenced. Meade had an oft-defeated army of from sixty to seventy 
thousand men with which to meet the seventy-five thousand victorious troops 
of Lee. MeClellan, Burnsideand Hooker had measured ability with this adroit 
and self-possessed chieftain, and been worsted again and again. It seemed 
a hopeless task, but Meade was calm, quiet, resolute, brave, and unpretend- 
ing. He set himself about the task assigned him, and he accomplished it by 
the loyal co-operation of his brave corps commanders, and the persistency of 
the noble rank and file who were determined to conquer or die. Thousands 
of men who had hitherto excused themselves from active military service in 
the field arose to arms, and offered themselves for immediate service, when 
the field of battle was changed from Southern to Northern soil. The Union 
cavalry under General Kilpatrick had met and defeated a force under General 
Stuart, at Hanover, a town east of Gettysburg, June 29th ; and on the same 
day Buford and his horsemen entered Gettysburg, but found no Confederates 
there. On the 30th, General J. F. Reynolds, the brave commander of the 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. sor 

First Corps, who fell on the field of battle the next day, arrived with his. 
troops. 

General Hill of the Confederate army was approaching with a large force 
from Chambersburg, which encountered Buford's cavalry in the early morning 
of July 1st. The sound of a sharp skirmish brought Reynolds to the field,, 
and a severe engagement ensued on Oak or Seminary Ridge, in which the 
gallant Reynolds fell dead. General O. O. Howard with the Eleventh Corps 
came up and the battle became more general, for Lee was concentrating his, 
forces there. The Union army resisted the attack, and held their ground 
bravely as charge after charge was made upon their lines, but at night they^ 
were pressed back to a more advantageous position selected by General W. 
S. Hancock, the intrepid and beloved commander of the Second Corps. This, 
position was on a range of rocky hills back of but close to the village. The 
line was formed on the two sides of a triangle, with Cemetery Hill, the point 
nearest the town, forming the angle. Here the troops halted for the night, 
and threw up a breastwork of defense. General Meade with the main body 
of the army hastened up to join the forces who had sustained the brunt of 
the first day's fight. 

The next day the forces were facing each other on what was to prove the 
most hotly contested battle field of the war. Each commander understood 
the immense value of the prize at stake, and seemed loth to make the first 
move in the decisive contest. Not until late in the afternoon of July 2d did 
the carnage open. General Lee then precipitated his sohd columns upon 
Meade's left, commanded by General Sickles, and the fearful harvest of death 
began. This extended to the centre, commanded by Hancock, and the heavy- 
masses of armed men rolled up to his line to be driven back, like the waves 
of the sea from a rock-bound coast. Huge furrows were plowed through the, 
solid ranks of men by the shot and shell that swept them from the Union 
artillery, and yet they would re-form and march up again to be swept back 
by the awful whirlwind of slaughter that opposed them. At sunset the battle 
ceased on this side of the triangle. The rocky eminence called Little Round 
Top had been the centre of the most determined struggle, and the Confed- 
erates endeavored to take it at any cost so that they could hurl the left wing 
back on the centre. But the brave troops stationed there were as firm as the: 
impenetrable granite, and held the position. The right and right centre, 
were commanded by generals Slocum and Howard. The latter occupied 
Cemetery Hill, and the former Gulps Hill. Early and Johnson,, o£ General 



502 OUR NATION: 

Ewell's corps of the Confederate army, fell with great vigor upon these points, 
and seemed determined to carry them at all hazards. They were repulsed 
with great slaughter from the right centre on Cemetery Hill, but succeeded 
in turning the right wing, -and holding it for the night. This struggle ended 
at ten o'clock at night. This day's fight had resulted in some advantage to 
the Confederates. Lee was sanguine that another day would bring a complete 
^■ictory for the Confederate cause. That was an anxious night in many a 
Northern home, as millions of sleepless men and women were reading the 
swiftly flying news of the deadly encounter. 

The loss of Lee had been considerable, but the Union line was weakened, 
and an attack in the morning would sweep it from the field he thought. 
• This was the hour of deepest gloom to the Union cause, and not a man from 
the Commander-in-chief down to the humblest private in the ranks but knew 
it. A million of brave men throughout the country were in arms, but the 
■course of Lee's northward march could not be prevented if he won this 
'decisive battle field. At four the next morning General Slocum advanced 
and re-occupied the ground he had lost the night before. Meade strength- 
ened his weakened lines. A hard fight of four hours was necessary to retrive 
the old position, and hold the persistent columns of Ewell in check. The 
Union left and left centre were impregnable, and Lee prepared to fall with 
crushing effect upon the weaker right. The entire forenoon was passed by 
the opposing generals in making preparation for the fearful death grapple. 
At one o'clock the artillery from Lee's army opened upon Howard's front. 
The challenge was answered by the Union army. The country for miles 
around was shaken by the thunder of over two hundred heavy guns. For 
three hours the awful duel was kept up, sending death and carnage to either 
side. Then Lee, under the cover of this heavy cannonading, precipitated his 
solid columns which were to break the Federal line and gain the day. They 
swept over the plain, and with the fearful yell of battle, attacked the breast- 
works, only to be swept down by the grape and canister, belching forth from 
a hundred cannons. The ranks fell as grass before the mower's scythe; but 
on and on the gathering columns pressed, and the harvest of death ceased not 
till the sun went down. As men fell in the bloody contest their places were 
filled by those who pressed on after them, and brave men contended hand to 
hand. At one time Lee, who, like Napoleon at Waterloo, was watching the 
battle from a hill-top, saw through the lifting battle-cloud the Confederate flag 
waving on the Union ramparts at a certain point. His generals congratulated 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 503 

liim on a victory; but he looks as another dense cloud of smoke lifts, and his 
men are seen broken and fleeing down the fatal hill-side, where dead men 
cover the ground so thick that the retreating army tread upon them at every 
step. This last attack has failed and the Nationals have won THE BATTLE 
OF Gettysburg. 

Lee began his hasty retreat on the fourth of July, and Meade, with his 
victorious but exhausted army, followed him in hot pursuit to the Potomac, 
where by fortifications and a show of force, Lee was able to hold the 
Nationals at bay until he had got his army and artillery safely across the 
river into Virginia. This was the last Confederate advance into the territory 
•of the Northern States. 

The National Government now resolved to make one grand effort to sup- 
press tne Confederacy. A call for men to fill up the army not meeting with 
so ready a response as the circumstances required, a draft was made upon 
able-bodied men between eighteen and forty-five. This gave rise to much 
dissatisfaction among the Peace Faction, and was the occasion of fearful riots 
in New York, and great destruction of life and property. These riots were 
put down by the police, aided by troops, and the draft went on. 

After his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee moved up the Shenandoah Valley, 
followed by Meade, ijn a parallel line on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, as 
McClellan had done in the opposite direction the previous year. There were 
:skirmishes in the mountain passes. Lee gained a position in front of Meade 
between the Rappahannock and Rapid Anna Rivers. At the middle of Sep- 
tember Meade crossed the Rappahannock and drove Lee behind the Rapid 
Anna. There had been sharp cavalry skirmishes here and there whilst the 
two armies were resting. Finally, in October, Lee started for Washington, 
when another exciting race occurred between him and Meade. After a sharp 
battle at Bristow's Station, Meade drove Lee back to a strong position behind 
the Rapid Anna, and the National Army went into winter quarters. 

In the State of Tennessee there were some startling events during the 
summer and fall of 1863. In June, Rosecrans ordered an advance of his army 
in three divisions under Generals Thomas, McCook and Crittenden. The 
point to be reached from Murfreesborough was Chattanooga. On June 30th 
Bragg, who saw the design of Rosecrans, fled before him and passed over the 
'Cumberland Mountains. Rosecrans followed hard after him. Bragg reached 
the Tennessee River, and crossed it at Bridgeport, destroyed the bridges 
'.behind him and then hastened to Chattanooga. Rosecrans pursued Bragg as 



504 OUR NATION: 

far as the base of the mountains; here he halted and rested for a whole- 
month. At the middle of August he surprised Bragg by appearing on his. 
front, with a line extending along the Tennessee River from above Chatta- 
nooga, westward for a hundred miles, and poured shot and shell into the 
Confederate camp. 

Early in September, Thomas and McCook had crossed the Tennessee 
River, and by the 8th had secured the passes of Lookout Mountain, while 
Crittenden was in Lookout Valley, near the river. When Bragg was informed 
of this, he abandoned Chattanooga to defend his line of communication, and 
Crittenden moved his forces into the Chattanooga Valley. Thus without a 
battle the object of crossing the mountains was gained. Bragg had been 
driven from Middle Tennessee, and from his stronghold. Burnside crossed 
the mountains into East Tennessee with twenty thousand troops, and joined 
Rosecrans on the line of the railroad south-westerly from Loudon. 

Rosecrans thought Bragg was in full retreat and pushed forward to strike 
his flank, but found him concentrated at Lafayette. About the middle of 
September the two armies were face to face on the Chickamauga Creek. A 
battle ensued and the Confederates won the closely contested field at a fear- 
ful loss to themselves. Chattanooga was held by the Nationals, but they were 
hemmed in by Bragg and his army. The Government decided to hold this 
point, and ordered Generals Grant, Burnside and Rosecrans to concentrate 
there. The Nationals were now threatened with famine, but General Hooker 
was sent from the army of the Potomac with the Eleventh and Twelfth 
Corps, Howard's and Slocum's, to hold the line of communication for Rose- 
crans. So the attempt of Bragg to starve out the Nationals in Chattanooga 
failed. The Confederates had possession of Lookout Mountain, and swept 
down upon the Twelfth Corps October 28th-29th at midnight, but found the 
general upon the watch and they were repulsed. In the mean time Long- 
street had been sent into Tennessee to seize Knoxville and drive out the 
army of Burnside. He came swiftly and secretly, and Burnside was closely 
besieged in a fortification near that city. 

Grant saw that he must attack Bragg at once upon the arrival of Sher- 
man's troops. Grant was determined to strike the centre of Bragg's army 
on Missionaries' Ridge and his right on Lookout Mountain. Thomas advanced 
to Orchard Knob, and fortified it November 23d. Hooker carried the works at 
the base of Lookout Mountain, and his victorious troops pressed up the sides, 
of the lofty eminence, which was hidden from sight by a heavy fog, and 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 505 

fought above the clouds. The Union armies in the valley below heard the 
cannonading and the shout of the charge, but could not see anything of 
what was being done until the fog cleared up, and showed Hooker in posses- 
sion of the mountain top. 

While Hooker was fighting above the clouds Sherman had successfully 
performed his part in the plan and secured a strong position on Missionaries' 
Ridge. In the night of November 24th Bragg retired from Lookout Moun- 
tain and concentrated all his forces on Missionaries' Ridge. The severe and 
•desperate encounter of the 25th raged all day — Sherman, Thomas and 
Hooker all taking part, and at night the fires of the National army lighted up 
the whole length of Missionaries' Ridge and Bragg was in full retreat. Sher- 
man advanced to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville, and Longstreet was 
compelled to raise the siege December 3d, and return to the army of Virginia. 
Sherman returned to Chattanooga and Burnside was left at Knoxville. So 
great was the rejoicing at these victories that President Lincoln proclaimed 
a day of thanksgiving and praise, as he had done after the Union victory at 
Vicksburg and Gettysburg. 

There were military operations of some little account in North Carolina 
during the year, where General D. H. Hill had been sent by order of General 
Lee to harass the National troops, but the Union forces held the advantage 
gained and the State did not pass from their control. There was a most 
desperate attempt to capture Fort Sumter and Charleston, waging all the 
year, with repeated failures and discouragements. The harbor had been 
filled with the strongest obstacles in the form of torpedoes, heavy iron chains, 
sunken vessels and other impediments, and guarded by batteries of great 
strength. General Q. A. Gillmore was placed in command of the Union 
forces there June 12th, 1863, and Admiral Dupont was succeeded by Admiral 
Dahlgren July 6th. 

Active operations were commenced at once from Folly Island, held by the 
Union forces, against Morris Island. General Strong landed on the latter 
island July loth, and drove the Confederates to their fortification, Fort 
Wagner, but when he attacked them the next day he was repulsed with heavy 
loss. Gillmore began a siege of this fort, which continued until September 
6th, when the Confederates abandoned it, and at once the Nationals occupied 
Fort Wagner and Fort Gregg. Now they had full command of the city of 
Charleston, though at a great distance, and could send shot and shell into 
the streets of the doomed city. Fort Sumter was made a heap of shape- 



5o6 OUR NATION: 

less ruins in October by the heavy cannonading that Gillmore poured in 
upon it. 

There were some operations of more or less consequence beyond the 
Mississippi, inflicting some damages upon the National troops and stirring up 
the Indians against the United States. But these resulted in no very decided 
advantage to the Confederates, and at the close of 1863 all Texas west of the 
Colorado was in the possession of the Nationals. 

The finances of the United States were in a healthy condition. In spite 
of the enormous debt, constantly increasing, the public credit never stood 
higher, while the Confederate States were in a most deplorable financial 
situation. Their war debt was as large as that of the National government and 
credit was wanting. They were forced to seize supplies for their army, and 
in order to keep their ranks full, they passed a most severe conscription act, 
calling out every available man for military service, " robbing the cradle and 
the grave." 

THE MILITARY OPERATIONS OF 1864. 

The Congress of the United States in the opening of this year saw that 
there had been some radical trouble in the management of the conflict, and 
came to the conclusion to put some one man in command of the entire force 
of the Government and make him responsible for the conduct of the war.. 
Hitherto there had been, at times, a conflict of authority, and different gen- 
erals had been working upon opposing theories, and this had been the prolific 
cause of delays and reverses. Now a new rank was created by law, and U. 
S. Grant was commissioned Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of all 
the United States forces. He believed that the surest way to end the war, and 
in the long run save human life, was to strike decisive and heavy blows and' 
follow them up with hard fighting. He would make war with the horrible- 
intention of killing men and ending the contest as quickly as possible. Two^ 
expeditions were formed, one having the capture of Atlanta, Georgia, and 
the other, that of Richmond, in view. For the first he put General W. T. 
Sherman in chief command, and for the second, General G.G. Meade. The 
task of the latter was to beat the army of General Lee, and the former the 
army of Johnston. These were now the chief armies of the Confederacy, and 
upon their destruction hung the issue of the war. 

The year 1864 began with a series of reverses in the extreme South and 
South-west. The capture of Fort Pillow and the treacherous massacre of its 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 507 

garrison by General Forrest, in April, was a foul blot upon the civilization of 
the age. He sent a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the fort, and 
while it was under consideration secretly arranged his forces to fall upon it 
unexpectedly. This was done with the cry " No quarter," when a large 
number who threw down their arms were butchered in cold blood. Forrest 
said in self-defense : " War means fight and fight means kill — we want but 
few prisoners." General Banks was sent up the Red River upon a disastrous 
expedition. Missouri was invaded by a large force, which caused considerable 
trouble throughout the summer and was not driven out until November., 
Arkansas had come under the control of the Confederates, and the Union 
citizens who had been making preparations to return the State government 
to its allegiance to the Union, were silenced. The operations in Charleston 
Harbor were being carried on slowly. East Tennessee was the scene of 
stirring events of minor importance, but the country turned from all these to 
the more sanguinary and gigantic operations in Virginia and Georgia. 

Some movements were undertaken in the early spring of 1864, with the 
design of capturing Richmond and releasing the Union prisoners in Libby 
Prison and on Belle Isle. In February, General B. F. Butler sent fifteen 
hundred troops against Richmond, but his design was frustrated by treachery.. 
Later than this General Kilpatrick swept around Lee's right flank with five 
thousand cavalry and penetrated the outer defenses of Richmond, but was 
compelled to retire March ist. Another part of the same command was able 
to enter the lines at another point, but were driven back with the loss of 
Colonel Dahlgren and ninety men. General Custer, with a considerable force, 
threatened to cut Lee's communications with the Shenandoah Valley. These 
operations were preparatory to the execution of General Grant's far greater 
plans. 

The mistaken opinions in the early part of the war had been corrected 
by bitter experience, and the North and South were alike aware that the 
fight must wage to the end. A well-tried general, in whom the whole North 
had confidence, had assumed command. The volunteer army was no longer 
a mass of citizen militia, but hardened veterans of battle, inured to heavy 
marching and heavy fighting. The spirit of the North was resolute and as 
determined as ever. Grant had his headquarters with the army of the 
Potomac, which had been re-organized and formed into three corps, the 
Second Corps under General Hancock, the Fifth in command of General 
Warren, and the Sixth with the gallant Sedgwick at its head. General Burn- 



5d8 our NATION: 

-side with the Ninth Corps, which had been filled up by recruits and thoroughly 
rreconstructed during the winter, was attached to the army of the Potomac. 
General Grant ordered Meade in Virginia and Sherman in Georgia to advance 
at the beginning of May. We will follow the fortunes of the first. 

On the 4th of May the army of the Potomac was led into the region 
■known as the Wilderness, to attack the Confederates who were intrenched on 
Mine Run. A fearful carnage in that trackless and tangled country ensued 
for two days; Lee's front could not be carried, and his flank must be turned 
if possible. General Warren led the movement out of the Wilderness with 
the Fifth Corps on May 8th, and came to the open country at Spottsylvania, 
where he found a part of Lee's army posted across his path, and the rest of 
the force rapidly concentrating there. The flanking movement had been ex- 
pected by Lee, and he was ready to meet it. On the 9th, General Sedgwick 
was killed while superintending the arrangement of a battery. The battle 
opened on the lOth, and was contested with fearful loss on both sides. On the 
iith Grant sent his famous dispatch to Washington, ''I intend to fight it out 
on this line if it takes all sninviery On the 12th Hancock broke Lee's line 
and gained a decided advantage, but the following night the Confederate 
army silently withdrew behind this second line of intrenchments and was as 
strong as ever. Another flank movement was impending, and Lee made an 
attack to prevent it on May 19th and was repulsed. While these operations 
were going on, General Sheridan made a raid upon Lee's rear with a large 
force of cavalry, and came to within a few miles of Richmond, destroying rail- 
roads and military supplies. General Sigel was in the Shenandoah and Kana- 
wha valleys, andliad a fight at New Market May 15th, in which the Confed- 
erates gained the day. 

General Butler with the army of the James had left Fortress Monroe 
with twenty-five thousand troops in transports, followed by Admiral Lee 
with gun-boats, and they took possession of both sides of the river as far as 
City Point by the aid of fifteen hundred mounted men, who had forded the 
Chickahominy and taken their position on the James opposite City Point. 
This was done with but little fighting, for there were few Confederates there. 
Butler fortified Bermuda Hundred and intended to cut communication between 
Petersburg and Richmond. The former city could have been easily taken, 
but for some reason it was not accomplished, and the Confederates from 
South Carolina hastened there to aid in its defense. Beauregard got into 
Petersburg before the railroad was destroyed, and on the morning of May 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 509 

16th attacked Butler's right, and after a sharp fight drove his army into their 
intrenchments. At the same instant a charge on Butler's front was repulsed. 
For several days there was much fighting all along his lines. 

Grant's army was moving by the left flank, but Lee had the inside line of 
the parallel circles on the road to Richmond and consequently was able to 
move faster than his antagonist. A heavy battle was fought at the North 
Anna River. Grant was satisfied that he could not carry the strong position 
of Lee, and again resumed his march by the left flank. On the 26th of May 
the whole army was south of the Pamunkey River. Lee was again in a 
fortified position and a heavy battle ensued. " By the left flank " again came 
the order, and the army moved to Cool Arbor. Ten thousand men from 
General Butler's army under command of General W. F. Smith re-enforced 
the army of Meade, and he made an advance upon the enemy in front. The 
fight here on June 3d was bloody and short. In twenty minutes the Union 
army lost ten thousand men and only succeeded in holding their own position. 
The line of Lee's army could not be broken. Other attempts to force the 
lines the next day met with similar results, but all the while the Union forces 
were moving by the left flank and on June 7th rested on the Chickahominy. 
Sheridan crossed the river with his cavalry and tore up the railroads and 
bridges. The whole army moved across the river to Lee's right and crossed 
the James June 14th and 15th. Butler made an unsuccessful attempt to take 
Petersburg before aid could arrive from Richmond. The failure to accom- 
plish this disarranged the plans somewhat, and caused the long and exhaus- 
tive siege of both cities which lasted for ten months. Grant established his 
head-quarters at City Point, and on the i6th preparations were made to carry 
the city of Petersburg by assault. Warren, Hancock and Burnside made a 
desperate attack on the lines here, but it was evident that the whole army of 
Lee was south of the James. The assaults of the Union army on the 17th 
and i8th of June resulted in some advantage to the Nationals, but it was 
plain that the time to take Petersburg by direct advance was past. 

An attempt was now made on the right of the Confederate army to cut 
the Weldon Railroad and turn Lee's flank. The railroad was destroyed as 
far as Ream's Station. The besieging lines of Meade's and Butler's army 
extended from City Point and Bermuda Hundred to the Weldon Railroad, 
partly around Petersburg and toward Richmond. A disastrous attempt to 
break the Confederate lines at Petersburg was made on the 30th of July by 
exploding a mine under a fort at the outpost of the line. This proved a 



5IO OUR NATION: 

heavy disaster to the Contederate army, in which about three thousand troops- 
were lost. September 29th Butler stormed and carried the strongest works on 
Lee's left, known as Fort Harrison. On October 27th an attempt was made 
to extend the Union lines to Hatcher's Run, but after heavy fighting the 
National troops were obliged to retire to their fortifications in front of Peters- 
burg. Here they settled down for a winter's siege of that city. From the 
opening of the campaign in May to the ist of November the Nationals had 
lost in killed, wounded, prisoners and missing, the enormous number of one 
hundred thousand men. 

There were exciting times in the Shenandoah Valley in the summer and 
early fall of 1864. A Union army had encountered a Confederate force at 
Winchester on July 20th and defeated it, taking many prisoners and supplies.. 
General Early was in full force up the valley, and so sanguine was he that 
he sent an invading force of cavalry into Maryland, who burned the city of 
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Sheridan was sent into the Shenandoah valley 
with thirty thousand troops to attack the Confederates. By a series of the 
most brilliant and dashing operations and unexpected movements, Sheridan 
sent them " whirling up the valley." There was a battle at Winchester, in 
which Early was driven to his strong position at Fisher's Hill on September 
19th. He was forced from the new position the 2ist and fled to the moun- 
tains. Early had less than one-half the men now that came with him into the 
valley. Sheridan had his position at Cedar Creek near Strasburg, and Early, 
who had been re-enforced heavily, now came with crushing effect upon the 
Union army at a time when Sheridan was "twenty miles away." Their 
lines were driven back in great confusion. The Eleventh Corps were not 
able to withstand the fierce onslaught of Early's men. Sheridan hastened to 
the scene of battle, reformed the broken lines, and riding along the regiments 
and brigades with cheers encouraged his men, regained the lost ground, and 
sent the Confederates in hopeless flight up the Shenandoah. Early's army 
was nearly annihilated and Lee could spare no more men for it. This ended 
the contest for the fertile valley which had been overrun so often by the 
opposing forces. Sheridan had burned and destroyed on every hand — such 
was the stern necessity of war — and the Confederates could no more gain 
the abundant supplies which they had found in the rich valley, and which for 
years had been the store-house of their armies. 

At the beginning of May, (1864) when General Grant ordered the two 
great armies to move, Sherman was at Chattanooga with about one hundred. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 511 

thousand men. His antagonist was General E. Joseph Johnston, with fifty-five 
thousand troops, who was at Dalton, strongly intrenched. Sherman's plan 
was to move by the left flank and compel the Confederates to abandon one 
strong position after another in order to save their army. A sharp fight 
took place at Resaca Station May 15th, which drove Johnston across the 
Oostenaula. The Union army closely followed in three divisions. At Adairs- 
ville, Johnston made a stand, but when the Nationals advanced he pushed 
on and fortified a position commanding the Altoona Pass. After resting a 
little Sherman moved forward to the right, and had a severe contest May 
25th. This was a drawn battle, without advantage to either side. June ist,. 
Johnston was forced to abandon the Altoona Pass. Sherman took possession 
of this and made it a second base of supplies by repairing the railroad to 
Chattanooga. He here received reinforcements. On June 9th he took 
possession of Big Shanty, and by persistency and frequent fighting forced 
Johnston to give up Pine Mountain June 15th, Lost Mountain June 17th, and 
Kenesaw Mountain July 2d. On the morning of July 3d the stars and 
stripes waved over the last-mentioned mountain, and Sherman rode in triumph 
into Marietta, close upon the heels of Johnston's army. The Confederates 
succeeded in crossing the river here before Sherman could give them a crush- 
ing blow. Johnston was obliged to retreat (July loth) toward Atlanta, 
Georgia. He fortified his army on a line covering that town from the Chat- 
tahooche River to Peachtree Creek. He knew that his force was less than 
that of the Nationals, and therefore he preferred to save his army rather than 
to risk an engagement. He had had already a number of severe encounters, 
and had been worsted in them all. 

General Johnston was now relieved of the command of the Confederate 
army, and succeeded by General Hood. The former was a cautious, scientific 
soldier, while the latter was a dashing, reckless officer, who did not care for 
the loss of men if he could make quick work. On July i6th. General Rous- 
seau, with two thousand cavalry, joined Sherman. On the 19th, all the Unioa 
forces were across the river. A flank movement was made to cut the railroad 
leading to Augusta. This was accomplished. On the 20th, Hood attacked the 
Aveakened lines in front, but was repulsed with heavy loss. On the 22d, the 
Confederate lines on the heights about Peachtree Creek were abandoned, and 
Sherman thought that Hood, like Johnston, had evacuated the city, and con- 
sequently moved his army rapidly toward Atlanta. He found Hood in a 
strong line of works near the city, which had been built the year before. 



512 OUR NATION: 

Preparations were made for carrying the city by assault, when a large part of 
Hood's army, which had gained Sherman's rear in the night, fell upon him, 
and a most sanguinary and hotly contested battle raged for four hours. The 
Union army was successful, and the Confederates were driven back to their 
breastworks. On July 28th, Hood made another attack upon Sherman but 
was replused with heavy loss, and seeing that the Unionists were gradually 
getting possession of all the railroads leading from the city, after a month of 
countermaneuvering the Confederate general abandoned Atlanta, having 
■destroyed all factories, warehouses and whatever would be of advantage to 
the enemy. He left no food for the inhabitants, who were on the point of 
starvation. Sherman took possession, and not being able to feed the citizens 
and his own army, humanely ordered all non-combatants to leave the city, 
either for the North or South, as they might choose. He furnished trans- 
portation for all who wished to go to Chattanooga. 

Hood, after leaving Atlanta, moved upon Sherman's base of supplies at 
Altoona Pass, and threatened the small force there. Sherman sent a force 
to their assistance, and drove the army of Hood with great slaughter. Then 
he returned to Atlanta with all his troops, destroying all founderies, dis- 
mantling the railroads, and preparing to cut loose from his base of supplies. 
His army numbered sixty-five thousand men of all kinds. He cut the wires 
which connected him with the North, and started on his grand march to the 
sea. The people in the North did not hear from him for some time except 
through the newspapers of the South, and this was far from being reliable. 
His army was divided into two great columns; one under General O. O. 
Howard, the other under General W. H. Slocum, with the cavalry in com- 
mand of General Kilpatrick. Nothing was heard from this army until De- 
cember 13th, when it appeared near Savannah and captured Fort McAllister, 
on the Ogeechee River, not far from that city. Savannah was invested at 
once, and on the 20th, Hardee evacuated it and fled to Charleston with fifty 
thousand troops. The army of Georgia entered the city the next day and 
there rested, after a march of two hundred and fifty-five miles, inflicting very 
heavy loss upon the Confederates and sustaining but little loss in return. 

Some active measures were going on in Florida and North Carolina dur- 
ing this time, but the most interest was centered upon the two grand armies. 
In September and October there were some interesting events, and after 
considerable skirmishing on both sides there was a general engagement at 
Franklin, a few miles south of Nashville, in which the Confederate forces at 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 513 

first drove their antagonists from their breastworks, and were in turn driven 
back; Hood, the Confederate general, lost three thousand men. On the 15th 
of December, a desperate battle was fought in front of Nashville, where 
Hood was besieging the Nationals under General Thomas. The attack was 
opened by Thomas, who drove the Confederates from their works and pursued 
them out of the State. The campaign ended with complete success for the 
Union army. 

The Anglo-Confederate privateers were doing immense damage to 
American commerce in various parts of the world. The chief depredator was 
the Alabama, in command of a former United States navy officer, Captain 
Raphael Semmes. The English also built for the Confederates the Florida, 
Georgia, Tallahassee, Oliistee and Chiekainaiiga, all of which committed great 
depredations upon the vessels and cargoes of American ship owners. This 
drove a large part of our maritime commerce to seek the protection of for- 
eign flags. A stupendous effort was made to capture and destroy these 
cruisers. The Georgia was captured off the coast of Lisbon in August, 1864, 
by the United States vessel Niagara; the Florida by the WacJiusett, October 
17th, in a port of Brazil. The Alabama had been sunk some time before this 
by the Kearsarge. Captain Semmes was rescued from capture by a British 
vessel which was conveniently near at hand, but the " common people " were 
left to drown or be picked up by the American vessel and a Frenchman. 
This had occurred on Sunday, June 19th. 

Admiral Farragut had captured the port of Mobile with a fleet of eigh- 
teen vessels aided by a land force under General Gordon Granger. This fleet 
passed between the two forts (Morgan and Gaines), at the entrance to Mobile 
Bay, lashed together in pairs, on August 5th, 1864. It was in this engage- 
ment that the brave admiral was lashed to the rigging of his flag-ship. The 
Confederate ram Tennessee was destroyed and a complete victory gained. 
The forts were surrendered after cannonading and siege. Fort Gaines on the 
7th and Fort Morgan on the 23d of August. The port of Mobile was closed. 

We will turn for a brief space from the consideration of military to politi- 
cal affairs. The National Republican party had met in a convention at 
Baltimore, in June, and nominated Mr. Lincoln for re-election, affirmed its 
determination to /naintain the Union and the policy of his administration, 
and pledged themselves to sustain it to the end. Andrew Johnson was nom- 
inated for the Vice-Presidency. 

On August 29th delegates of the opposition or " Democratic " party met 



514 OUR NATION: 

in Convention at Chicago, and displayed an intense anti-war feeling. General 
George B. McClellan was nominated for the Presidency and George H, Pen- 
dleton for Vice-President. The resolution that declared the war a failure was 
scarcely dry upon the paper before the people of the United States were 
called to devote a day to thanksgiving and praise for the victories of Sher- 
man and Farragut. The election resulted in the most overwhelming majorities 
for Lincoln and Johnson. Only the three States of Delaware, Kentucky and 
New Jersey gave their votes to the opposition. 

THE CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR— 1865. 

The year that saw the closing operations of the civil strife had come, 
and General Sherman, after giving his gallant army a rest of more than a 
month, at Savannah, started for a march into the interior. On the 17th of 
February, 1865, he captured Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Wade 
Hampton had ordered all the cotton in that city to be piled in the public 
square and burned. In the strong wind which was then blowing the burning 
cotton set the city on fire and destroyed it in part. 

Sherman had now flanked the city of Charleston, which so long had with- 
stood the most persistent siege, and in consequence the Confederates aban- 
doned it. Hardee fled from the city and the United States colored troops 
marched in and raised the stars and stripes upon the public buildings on 
February 19th, Sherman pressed onward to North Carolina, leaving a track 
of destruction forty miles wide, until he came to Fayetteville, March 12th, 
where he found the concentrated Confederate forces under Johnston, num- 
bering forty thousand. Sherman here halted three days for rest. After de- 
stroying the Confederate armory and the military stores, he marched on in 
two columns, as when in Georgia. The column under Slocum had a severe 
fight at Averysborough with Hardee's force of twenty thousand men, and 
won the victory, March i6th. Slocum marched on towards Goldsboro', and 
was attacked by Johnston, whom he repulsed near Bentonville, March i8th. 
Johnston had fully expected to crush Slocum before the main body could 
come to his aid, but that commander held his ground firmly, and after six 
desperate attempts to drive him back, Johnston gave up the contest at night 
fall. The next morning, the 19th, there were sixty thousand Nationals in 
front of Johnston when the latter retreated. Sherman's whole army soon 
reached Goldsboro', the point for which they had started. Sherman then 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 515 

hastened to City Point to confer with Grant and Meade, and returned to his 
command three days later. Here we will leave him for awhile. 

After closing the port of Mobile, the only harbor left to which blockade- 
runners could gain access was that of Wilmington, N. C, on the Cape Fear 
River. Near the close of 1864 a land and naval force was sent against Fort 
Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear, with a view to closing the port of 
Wilm.ington. The fleet was commanded by Admiral D. D. Porter, and was 
accompanied by General B. F. Butler with land troops. The attack 
was unsuccessful. Another attack by Porter and General Terry, early in 1865, 
resulted in the capture of the Fort and the closing the port of Wilmington 
against blockade runners. In the Gulf Department the fleet of Farragut had 
prepared the way for the fall of Mobile, which was accomplished on April 
20, 1865.' What were the army of the Potomac and General Lee's forces do- 
ing all this while ? Let us see. 

Grant was holding Petersburg and Richmond in a vise-like grip, which 
prevented Lee from going to the assistance of Johnston. He dared not send 
him any men, for in so doing he would weaken the defense of the Confederate 
capital. The besiegers were pounding away with shot and shell upon the 
fortifications around the doomed cities, daily extending the cordon of difili- 
culties, and cutting one after another of the railroads which brought food to 
them. About the end of February, Sheridan with ten thousand cavalry left 
his quarters in the Shenandoah Valley and sweeping through Staunton on 
March 2d scattered Early's forces at Waynesborough and destroyed the rail- 
road as far as Charlotteville, then dividing into two columns, one to destroy the 
railroad toward Lynchburg, and the other to destroy the James River Canal. 
Accomplishing this, he swept around Lee's left and joined the army of the 
Potomac March 27th. 

Lee now made a desperate attempt to break through Grant's lines and 
join Johnston. A most desperate assault was made March 27th upon Fort 
Steadman, in front of Petersburg, held by the Ninth Corps. The Confed- 
erates captured the fort and held it about four hours; then it was recaptured 
by the Nationals, and Lee's last chance to break the Union lines was gone. 
The Union troops were nearer the city at night than when the attack was 
made in the morning. 

A grand movement was begun on March 29th by General Sheridan with 
ten thousand cavalry, the Fifth Corps under Warren, and the Second under^ 
Hancock, while the Ninth, under Parke, held the long line of breast-works. 



5i6 OUR NATION: 

Lee saw his peril and made great haste to avert it it possible, but his army- 
was disheartened by the hard work of the winter, the want of supplies, and 
the loss of all hope. A heavy fight ensued at Five Forks, in which Sheridan 
was forced back on Dinwiddie Court House, but held his ground (April ist, 
1865). On the evening of the same day a continuous and concentrated can- 
nonade was opened upon Petersburg all along the line, and at early dawn of 
the 2d a part of the works was carried. The left had been successful, and 
when General Longstreet came down from Richmond to aid Lee he was too 
late to be of any service. Lee sent word to President Jefferson Davis: " My 
lines are broken in three places; we can hold Petersburg no longer: Rich- 
mond must be evacuated this evening." Davis and his cabinet fled to Dans- 
ville, where Lee hoped to join him, but Sheridan was in the way at Amelia 
Court House. Lee endeavored to escape and did some heavy fighting in the 
desperation of despair, but on the 9th of April, after one final charge to 
break the National lines at Appomattox Court House, he sent a flag of truce 
with an offer of surrender. Grant and Lee met under an apple tree on the 
grounds of W. McLean to make generous terms of surrender. 

Mr. Lincoln went to Richmond on April 4th, and was enthusiastically 
received by the officers high in rank, and the colored people, and then re- 
turned to Washington happy that the cruel war was over. On the evening of 
the 14th, while the patient man who had endured the most fearful strain of 
these anxious years, was quietly sitting in a private box in a public place of 
amusement at the National Capital, he was shot by an assassin, who entered 
from behind and deliberately aimed his revolver at his unsuspecting victim. 
John Wilkes Booth, a play-actor of moderate ability, and a warm secessionist, 
was the actor in this diabolical crime. The Confederate government were 
not responsible for the act, much less the brave men who had contested so 
many hard fought battles with the North. No man was found to openly 
applaud the act save here and there a solitary voice in the North, which v/as 
quickly hushed by the intense popular excitement of the times. Andrew 
Johnson took the oath of office as President, April 15, 1865, and entered at 
once upon the discharge of his duties. After some active operations in 
North Carolina General Johnston asked for an armistice, proposing to refer 
the matter of settlement of grievances to General Grant. The armistice was 
granted on the 14th day of April, but the idea that the defeated chieftain 
should dictate terms caused Grant to order a resumption of hostilities on the 
26th. This was followed by the surrender of Johnston on the same generous 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 517 

terms that had been given General Lee. Jefferson Davis attempted to escape 
from the country. The fugitive President of the Confederacy was captured 
at Irwinsville, Georgia, May nth, and sent to Fortress Monroe, and there 
he was treated with marked kindness, until he was released under bail placed 
at one million dollars. 

Lieutenant-General Grant issued a patriotic and stirring farewell address, 
to the " Soldiers of the Armies of the United States," on June 2d, 1865. The 
military prisons, where tens of thousands of Confederate prisoners of war 
were held for exchange, were opened and the men were sent to their homes 
at Government expense. The millions of liberated blacks were cared for by 
Government ; and the people, happy that peace had again dawned upon the 
distracted country, were loud in their demonstrations of joy. 

The most brilliant pageantry of modern times was held in Washington, 
consisting of a grand review of the Union armies of the Potomac and of the 
James, and of Sherman's army. This lasted two days, and then the task of 
disbanding the mighty Union army began. The rolls were made out, the arms 
were stacked, the artillery parked, and flags were furled. In an incredibly 
short time the hundreds of thousands of boys in blue had donned the garb 
of private citizens and returned to the avocations of peace. The great work 
of putting down armed resistance to the Government had been accomplished,, 
and now the peaceful question of regulating the commercial, political and 
social relations of the States late in arms would be settled in the halls of 
Congress. 

REORGANIZATION AND PROGRESS. 

ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 

What was the position of those States which had passed the ordinances- 
of secession ? The war had closed, but it had been maintained by the North 
that the States were all the while an integral part of the Union and had no 
power to dissolve their allegiance to it. What was to be done ? Should their 
territory be held as if it had been conquered from a foe ? They had en- 
deavored to sever the bonds that bound them to the Government, but had' 
been prevented by the firm hand of armed law. They now claimed the right 
to resume their old places in Congress as if they had never attempted to. 
secede. What should be done ? The Proclamation of Emancipation had' 
given freedom only to those slaves whose masters were in arms on the first 



5i8 OUR NATION: 

day of January, 1863. There were many others whose owners could hold 
them under that proclamation, but many of the slave States soon removed 
this impediment of their own account. Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, 
Missouri and Arkansas had abolished it within their borders. An amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States had been submitted to the 
several States and adopted, in 1865, by more than the required number to 
make it a part of that instrument. 

Another amendment was submitted to the States, giving the fullest rights 
of American citizenship to all native-born and naturalized citizens of the 
United States. This was made the condition for the restoration of rights to 
those men who were seeking to return to their old position of citizenship. 
The questions growing out of all this state of affairs were most delicate, and 
required the careful consideration of patriots; but the institution which had 
caused all the controversy of the past, all the bloodshed and ruin which had 
come to both sections of the country, must be thoroughly eradicated now, 
and leave no seeds to spring up in after years. So the men who had won the 
fight thought, and the men who had yielded " to the stern necessity of war " 
came to accept the situation with what grace they could, and slowly the 
work went on to its completion. 

On April 29th, 1865, President Johnson issued a proclamation removing 
certain restrictions on commercial intercourse with the Southern States. 
On May 20th provisional governors were appointed for the States of North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. An 
order for rescinding the blockade was issued the 23d of June, another to still 
further remove the restriction on inter-state commerce August 29th. State 
.prisoners were released October 12th. The privilege of the Writ of Habeas 
Corpus was restored December ist. 

The provisional governors in the States, who were anxious to do all that 
could be done to reorganize their Commonwealth, called conventions of dele- 
gates, chosen by citizens, who could take the oath required by the act of Con- 
gress. Before the session of Congress had met in December five States had 
ratified the proposed amendment to the Constitution, formed new State Con- . 
stitutions, and provided for Representatives to Congress. 

When Congress met there arose at once a conflict between the President 
and the Legislative Department. This breach widened until it became an 
open rupture. The Cabinet resigned, with the exception of the Secretary of 
War, E. M. Stanton, who was advised to remain by his friends. On April 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 519 

,;2d, 1866, the Executive issued his proclamation declaring that the civil war 
Avas at an end. Tennessee was finally restored to the Union July 23d. 

The Emperor of the French had subverted the Republic of Mexico, and 
by military power had placed and supported on a throne Maximilian, an 
archduke of Austria, as Emperor of that dominion. On the 5th of April, 
1866, our Government informed the French Emperor that the continuation 
'of the French troops in Mexico was objectionable, and at once the assurance 
came that they would be withdrawn. 

The elections throughout the Northern States showed that the people 
sustained the policy of Congress. The act conferring the elective franchise 
upon all citizens in the District of Columbia was passed December 14th. 
This was vetoed by the President, but passed over his veto by more than a 
two-thirds vote, January 7th, 1867. The same day the preliminary steps 
were taken for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United 
States, which resulted in a trial before the Senate, with the Chief Justice 
presiding, in May, 1868. 

The territory of Nebraska was admitted into the Union as a State on 
March ist, 1867. There was intense excitement over several bills which the 
President vetoed and which Congress at once passed over his veto. The 
■thirty-ninth Congress closed its session March 3d and the fortieth Congress 
.met at once. This Congress adjourned on March 31st, to meet on the first 
Wednesday in July. This was done, and then the two Houses adjourned, 
July 20th, to meet again on November 21st. In the mean time the President 
attempted to remove E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, who refused to resign, 
'General Grant was ordered to assume the office, which he did, and held it a 
short time. The controversy went on until the impeachment of the President.^ 
The trial lasted from March 5th to April 26th, when he escaped conviction 
by only one vote. Two-thirds of all the votes cast are required to convict. 
Every member was present. Thirty-five voted guilty and nineteen voted not 
guilty. 

The Secretary of State certified to the fact that the required number of 
States had adopted the XlVth amendment to the Constitution conferring 
civil rights upon all citizens, without regard to race or color. 

The work of reorganization was now completed in all the States save 
three, and the people of the South were betaking themselves to the task of 
:retrieving their ruined fortunes, and thus comparative quiet was restored. 

An important treaty with China was ratified by Congress before its ad- 



520 OUR NATION: 

journment. The Indian question had caused some discussion, and an attempt 
to transfer the conduct of these afTairs to the War Department failed. 

A fifteenth amendment was proposed by Congress February 26th, 1869, 
and submitted to the States, the requisite number of which ratified it soon 
afterwards. 

General U. S. Grant was chosen President of the United States, and 
Schuyler Colfax Vice-President, at the election of 1868, and on the 4th of 
March, 1869, took the oath of of^ce and entered upon the discharge of their 
duties. 



ADMINISTRATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

President Grant entered upon the task of finishing the incomplete 
work of reconstruction at once, and sent a special message to Congress April 
7th, 1869, in which he urged that body to adopt and maintain such measures 
as would effectually secure the civil and political rights of all persons within 
the borders of the States not yet in full relations to the Union. Both the 
Executive and Legislative Departments took every means in their power 
consistent with the provisions of the amended Constitution to restore the 
people, who were not yet represented in the National Congress, to this posi- 
tion. This was finally accomplished in 1872, when, on the 23d day of May, 
every seat that had been abdicated in 1861 by members from the Southern 
States was filled by legally elected members. On May 22d a general Amnesty 
Bill was passed by Congress, removing the disabilities imposed by the Four- 
teenth Amendment from all persons, with the exceptions of those who had' 
held positions in the National Government, the diplomatic corps, and the army 
and navy of the United States during the administration of James Buchanan. 
The political unity of the whole country was now established by law, and the 
rights of American citizenship were conferred upon all native-born and 
naturalized persons within the borders of the United States, with the excep- 
tion of the comparative few mentioned above. 

The last tie which completed the railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
was laid May loth, 1869, and marked an important event in the social and 
commercial life of the United States. By this the States on the eastern sea- 
board and the distant Pacific coasts were brought together, and a grand high- 
way opened to facilitate the overland trade from China and Japan. There 
was a general rejoicing as the last spike was driven, for communication was 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 521 

made with the entire telegraph system of the country, and the blows of the 
hammer were recorded in the telegraph offices in all parts of the land. 

An extensive insurrection arose in Cuba with which many citizens of the 
United States were in close sympathy, but the Government wisely main- 
tained neutrality, and measures were taken to suppress all fillibustering. A 
number of gunboats ordered by the Spanish Government were detained in 
the United States on suspicion that they were to be used against Peru. They 
were released. There arose much excitement (and war was threatened) 
growing out of the seizure of the steamship Virginius in Cuba while flying 
the American flag, under the belief that she was bringing arms and supplies 
to the Cuban insurgents. A number of her passengers and her captain were 
shot by the Spanish authorities. The whole matter was finally settled by 
diplomacy. The Virginius was sunk at sea while being conveyed to the 
United States in a gale off Cape Fear. 

There was a violation of the neutrality laws in 1870 by a large band of 
Irishmen known as Fenians, who assembled to the number of three thousand 
on the borders of Canada in the State of Vermont. They invaded that 
province with the intention of freeing Ireland by some vague plan. The two 
governments suppressed the trouble, and our adopted Irish citizens have not 
since then attempted to violate the neutrality laws in force between the two 
countries. 

The United States had long desired some territory in the West Indies, 
and in 1869 a treaty was made with Hayti by which that island was to be 
annexed to the United States; but the Senate did not ratify it, and thus the 
movement in that direction ceased to be a government measure. The survey 
of a proposed inter-oceanic canal across the Isthmus of Darien was made 
by an exploration under Commander Self ridge in 1870. 

In the year 1871 two of the most destructive fires that ever visited this 
country amounting to a national calamity occurred. In October of that year 
the greater portion of Chicago was swept by the flames, which raged for forty- 
eight hours and devastated two thousand acres of territory and destroyed 
two hundred million dollars* worth of property. This disaster called forth 
the sympathy and material aid of the civilized and commercial world. The 
next month, November, the fire-fiend swept away the very center of Boston, 
destroying seventy-five million dollars worth of property. 

President Grant found at the opening of his first term of office the ques- 
tion of the Alabama claims an open one with the English Government. A 



522 OUR NATION: 

joint commission was proposed by the United States, and England agreed to- 
it. This "joint high commission" met at Washington May 8th, 1871, and 
completed a treaty referring the whole matter at issue to a court of arbitra- 
tion. 

This treaty was at once ratified by both countries. There were four im- 
portant questions involved: 1st. The settlement of all claims by either 
government growing out of losses sustained during the Civil War. 2d. The 
permanent settlement of the American coast fisheries. 3d. The free naviga- 
tion of certain rivers, including the St. Lawrence, and, 4th. The settlement 
of the boundary between Vancouver's Island and the mainland on the Pacific 
coast. The first question was referred to a tribunal of arbitration, which met 
at Geneva, Switzerland, December 15th, 1871, and adjourned to June 15th, 
1872. The final meeting of this tribunal was held September 14th, 1872. By- 
their award Great Britain was to pay to the United States the sum of fifteen 
million five hundred thousand dollars in gold, as an award for losses sustained 
by the depredations of the Alabama and other British-built privateers during 
the Civil War. The money was paid the following year. The fourth ques- 
tion was referred to the Emperor of Germany, who decided in favor of the 
United States, giving to that Republic the island of San Juan, which had 
been in dispute. 

The other important measures and events of General Grant's first term, 
were the adoption of weather signals by means of the Morse telegraph under 
control of the National Signal Service. This has proved of inestimable value 
to American commerce and agriculture. The apportionment of representa- 
tives to Congress, by which there was one representative to every one hundred 
and thirty-seven thousand eight hundred population, making two hundred 
and eighty-three members in all. A new pension law was passed in aid of all 
Union soldiers who had suffered the loss of limbs or health in the late war. 
Early in 1873 the franking privilege was abolished, by which much money 
was saved to the Post-Office Department. In 1872 an important embassy of 
twenty-one officials of the Chinese Government visited the United States, 
and the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia also came to this country. Steps were 
taken to celebrate the centennial anniversary of American independence, 
which would occur in 1876, by a display at Philadelphia of the industries of 
all nations. 

The political campaign of 1872 was begun in May by the nomination of 
Horace Greeley for President and B. Gratz Brown for Vice-President by a 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 523 

convention of "liberal Republicans." The Democratic party coalesced \vith 
them and ratified the same nominations on July 9th. The Republicans re- 
nominated General Grant for President and Henry Wilson for Vice-President 
June 5th. The election resulted in retaining General Grant for a second 
term and making Mr. Wilson Vice-President. 

The relation of the troublesome Mormon question to the general govern- 
ment agitated the public mind to some extent during this time. The system 
of polygamy was strongly intrenched in the very heart of the Continent, and 
a petition signed by twenty-five hundred women of Utah in its favor was^ 
presented to Congress. The elective franchise had been given to the female 
sex, and out of a large vote in favor of a State Constitution nearly one-half 
of the ballots were cast by women. There had been population enough in 
Utah for some time to constitute a State, but Congress refused to admit it 
with the system of polygamy. 

The second term of General Grant as President began March 4th, 1873,. 
and his nominations for Cabinet officers v/ere at once confirmed by the Senate. 
The country was prosperous and rapidly recuperating from the sad effects of 
the war. The improvement in the feelings between the South and the North 
was very marked, growing out of the leniency with which the Government 
treated those lately in arms against it. 

The Indian troubles assumed unusual proportions during the second 
term of Grant's administration. The humane policy inaugurated at the be- 
ginning of his first term had not resulted in all that was hoped for it. The 
trouble seemed to be in the fact that the Government treated the tribes of 
Indians as distinct nations, and made treaties with them, appointed agents 
and commissioners, supplied them with bounties and subsidies, and compelled 
them to remain upon reservations set apart for them. The men who were 
acting as Indian agents were not always true men and caused ill feelings on 
the part of the red men. Not far from three hundred thousand Indians are 
living in the States, of whom about one third are civilized or half civilized. 
The remainder are in a savage state. 

General Custer was sent into the Dakota region in 1874 with a military and 
exploring expedition, and gave such a glowing account of the country as to 
excite the mining population to enter and prospect for the precious metals, 
in great numbers. At the close of 1874 a bill was introduced into Congress 
to extinguish as much of the title to the Black Hills reservation as lay within 
the territory of Dakota. This greatly irritated the chiefs of the Sioux, for 



524 OUR NATION: 

they, with great show of justice, regarded it as a step toward robbing them of 
their lawful domain. A national geologist, guarded by a large military escort, 
went to this region early in 1875, and the Indians began preparations for war. 
A strong force of troops was sent to the Yellowstone region early in 1876, 
and were arranged into three divisions, General A. H. Terry in chief com- 
mand. The three columns were commanded respectively by Generals Terry, 
'Cooke and Gibbon, intended to form the meshes of a net into which they ex- 
ipected to ensnare Sittmg Bull, the warlike chief of the Sioux. General 
Gibbon had a fight with the Indians on June 17th, when he was obliged to 
fall back. General Custer, with General Terry and his staff, joined Gibbon 
on the Yellowstone, near Rose Bud Creek. Custer was ordered to make an 
attack with his force, which consisted of the Seventh United States Cavalry. 
He and Gibbon advanced to the Big Horn River, and Custer, coming up with 
the Indians first, gave them battle without waiting for Gibbon, and falling 
into an Indian ambush was killed, with the greater part of his men. Many- 
gallant officers and men were slain in this terrible encounter, including two of 
Custer's brothers and a brother-in-law. 

This w^as on June 25th, 1876. At once the Government sent a large 
force to this region. The Sioux evaded a contest with them and the troops 
went into winter quarters. Sitting Bull with his followers retired to the 
British Possessions, whither the United States troops could not follow him. 

The Government had a war with the Nez-Perce (nose-pierced) Indians 
in 1875. They had been a peaceable and friendly tribe since the time of 
Jefferson, when the early explorers had come to their country. They were 
living happy and contented in the fertile Walla-Walla Valley. When agents 
were first sent to them they had been a little dissatisfied, but there had been 
no outbreak. Now the settlers had begun to crowd upon them, and treaties 
were made with a part of the tribe to remove to a reservation upon the Gov- 
ernment paying them a certain fixed annuity. But an old chief, by the name 
of Joseph, who had taken no part in the treaty, refused to leave, and in 1873 
Grant had ordered that they should not be molested. When the avaricious 
whites began to encroach upon the domains of this tribe the President was 
induced to revoke this order, and in 1875 a force was sent to compel them to 
move at a given time. Before the time came Joseph became incensed at the 
encroachments of the white settlers, and about twenty white people were 
murdered. War was begun, and lasted until the Indians were forced again 
to make a huraihating treaty in 1877. These measures embittered that part 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 525 

•of the tribe which had not engaged in the war, and they became enemies of 
the Government. 

Sitting Bull, who had gone to the British Possessions with his warriors 
in 1876, was an unwelcome guest there, but he remained stubborn and sullen. 
The United States sent several commissioners to treat with him, but he re- 
garded them with contempt until 1880. The British authorities had informed 
him that if he attempted to cross into the United States with hostile inten- 
tions that Government would join with the United States in making war upon 
him. Finally he offered, in 1880, to surrender with his braves, and a thousand 
of them did so in the early part of 1881, but their wily chieftain did not give 
himself up until some time later. Colorado, the " Centennial State," was 
admitted into the Union July 4th, 1876. 

The year 1876 was the " centennial year" and the year for a Presidential 
■election. The celebration of the opening new year was very general through- 
out the United States, with bonfires and the ringing of bells as the old year 
and century passed. The events of the political arena were the impeach- 
ment of Mr Belknap, Secretary of War, for maladministration of ofifice. He 
was acquitted in August. A resolution for submitting another amendment 
"to the Constitution was passed in the House, but defeated in the Senate. 
At the end of June a resolution to provide for the coinage of ten millions of 
isilver currency was passed, and very quickly that metal became plenty. The 
fractional paper currency, which had come in use during the war, at once dis- 
appeared from circulation. On June i6th Rutherford B. Hayes was nominated 
by the Republican party for the Presidency and William A. Wheeler for Vice- 
President. On the 27th of the same month the Democratic party nominated 
Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks for the same offices respectively, 
and a most exciting canvass was carried on until November, of which we will 
speak hereafter. 

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 

There had been a wide-spread desire to celebrate the centennial year in 
some way in which all nations could rejoice with the young Republic of the 
West. It was proposed to hold a gigantic exposition of the arts, manufac- 
tures and industries of all nations at Philadelphia. Invitations were sent to 
other governments and were very generally accepted. The early inception 
of the plan was set forth by a communication of the Franklin Institute to 



526 OUR NATION: 

the Mayor and other authorities of Philadelphia asking for the use of Fair- 
mount Park for an international exhibition. A committee of seven members 
of the municipal government proceeded to lay the subject before Congress. 
At the same time the Legislature of Pennsylvania sent a committee to Wash- 
ington for the same purpose. On March 3d, 1871, an act was passed em- 
powering the President to appoint a commission for superintending the 
exhibition, and an alternate commission from each State and Territory in the 
Union. These commissioners met at Philadephia on March 4th, 1872, and 
when twenty-four States and three Territories were represented. " The 
United States Centennial Commission," was organized by the choice of Joseph 
R. Hawley, of Connecticut, as president, with five vice-presidents, a temporary 
secretary, an executive committee and a solicitor. John S. Campbell after- 
ward became permanent secretary. A Centennial Board of Finance was 
appointed in 1873, and on the 4th day of July of that year the authorities 
formally surrendered the grounds to the commission. 

There were five grand buildings erected, the Main Building, Art Gallery, 
Machinery Hall, Agricultural Hall and Horticultural Hall. The applications 
for space from foreign governments was so great that it was seen that the 
work done by women would be thrown out or lost in the maze of other ex- 
hibits, and therefore the women of America raised thirty thousand dollars to 
build a Woman's Pavilion. The first five buildings named covered, in the 
aggregate, seventy-five acres of ground, and cost the sum of four million four 
hundred and forty-four thousand dollars. There were besides these mentioned 
a number of other buildings erected by the several States and Territories and 
by foreign nations, as well as by individual exhibitors, in all amounting to 
one hundred and ninety. 

At the beginning of 1876 there were lacking funds to the amount of one 
and one half million dollars to make it a success upon the plan that every 
one interested thought should be carried out. Congress advanced the monej% 
with the provison that it should be returned out of the proceeds of the Ex- 
position. 

The exhibition was formally opened on the designated day, May lOth, 
with imposing ceremonies. The President of the United States received the 
presentation of the grounds and buildings from the President of the Centen- 
nial Commission, and the Stars and Stripes were unfurled upon the Main 
Building, to signify that the Exposition was opened to the public. The total 
number of admissions to the grounds was 9,910,965, at an admission fee of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 527 

fifty cents each. In the month of October there were 2,663,911 persons 
passed the several gates. Thirty-six States had exhibits, and most of the 
foreign governments. We will speak of the material effects of this Exposi- 
tion further on. 

The day of the national election came, and the result was in great doubt, 
owing to two sets of returns from each of the States of Louisiana, Florida 
and South Carolina. Both parties claimed the presidency, and for the first 
time in the history of the country each party claimed the election of its 
candidate. One hundred and eighty-five votes in the Electoral College were 
necessary to a choice. It was at once conceded that Mr. Tilden had one 
hundred and eighty-four. Representative men from both parties went to the 
questionable States to watch the official counting of the votes. Excitement 
ran high, and there were muttered threats of revolution. The United States 
troops in Louisiana and South Carolina were under orders November loth to 
be in instant readiness to preserve the peace. The air of Washington was 
filled by mutual accusations and charges of fraud. The way to settle the 
matter in such a contingency was not clearly defined by the Constitution, 
and it was at length agreed to submit the decision of the question to an 
Electoral Commission, composed of an equal number of both parties. A 
committee similarly constituted was to report a bill to put this in effect. On 
January i8th, 1877, they reported the bill, which provided that five members 
from the House and five from the Senate, with five justices of the Supreme 
Court, should constitute the Commission, to be presided over by the justice 
longest in commission. Both parties agreed that the decision of the board 
should be final. The bill was passed and signed by the President on January 
29th. The next day the Senate appointed Messrs. Edmonds, Morton, Fre- 
linghuysen, Thurman and Bayard. The first three were Republicans, the 
others were Democrats. The House of Representatives appointed Messrs. 
Payne, Hunton, Abbot, Garfield, and Hoar, the first three of whom were 
Democrats, and the others Republicans. Associate Justices Clifford, Miller, 
Field, and Strong were appointed, and they chose Joseph P. Bradley for the 
fifth. They met in the Hall of Representatives on February ist. The com- 
mission did not reach its final decision until March 3d, when they declared 
Rutherford B. Hayes duly elected President of the United States. 



528 OUR NATION: 

ADMINISTRATION OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

The nineteenth President was inaugurated March 5th, 1877, Chief Jus- 
tice Waite administering the oath of ofifice. Hayes nominated his Cabinet, 
and they were at once confirmed by the Senate. He began with a kindly, 
concihatory pohcy toward the South, and endeavored by every means to 
produce the best of feelings among the citizens of the distracted States. He 
appointed Mr. Key, of Tennessee, one of the military leaders in the Con- 
federate army, Postmaster-General. The United States troops were removed 
from the Southern States, and left the management of the public affairs in 
the hands of their own civil leaders. He pronounced in favor of civil service 
reform. An extra session of the forty-fifth Congress had to be called 
(October 15th, 1878) to provide for a deficiency of $35,000,000, which had not 
been appropriated to pay the expenses of military service. The object was 
not attained, for debates of an exciting partisan character consumed the 
time, and showed a disposition to block the wheels of government. A bill 
opposed to Chinese emigration was passed by Congress and vetoed by the 
President, and the opposition, having the power, failed to pass the appropria- 
tion bills. Another special session was called, to convene on March i8th, 
1879, when the House passed appropriation bills with such obnoxious pro- 
visions for extraneous matters that the President vetoed them, after which 
the bills were passed with the unsatisfactory measures omitted, and he signed 
them. This session adjourned July ist. 

There was an immense exodus of negroes from the Lower Mississippi 
States and the Carolinas to Kansas and Indiana in 1879, which caused Con- 
gress to appoint a committee to inquire into its cause. The results obtained 
did not prove in any way satisfactory. 

Specie payment was resumed January ist, 1879, af-^r having been sus- 
pended for eighteen years. The business of the country had been in a de- 
pressed condition since the great panic of 1873, but it now began to rapidly 
improve. In opposition to this measure there arose a " Greenback party," 
which clamored for an unlimited issue of irredeemable greenbacks, as the 
national paper currency was then called. They prophesied t"he financial ruin 
of the country to result from a specie currency, and have waited to the present 
time to see it come, but instead the country has been prospering in all de- 
partments. There was a fearful outbreak of the Ute Indians in 1879. The 
government agent, N. C. Meeker, was murdered, and for a time a general 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 529 

Indian uprising was feared. Major Thornburg was sent against them, but 
he and ten of his men were killed, and the rest were surrounded for six days. 
The troops intrenched and held out until succor arrived, and soon the Utes 
were put down. A joint resolution, having for its design the enfranchisement 
of women, was introduced into the House of Representatives on January 
30th, 1880. The same in substance was presented to the Senate January 19th. 
It is known as the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution. 

The project of an inter-oceanic canal was revived by a visit to this 
country, in 1880, of M. de Lesseps, the engineer of the Suez Canal. He 
examined the Isthmus, and declared his belief in the feasibility of the scheme. 
The President sent a message to Congress March 8th, 1880, in which he 
apprised the world that it is the duty of the United States to assert and 
maintain such supervision over an enterprise of this kind as will protect our 
national interests. 

The presidential election of 1880 ^'as one of intense interest, and party 
spirit ran high. There were four candidates in the field. James A. Garfield 
and Chester A. Arthur were nominated by the Republicans on June 2d. On 
the 9th, the Greenback party nominated James B. Weaver and Benjamin J. 
Chambers. The Prohibition party put in nomination Neal Dow and A. H. 
Thompson on June 17th. The Democratic party assembled in Chicago on 
June 22d, and nominated Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English. 
There is another fact which, if not mentioned in history, would be soon for- 
gotten. There was another party in the field, whose candidates were John 
W. Phelps and Samuel C. Pomeroy. It was the Anti-masonic party. All 
of the four candidates for President had been generals in the Union army. 
The canvass was particularly spirited and bitter. The excitement ran high, 
and many rumors were put in circulation which had no foundation in fact. 
James A. Garfield was elected by an unquestionable majority. On the 28th 
day of February the President elect left his home at Mentor, Ohio, and in 
company with his family proceeded to Washington, accompanied by his aged 
mother. 

A special session of the Senate was called to confirm the nominations of 
the new President. 



530 OUR NATION: 

ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The inaugural address of President Garfield met with the general appro- 
bation of the country. The chief points were : equal protection for all with- 
out respect to race or color; universal education as a safeguard of suffrage; 
an honest coinage; the funding of the national debt at a lower rate of in- 
terest; the prohibition of polygamy and the regulation of the civil service. 
These were well received by all parties and the administration started off with 
high hopes. The Senate of the United States was so evenly divided between 
the two great parties that at the beginning of the administration of General 
Garfield there was quite an animated contest over the appointment of officers 
for that body. This caused a dead-lock for a number of weeks. There had 
been a gentleman nominated by the President for the of^ce of Collector of 
the port of New York, who was distasteful to the senior Senator from that 
State, Roscoe Conklin, and because the Senate confirmed the nomination the 
latter, with his colleague, resigned and left that great State unrepresented in 
the United States Senate till an election of their successors. The Legislature 
of New York was in session at Albany, and at once there began an exciting 
canvass for the election of the United States Senators. This lasted for several 
weeks and finally resulted in the retirement of Mr. Conklin and his colleague 
to private life and the election of two other gentlemen to take their places. 
In the mean time Congress had been performing its regular work. A treaty 
with China concerning immigration and commerce; with the United States 
of Columbia in regard to extradition of criminals; a consular convention wath 
Italy; a convention with Morocco and a reciprocal treaty with Japan con- 
cerning shipwrecked sailors had received the attention of Government. On 
May 1 8th the Senate postponed the resolution reasserting the Monroe doc- 
trine. 

The country was startled on the eve of a general wide-spread celebration 
of the anniversary of American independence by the news that the President 
of the United States had been shot by an assassin and would probably die. 
This diabolical crime had been committed at the passenger depot of the Balti- 
more and Potomac Railroad at Washington on Saturday morning, July 2d. 
Hon. J. G. Blaine, the Secretary of State, and the President were walking 
arm-in-arm through the waiting-room when two pistol shots were fired in 
quick succession from the rear. One shot penetrated the President's body, 
and he was carried wounded to a room in the second story of the depot, and 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 531 

as soon as possible removed to the White House. The assassin was at once 
arrested by a police officer and taken to the jail. He proved to be Charles 
J. Guiteau, a man of great self-conceit and little ability, who had been for 
months beseeching the President and the Secretary of State for an official 
appointment, and at length, becoming incensed at not receiving the attention 
he thought he merited, he resolved upon revenge. It may have been that 
his unbalanced mind was inflamed by the discussions going on in the Repub- 
lican party. The President^ before leaving the depot where he had been 
shot, caused a telegram to be sent to Mrs. Garfield, who was at Long Branch, 
to relieve her of any undue anxiety in regard to his condition. It was in 
these words: 

" The President desires me to say to you from him that he has been seriously hurt, how seriously 
he cannot yet say. He is himself and hopes you will come to him soon. He sends his love to you. 

A. F. Rockwell." 

Contrary to the expectations of the attending physicians the President did 
not die at once, but seemed to rally, and hopes were entertained of his final 
recovery. The deepest gloom was over the nation, and North and South 
alike felt the fearful shock of the blow. The celebrations which were planned 
for July 4th in all parts of the country were abandoned. Messages of sym- 
pathy and condolence came from all parts of the civilized world. Crowned 
heads in several countries, American citizens in foreign lands, every form of 
association, commercial, social, benevolent, political and religious, vied with 
each other in tendering the deepest expressions of sympathy in this hour of 
sadness. Most heartfelt and touching were the kind words sent by the 
widowed Queen of Great Britain, Then followed the long and painful struggle 
for life which lasted for weary weeks. There were repeated relapses and 
rallyings, which caused the nation to alternate between the hope of final 
recovery and the despair of sorrow, until September i6th he had an alarmin-g 
relapse. He was at Long Branch, where he had been carried in the most 
careful manner by a special train from Washington to the very door of the 
cottage where he was to die. The struggle for life had been heroic, persistent 
and patient, but the President must die. At 10:55 Monday, September 19th, 
he drew his last breath, and thus passed away the man who had risen from 
the humble position of a driver on a canal to the proudest station in the gift 
of a great people. This sad ending of an eventful life had filled the country 
with gloom and foreboding. Instantly the painful news was telegraphed all 
-over the world, and the messages of condolence and kindest sympathy poured 



532 OUR NATION: 

in from every quarter of the globe. The noble Queen of England sent a 
message to her not less noble sister in America, Mrs. Garfield, in the follow- 
ing words : 

' ' Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel for you at this moment. May God support and 
comfort you as He alone can. The Queen. 

The Cabinet at once summoned Vice-President Arthur to take the oath 
of ofBce without delay, and he did so at a little after midnight, on September 
20th. The oath was administered by Judge John R. Brady, of the Supreme 
Court, in New York. The remains of the dead President were conveyed to 
Washington, where they lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol for two 
days. The floral tributes were of the most beautiful and expensive kind ; 
and throughout the entire country the tokens of mourning were displayed 
from public and private buildings. The mansions of the rich and the homes 
of the humble poor; the large commercial palaces of business and the humble 
stand of the street vender; the massive factory of the wealthy corporation 
and the shop of the mechanic, all alike were decked with some emblem of 
mourning. The South vied with the North, and the whole country united 
in their heartfelt expressions of sorrow. 

ADMINISTRATION OF CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

President Arthur was formally inaugurated in Washington on Sep- 
tember 22d. The oath was re-administered by Chief Justice Waite in the 
presence of Mr. Garfield's Cabinet, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, and some 
military and civil ofificers. He then delivered a brief inaugural address, and 
immediately issued a proclamation appointing Monday, September 26th, as 
a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. He called an extra session of the 
Senate, to meet October loth. 

The body of the late President was removed from Washington, after 
appropriate religious services, and conveyed by a military guard, accom- 
panied by a Congressional Committee and prominent citizens. Among the 
many emblems which were presented was a floral ladder, on the successive 
rounds of which were the words, " Chester, Hiram, Williams, Ohio State 
Senator, Colonel, General, Congressman, United States Senator, President 
and Martyr." These names indicated the upward steps by which James A. 
Garfield had advanced in his public career. Chester was the seat of an 
obscure seminary where he began his education. Hiram is the name of an 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 533-, 

insignificant college where he was a teacher, and Williams is the college where 
he graduated. The other titles explain themselves. 

The last public services over the remains were performed in the presence 
of two hundred thousand citizens in the cemetery at Cleveland, Ohio, There 
were services in all the cities and towns in the country at the same time. On 
the 23d of October the body was quietly transferred from the receiving tomb 
to the private vault of Captain L. T. Schofield, in Lake View Cemetery. 

The special session of the Senate met October loth, and the President's 
nominations for Cabinet officers were confirmed. They were as follows : 
E. T. Frelinghuysen for Secretary of State; Chas. J. Folger, Secretary of 
Treasury; Samuel J. Kirkwood, Secretary of the Interior; Robert T. Lincoln, 
Secretary of War; Wm. A. Hunt, Secretary of Navy; Benjamin H. Brewster, 
Attorney-General, and Timothy O. Howe, Postmaster-General. Other nom- 
inations were confirmed and the routine business of the Executive Depart- 
ment, which, to some extent, had been interrupted by the illness and death 
of the late President, was resumed. The Senate had considerable trouble in 
organization, growing out of the even division of the two great parties. It 
ended in the election of David Davis, of Illinois, as President /r^ tempore of 
the Senate. 

The centennial celebration of tiie surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
at the close of the War of the Revolution, was an occasion of great national 
interest. A grand naval review and a military display on shore, with historical 
addresses and public festivities, were the main features of the occasion. The 
French Government was represented by a large number of officials and a 
national vessel. Among the distinguished guests were lineal descendants of 
Count D'Estaing, Lafayette and Rochambeau, who had aided the patriots 
in their early struggle. Other nations of Europe were also represented. 
The President and Cabinet, with the diplomatic corps of the nations of the 
world, took part in the occasion. The celebration began October i8th, 1881, 
and lasted for a number of days. 

The trial of Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was begua in 
November of the same year. The widest latitude was given the accused to 
present his defense. The counsel were allowed ample time to prepare their 
answer, and the brother-in-law of the prisoner, associated with Mr. Reed, his 
counsel, undertook the case for him. After a fair, impartial and lengthy trial; 
in which the plea of insanity was strongly urged, Guiteau was found guilty 
of murder and sentenced to be hanged on June 30th, 1882. Two ineffectual 



534 OUR NATION: 

attempts to shoot the prisoner were made during the progress of the case; 
the first by a civilian, whose name was Wm. Jones, on the 26th of November, 
who shot at him while being conveyed in a van from the court house to the 
jail. The second attempt was by Sergeant Mason, of the military guard, who 
shot through the window of the prisoner's cell and failed to injure him. 

They were both brought to trial and punished as their cases demanded. 
A number of unsuccessful measures were taken by the family and legal 
advisers of Guiteau to set aside the verdict, obtain a new trial, or induce 
President Arthur to interpose his executive clemency in favor of the con- 
demned man, but all of no avail, and on the appointed day he was hanged. 
To the last he displayed his egotism and excessive self-conceit by making a 
characteristic speech from the gallows on which he was executed on June 
30th, 1882. 

The first regular session of the Forty-seventh Congress met in December, 
1 88 1, and entered upon a long and heated debate upon political questions. 
The people were demanding a revision of the tariff and a reduction of the 
burdens of taxation occasioned by the immense war debt and the heavy ex- 
penditures of government. They were demanding reform in the civil service 
and purity in the administration of public affairs. The people of the Pacific 
States were clamoring for a national law to prevent the immigration of 
Chinese into the country. The opportunity for Congress to distinguish itself 
in passing measures of great public benefit was never more plainly presented. 
The session lasted nearly eight months, and when, at last, it adjourned, the 
people felt a sense of relief, for its doings had been generally unsatis- 
factory. 

Early in 1882 the trial of persons connected with that branch of the 
Postal Service known as " The Star Route System," was begun at Washington 
and continued several months. They were charged with gross frauds. An 
incumbent of the General Post office and others in official stations were im- 
plicated, but through defects in the jury system most of them escaped pun- 
ishment. 

The President, who favored Civil Service reform, recommended in his 
annual message (Dec, 1881) action upon it. He also recommended legisla- 
tion looking to the suppression of Polygamy in the Territory of Utah, and 
offered valuable suggestions concerning the treatment of the Indians with 
a view to their ultimate civilization. This latter topic, so important to the 
future welfare of our country and that race, still commands the attention of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 535 

the people. Much has been done in that direction, but much yet remains to 
be done to accomplish the desirable result. 

At different periods changes had been made in the apportionment of 
population to each representative in Congress, so as to keep the number of 
Representatives (325) nearly the same. The apportionment made by Con- 
gress in 1882, gives a representative to about 137,000 inhabitants. 

Their peculiar social condition and habits, with their cheap labor, made the 
Chinese, who had been rapidly locating on the Pacific coast, obnoxious to the 
people of that section, and a movement to exclude them from the country was 
inaugurated. In compliance with this demand, and notwithstanding the Bur- 
lingame treaty, an act was passed by Congress in 1882 excluding the Chinese 
for ten years. Thus was opened the great question, which still agitates the 
■country, of restricting immigration and shutting out undesirable residents. 
An act for the suppression of polygamy in Utah also became a law. 

This session of Congress closed on the 8th of August. Between 6,000 
and 7,000 bills had been presented to it, but only 251 public acts, 233 private 
acts, and 84 joint resolutions became laws. Commissioners were appointed 
to negotiate a commercial treaty with Mexico, composed of Gen. U. S. Grant 
and William H. Trescott. That duty was soon performed, and the treaty was 
ratified in March, 1884. It provided that the chief agricultural products of 
Mexico should be included in the free list of the tariff of the United States. 
The schedule of articles to be admitted free into Mexico from the United 
States comprised five great classes of manufactures and the chief mineral 
products. 

A commission appointed under the Anti-Polygamy act made a registry 
of the voters in the Utah Territory. The Chairman of the Committee re- 
ported, in the autumn of 1882, that one thousand polygamists of both sexes 
had been disfranchised. 

The Fall election in 1882 changed the poHtical complexion of Congress, 
•giving to the House of Representatives a Democratic majority of jj. This 
was largely brought about by the disaffection of a considerable number of 
" independent " Republicans, who were dissatisfied with their party methods. 
In the State of New York this disaffection was most remarkable, the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor of that State — Grover Cleveland — being elected 
by almost 200,000 majority. 

The two hundredth anniversary of the landing of William Penn in America 
was celebrated at Philadelphia, with imposing ceremonies. Penn was a 



536 OUR NATION: 

leader of the sect called Quakers, who oppose war, and yet the chief feature 
of that celebration was a great military and naval display. 

The final session of the Forty-seventh Congress was opened on Dec. 4, 

1882. In his annual message President Arthur made prominent the topics' 
of Civil Service reform and revenue reform. A bill for the promotion of Civil 
Service reform was introduced into the Senate and became a law in January,. 

1883. Commissioners appointed under it entered upon their duties. The 
corrupt method of assessing ofifice-holders for election funds was forbidden 
by an act, in accordance with a decision of the United States Supreme Court, 

The Forty-seventh Congress expired on March 4, 1883. It had reduced 
the rate of letter postage to two cents. It had also passed a joint resolution 
for the termination of the treaty with Great Britain concerning the fisheries.. 

A commission was appointed to sit during the recess of Congress to in- 
quire into the condition of labor in the United States, with a view to suggest 
a solution of the great problem of the true relations between labor and capital, 
which has so long occupied the attention of statesmen and publicists, and 
which had been often alluded to in the debates during the session just clos- 
ing. That committee sat in New York in the Fall of 1883, but accomplished 
no important result. 

Two wonderful achievements of engineering skill took place in the United 
States in the year 1883. In May of that year a great Suspension Bridge 
over the East River, connecting the sister cities of New York and Brooklyn 
by a lofty high-way, was completed. President Arthur and Governor Cleve- 
land and many other distinguished persons were present on the occasion. 
During the same year the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed by join- 
ing the eastern and western portions, in the territory of Montana, in August. 

Two important centennials were celebrated in 1883. At Newburg on 
the Hudson and at Fishkill Village, the event of the disbanding of the Con- 
tinental Army was celebrated early in June, with imposing ceremonies. In- 
timately connected with this event, was the evacuation by the British army 
of the city of New York on November 25, 1783. The centennial of this, 
event was celebrated in the city of New York, on which occasion a bronze 
statue of Washington, colossal in size, and standing in front of the United 
States Sub-treasury building, was unveiled. 

The first session of the Forty-eighth Congress began on December 3, 
1883, when John G. Carlisle of Kentucky was chosen Speaker of the House 
of Representatives. In his annual message, the President recommended that 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 537 

some form of civil government should be given to the people of Alaska; also 
a repeal of the law conferring upon the people of Utah territorial power, 
and the " assumption by Congress of the entire political control of the Terri- 
tory, and the establishment of a Commission with such powers and duties as 
shall be delegated to it by law." 

The government was embarrassed at the beginning of 1884 by a surplus of 
money in the treasury. It vvas found that it was receiving from $75,000,000 to 
$150,000,000 from taxes levied on the people, more than it needed for current 
■expenditures. The grave question arose. What shall be done to decrease the 
receipts or to dispose of the surplus ? Four plans were proposed to Congress. 
The extreme Protectionists proposed to abolish the tax on whiskey and 
tobacco, but leave the duty on foreign imports untouched. Another method 
proposed was to divide the surplus among the States. A third proposed to 
divide the whiskey and tobacco tax among the States; and a fourth proposed 
to expend the surplus in measures for reviving the shipping and export trade. 
The question yet remains unsolved. 

The Mormon problem has occupied the attention of the people and their 
representatives ever since it was proposed. Measures have been adopted 
which have greatly restrained the evil, and promise to lead to a final suppres- 
sion of polygamy in the United States in the near future. 

Earnest efforts have been made for the suppression of a more gigantic 
and destructive evil, that of the Liquor Traffic and its consequence, wide- 
spread intemperance. The Census report of 1880 showed that in one year, 
ending in June, 1880, $900,000,000 were paid by the people of the United States 
for intoxicating drinks, or more than as much as they paid for their bread 
and meat. This great evil caused the active efforts qf an organized Prohibi- 
tion Party, and the rapid increase of its adherents. It caused the formation 
in the Republican Party of an "Anti-Saloon League." 

Efforts for the enlightenment of our people by decreasing the amount of 
illiteracy have been made. In the Spring of 1884, a bill was introduced into 
Congress appropriating the sum of $77,000,000 to be distributed among the 
States and Territories, in proportion to their illiteracy, on the basis of the 
Census of 1880, the payments of the money to extend over eight years. 
Nothing has been done. The test oath, called the "iron-clad oath," required 
of all persons before assuming the functions of any public office, civil or mili- 
tary, who might be suspected of having engaged in the Rebellion of 1861-65, 
was repealed. 



538 OUR NATION. 

Preparations for the presidential campaign, in 1884, were made between. 
May 29 and July 23, when National Conventions of the four political parties 
then in the field were held. The Greenback convention, assembled at Indian- 
apolis on May 29, nominated Benjamin F. Butler for President, and A. M. 
West for Vice-President. The Republican convention assembled at Chicago, 
on June 3d, nominated James G. Blaine for President, and John A. Logan for 
Vice-President. The Democratic convention assembled at Chicago July 8th, 
and nominated Grover Cleveland for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks 
for Vice-President. The Prohibition convention met at Pittsburg, Penn., on 
July 23d, and nominated John P. St. John, Ex-governor of Kansas, for 
President, and William Daniel for Vice-President. Cleveland and Hendricks, 
were elected. 

The political canvass in 1884 was very warmly carried on. Independent 
Republicans, anxious for reform in the civil service, refused to vote for the 
candidate of their Party. Disaffection in the Republican Party was wide- 
spread, and several Republican newspapers supported the Democratic 
nominee. The aim of the Prohibition Party was and is to obtain a national 
law forbidding the manufacture, importation and sale of intoxicating liquors 
as a beverage. They polled a large vote, which, with the votes for Cleveland 
of the disaffected Republican party, secured his election by a small majority. 

Lieutenant Greeley of the United States Navy and a scientific party had 
been sent to the Polar regions by their government to establish a post for 
scientific observations at a high latitude. Failing to receive supplies in the 
autumn of 1883, Greeley established a permanent camp on West Greenland. 
Early in 1884 his supplies were few and very soon starvation began. Relief 
vessels were sent to their rescue, and when discovered on June 23d 17 of 
the party of 25 had perished. The survivors were brought to the United 
States; among them Lieutenant Greeley. 

Another catastrophe to an American party in Polar waters had recently 
occurred. The Steamship ym;/;/r/'/r had been sent to the Arctic regions, under 
Captain James H. DeLong, of the U. S. Navy. The vessel was not heard 
from in about two years. She was wrecked on the coast of Siberia. Captain 
De Long and some of his companions had reached the icebound shores, where 
he and nearly all of his party perished from starvation. 

The French people, chiefly in commemoration of the emancipation of 
the slaves in the United States, presented to our government an immensely 
colossal statue made of copper, of " Liberty enlightening the World." It was 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 539 

executed of beaten copper by Bartholdi, an eminent sculptoir. The corner- 
stone of the pedestal was laid on an island in the harbor of New York in 
August, 1884. The height of the pedestal and statue is about 300 feet. The 
statue, designed for a lighthouse, is on Bedloe's Island, where it was unveiled, 
with imposing ceremonies, in October, 1885. 

The visit of M. De Lesseps to the United States and the Isthmus of 
Panama, in 1880, in furtherance of his scheme for the construction of a Ship 
Canal across the isthmus, aroused the American government and people to 
the importance of such a work at another point on the narrow strip of earth 
which connects North and South America. In November, 1884, a treaty 
between the United States and Nicaragua, which provided that the former 
should construct a canal across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the latter 
grant the right of way, with a strip of territory three miles wide. The Senate 
of the United States failed to ratify the treaty, but the project was not 
abandoned. 

During the same month a treaty was negotiated between the United 
States and Spain for commercial reciprocity between our Republic and Cuba 
and Port Rico. The Senate did not ratify it. 

The Second Session of the Forty-eighth Congress began on Dec. i, 1884. 
The President in his annual message to Congress alluded with satisfaction to 
the labors of the Civil Service Commission, and the salutary performances 
of the Utah Commissioners, and again recommended Congress to assume 
absolute political control of the Utah Territory. He called their attention 
to the condition of our foreign trade, which he regarded as " one of the gravest 
of the problems which appeal to the wisdom of Congress." It was shown 
that only a little more than seventeen per cent, of our combined exports and 
imports were conveyed in American vessels. 

A "World's Fair" was opened at New Orleans in December, 1884, in the 
presence of 30,000 people. The Exhibition was instrumental in promoting 
harmony and good feeling between the citizens of the Republic in all 
sections. 

In December, 1884, the capstone of the obelisk, constituting the Wash- 
ington monument at the National Capital, was put in place, and on the 22d 
of February following the obelisk was dedicated with imposing ceremonies. 

The Administration of President Arthur closed on the 4th of March, 1885. 
The National debt, which on January i, 1866, was $2,800,000,000 had been re- 
duced one half on January, i, 1885. Arthur was succeeded by Grover Cleve- 



540 OUR NATION: 

land, like himself a citizen of New York, as the occupant of the chair of State 
of the Great Republic of the West. 

Congress, just before its expiration on March 4, 1885, honored General U. 
S. Grant by authorizing the President to place him on the retired list of the 
Army with full pay and title of General, for life. Immediately after this act, 
Grover Cleveland was inaugurated President of the United States in the pres- 
cence of 40,000 or 50,000 citizens of the Republic. 

ADMINISTRATION OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Grover Cleveland, a son of a Presbyterian clergyman, a successful 
lawyer, a Mayor of Buffalo, N. Y., and Governor of the State of New York, 
was elected President of the United States in the autumn of 1884, and took 
his seat in the presidential chair on the 4th of March, 1885, at the age of fifty- 
•one years. His administration of public affairs in the commonwealth of New 
York had been so generally satisfactory, that he began his national adminis- 
tration with the good will of all parties in the Republic. The oath of office 
was administered to him by Chief Justice Waite. His inaugural address was 
received with great enthusiasm by a vast crowd, who heard it uttered on the 
eastern portico of the Capitol. 

The administration of Mr. Cleveland was marked by many important 
•events in the history of our nation. Almost his first act was to withdraw 
from the Senate the unratified treaty with Nicaragua, with a view to the sub- 
sequent preaentation of a substitute. It was early in his administration that 
the Prohibition law of the State of Iowa, passed in 1884, was submitted to a 
constitutional test. The unanimous opinion of a full bench of the Supreme 
Court of the State pronounced the act to be constitutional. 

In the Spring of 1885 a rebellion or large mob having suddenly appeared 
in the Isthmus of Panama, which menaced the safety of American property 
if not lives there, and had destroyed Colon or Aspinwall by fire, over a 
thousand marines of the United States Navy were sent thither. They landed 
at the ruined town, crossed the Isthmus to Panama and soon restored order. 

Trouble with the fierce Apache Indians, led by an able chief, Geronimo, 
■gave much alarm in Arizona, New Mexico and the border districts of Mexico, 
but United States troops soon subdued them. They are the most warlike of 
our Indian tribes. In July, the same year the Cheyenne Indians broke out 
of their Reservation and went into Texas, creating great alarm. General 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 541 

Sheridan hastened to Fort Reno, whither United States troops were sent. 
Led by General Miles they soon ended the outbreak and the scare. The 
Cheyennes were brought back to their Reservation and made satisfied by just 
treatment. 

On the 23d of July (1885), ex-President and General U. S. Grant died at 
Mount McGregor, not far from Saratoga Springs. His body was taken first 
to Albany, where it lay in state for a brief period, when it was conveyed to 
New York by railroad. It lay in state in the City Hall there, and was in- 
terred in a temporary vault in Riverside Park, on the banks of the Hudson, 
in the Great Metropolis. The largest and most distinguished procession ever 
seen in New York city followed his remains to the tomb. 

Knights of Labor, a very strong association of Labor Leagues of various 
kinds, assuming to control and regulate the labor arrangements between em- 
ployers and the employed of the country, tried the power of the association 
by ordering a " strike," or cessation from labor, on railroad lines centering at 
St. Louis, Missouri. They began their operations by ordering a strike on 
the street cars of St. Louis at a time (October) when fully 100,000 strangers 
were in the city attending a great Fair. A mob wrecked twenty street cars 
in the following Spring (1886). 8,000 to 10,000 employees on the Gould 
southwestern system of railways struck without adequate cause apparent, by 
order of leaders of the Knights of Labor. This was the beginning of an 
attempt to cripple the great system of railroads in that region and so impress 
the people with a sense of the power of the Knights. For some time all traffic 
was paralyzed, and the malign influence of the movement was felt all over the 
country. 

Archbishop McCloskey, the first Cardinal in America, died at his Epis- 
copal residence in New York City on Oct. 7th, and on the 29th of the same 
month, Major-General George B. McClellan, ex-Governor of New Jersey, died 
very suddenly of heart disease at his residence in New York City. 

The first session of the Forty-ninth Congress began on December 4, 1885. 
The sudden death of Vice-President Hendricks, in the Fall of 1885, left the 
chair of the president of the Senate vacant. General John A. Logan was 
nominated by the Republicans to fill the place pro tempore, but declined ; 
Senator John Sherman accepted it. The Democrats nominated Isham Harris 
for the position. They also nominated John S. Carlisle of Kentucky for 
Speaker of the House, in which they had a majority, and he was elected. 

In his first annual message President Cleveland made special reference to 



542 OUR NATION: 

the condition of the National finances, and suggested that in any modification 
of the revenue laws the industries and interests in which citizens had made 
large investments should not be " ruthlessly injured or destroyed ; " and that 
the interests of American labor should be protected. He alluded to the 
enormous amount — $65,000,000 — of coinage then in the treasury, largely in 
silver, and the evils to be apprehended from such a state of affairs. Indian 
Reservations and Chinese policy ; immigration ; Polygamy in* Utah, and the 
Nicaragua Canal treaty, were noticed at length. He opposed the Canal 
treaty and concluded not to return it to the Senate. 

At the middle of December, a conspiracy was discovered in San Francisco, 
formed by a band of dynamiters, to destroy several leading citizens with the 
terrible explosive, and to murder all the Chinese there. The conspirators were 
arrested. 

The dusky natives occupying the " Indian Territory" were much dis- 
turbed by the introduction of Bills into Congress tending to interfere with 
their political rights and their property. The Cherokees, the most enlightened 
of these natives, took action in council, and by resolutions denied the right of 
the United States to dispose of their property in any way, save by the con- 
sent of their Council ; also, that the Cherokee nation did not authorize the 
sale of any of its lands for white settlements or for any purpose. 

The " Mormon Question " occupied the attention of Congress. Senator 
Edmunds of Vermont introduced into the Senate a stringent Anti-Poly- 
gamy bill, which passed that body on January 8th (1886) by 37 yeas to 7 
nays. At about the same time, the Land Commissioners made a decision 
which affected a claim of the Northern Pacific Railroad to about two and a 
half million acres of land, valued at $25,000,000. The validity of the claim of 
the Company to these lands had long been disputed by settlers on them, 
many of whom had made improvements. The decision of the Commission- 
ers was against the claim of the Company. 

The Presidential Succession Act became a law at the middle of January 
(1886). It provides that in case of the death of the President and Vice- 
President of the United States the vacancy shall be filled by a member of 
his cabinet selected in the following order: the Secretary of State; of the 
Treasury; of War; the Attorney-General; the Post-Master-General; the 
Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior. 

Early in March, 1886, a State Anti-Chinese Convention held at Sacra- 
mento, California, organized an Aiiti-Cliiiicsc non-partisan Association for the 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 543 

purpose of discouraging the employment of Chinese labor. The Association 
resolved to " boycott " any person who should employ Chinese labor, directly 
or indirectly, or who should purchase the products of Chinese labor. 

Connected with the warfare of the Knights of Labor against the South- 
western railroads were the serious operations of a mob at East St. Louis, on 
the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. Sheriff's deputies were sent from 
St. Louis to quell the disturbance, and being defied, they fired among the 
rioters and killed six persons and wounded as many more. The Mayor of 
St. Louis, who was drunk, tried to arrest the deputy-sheriffs, when shots were 
exchanged and one man was killed.- On that night incendiary fires were 
kindled in the rail-road yards along two miles of river front. Forty-two cars 
were burned. The total loss of property was estimated at $150,000 before 
the rioters were checked by the arrival of Illinois State militia. The busi- 
ness of the whole country was deranged for more than a year afterwards 
by successive " strikes " ordered by the Knights of Labor or other " labor 
unions." 

A serious movement against the order of Society was begun in Chicago 
in the Spring of 1886 among foreign residents, who were anarchists. They 
were chiefly Germans. A large number were engaged in riotous proceedings 
in the suburbs on May 3d. On the following evening a large crowd had been 
called together in the city to listen to seditious harangues, and to inagurate 
anarchist proceedings. After listening for awhile to incendiary remarks from 
a man named Fielden, the Inspector of Police led a band of the reserved 
police force to the gathered crowd and commanded the speaker to cease his 
harangue. At that moment a dynamite bomb was thrown before the front 
line of policemen, which exploded and killed several of the latter. At the 
same time the mob fired on the police, who returned the fire. Seven of the 
leading anarchists were arrested, tried for "murder before the act," in July, 
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in November. By efforts to obtain 
a new trial, the interference of the United States Supreme Court, and a 
commutation of sentence by the Governor of Illinois, their execution was post- 
poned for about a year. Four of them were hanged, two were sent to prison 
for life, and one committed suicide in his cell. 

In June, 1886, President Cleveland and his ward. Miss Frances Folsom, 
were married at the Executive Mansion, in Washington, in the presence of 
members of his cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court, Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, the Diplomatic corps, Lieutenant-General of the Army, Admiral 



544 OUR NATION: 

of the Navy, other officials in Washington, and personal friends of the " high 
contracting parties." 

A resolution was introduced into the Senate in June (1886), proposing an 
amendment to the Constitution to prohibit Polygamy within the bounds of 
the Republic ; defining marriage, and providing punishment for those who 
should violate the laws to regulate the institution in accordance with the 
definition of marriage. 

Numerous private pension bills were presented to the President from 
time to time, many of which on careful examination he felt constrained to 
veto. His first veto message was issued early in May, 1885. From that time 
until 1888 he sent back to Congress about one hundred vetoed bills. 

Early in Mr. Cleveland's administration vexatious treatment of Ameri- 
can fishermen by the authorities of the Dominion of Canada, occurred. They 
fitted out cruisers to observe and prevent any encroachment of American 
fishermen within Canadian waters, and these annoyed the fishermen and pro- 
duced great irritation. Matters were assuming such a threatening aspect that 
the Secretary of State opened correspondence on the subject in July, 1886, 
with the British minister at Washington, which finally led to the negotiation 
of a treaty early in 1888, the avowed object of which was the removal of all 
causes of misunderstanding in relation to the treaty of October, 181 8, and the 
" promotion of friendly intercourse and good neighborhood between the 
United States and the possessions of her Majesty in North America." It 
agreed to the appointment of a mixed commission to carry out the terms of 
the treaty. Late in August, (1888) the Senate of the United States rejected 
the treaty, whereupon the President, in an exhaustive message, asked for 
fuller powers to enforce retaliatory, measures toward Canada, in accordance 
with a former law of Congress, authorizing retaliatory Acts. 

On the day before the adjournment of Congress early in August (1886) 
the President submitted to the Senate a new extradition treaty with Japan, 
which covered more offenses than any other similar treaty with foreign powers. 
It was suggested by the Japanese government. 

At the close of August the most destructive earthquake ever felt in this 
country occurred most severely, at Charleston, S. C, and vicinity. There 
were ten principal shocks at Charleston, between the night of August 27th 
and September ist. The tremor was felt over an area of 900,000 square 
miles, or one quarter of the United States. The most destructive shock 
occurred on the night of August 31st. It destroyed many buildings and 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 545 

about forty lives (a large portion of them among the Negro population), and 
more or less injured almost every structure in Charleston. People rushed 
from their houses and encamped in the streets. The Negroes, believing that 
the world was coming to an end, huddled in groups at the corners of the streets, 
shouted incoherent prayers and sang hymns, while the groans of the wounded 
and dying swelled the dreadful chorus. It was truly a night of horrors in 
the stricken city. The sympathy of the whole country for the sufferers was 
instantly aroused and munificent aid was sent to the authorities of Charleston. 
Its shattered and ruined buildings were soon repaired or rebuilt, and pros- 
perity soon made the city glad. 

An effort was made among the Temperance members of the Republican 
party to make the doctrine of sobriety a leading feature in its character. 
For that purpose a " Republican Anti-Saloon League " was .formed in many 
parts of the Union, and in Sept., 1886, a National organization was effected at 
a convention held at Chicago, which was attended by about 200 delegates, 
who represented sixteen States and one Territory. A National Committee 
was appointed, with Albert Griffin of Kansas, the originator of the movement, 
as chairman. 

The Bartholdi statue of " Liberty Enlightening the World," presented by 
the French people to those of the United States, was unveiled in New York 
Harbor, on Oct. 24th, 1886, It was a gala day in the city and harbor, though 
the weather was inclement. The event was celebrated by an immense pro- 
cession in the city, and a gathering of a vast multitude of water-craft of every 
description in the harbor, laden with men, women and children. The impos- 
ing special services of the occasion were observed on a platform in front of 
the Statue, on Bedloe's Island, in the afternoon. There was an opening 
prayer, a presentation address by Count de Lesseps, the constructor of the 
Suez and Panama Canals, an address of acceptance by the President of the 
United States, and speeches by Senator Evarts and Chauncey M. Depew. 

At about the middle of the following month, ex-President Arthur died, 
when the President ordered the Executive Mansion and the Government 
buildings to be draped in mourning for thirty days. 

In January, 1887, a bill was reported in the Senate to incorporate the 
Maritime Canal Company, and a resolution calling on the President to enter 
into negotiations with the Government of Nicaragua, with a view to obtaining 
concessions from, and entering into a convention with that Republic for the 
construction of a Ship Canal through the State of Nicaragua from the Atlantic 



546 OUR NATION: 

to the Pacific oceans, the canal to be built either by the United States govern 
ment or its citizens. At about the same time an act was passed to create a 
Department of Agriculture and Labor. 

An Inter-State Commerce Act — a most important measure — for the 
regulation of traffic between the States, whether the transportation shall be 
by railroad or otherwise, was adopted on January 21st, 1887. The President 
immediately appointed five Commissioners to carry out the designs of the Act. 
On the same day the Senate ratified a new treaty with the Hawaiian govern- 
ment, which extends the commercial relations of the United States with the 
islands for some years. On May 4th, the Queen of Haw^.ii arrived at Wash- 
ington on her way to attend the Jubilee of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain. 

The Centennial celebration of the adoption of the form of the National 
Constitution, by a convention at Philadelphia at the middle of September, 
1787, was celebrated in that city during three days (Sept. 15, 16, 17, 1887), 
with imposing civic and military parades, ovations, et cetera. The more in- 
tellectual proceedings occurred on Saturday the 17th, when the President of 
the United States and Justice Miller of the Supreme Court made addresses. 
The form of the constitution was agreed to on Sept. 15, and it was signed by 
the members of the Convention, on the 17th, 1787. 

The first session of the Fiftieth Congress began on December 4th, 1887. 
The most prominent topic of the President's annual message was revenue 
reform, the curtailment of the receipts of Customs duties, and the reduction 
of the enormous accumulation of hoarded coin in the treasury. He recom- 
mended a reduction of tariff taxes, which were necessarily imposed for war 
purposes. The message caused the subject of a tariff for " revenue " and a 
tariff for " protection " to become a vital question at issue in the Presiden- 
tial campaign of 1888. There being a difference of opinion on the subject 
by members of the two great political parties, made the issue of the campaign 
extremely doubtful and intensified its conduct. 

In January, 1888, the President nominated L. Q. C. Lamar, his Secretary 
of the Interior, to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. In expectation of the nomination, the Secretary had resigned his 
position in the Cabinet on the 7th of January. 

The great miners' strike in the Schuylkill coal region that so affected the 
Reading railroad and the coal supply of the country, ended at about the 
middle of February by agreement, when 20,000 laborers who had been idle 
for weeks resumed work. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 547 

On the first of March, Mr. Mills, Chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee of the House of Representatives, made public their tariff bill, 
known as the " Mills Bill." Its general plan is based on the suggestions of 
the President's last annual message, recommending tariff reform by reducing 
the rate of duties imposed on certain articles. It caused long and earnest 
debates in and out of Congress. The Bill passed the House of Representa- 
tives, in which the Democrats had a majority, on July 13th, but was op- 
posed by the Senate, in which the Republicans preponderated in numbers. 

Early in March, 1888, the German population of our country were 
deeply moved by tidings of the death of the aged Emperor of Germany, who 
was ninety-one years of age. The President of the United States directed 
the American minister at Berlin to make known that "the death of the ven- 
erable Emperor had deeply aroused the sorrow and sympathy of the people 
and government of the United States." 

The most severe storm of snow and wind ever known in the Middle and 
Eastern States of the Union, was experienced in that region on the 12th and 
13th of March. It was like a genuine " blizzard " of the Western States. It 
paralyzed all human operations out of doors for several days, preventing 
transportation of every kind, and almost every kind of labor but shovelling 
snow. 

Morrison R. Waite, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, died on March 23d, and Avas succeeded on the 20th of July following 
by Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois. 

The text of a treaty with China concluded in 1880 for the purpose of regu- 
lating, limiting or suspending the arriving of Chinese laborers to, and residence 
in, the United States, was made public at about the beginning of April. Soon 
afterwards a bill for the restriction of Chinese immigrants to Chinese officials, 
teachers, students, merchants or travellers for pleasure or curiosity, with the 
permission of their government, these persons identified by certificates, and 
the repeal of the Chinese act of May 6th, 1880, introduced into the House 
of Representatives late in April 1888. The Chinese government rejected the 
Treaty, and the Chinese Emigrant Restriction Bill was passed in September. 
At about the same time a bill for the division of the Territory of Dakota, and 
constituting the southern half a State bearing that name, and the northern 
part a Territory named Lincoln, passed the Senate. It was defeated in the 
House. 

Lieutenant-General Sheridan, commander-in-chief of the armies of the 



548 OUR NATION: 

United States, was prostrated at his residence in Washington by the effects 
of " fatty degeneration of the heart " at near the close of May. On the first 
of June he was given the rank and commission of " General." He lingered 
between life and death until August 5th, when he died at his cottage home 
at Nonquitt, Massachusetts. 

Since 1884, a third political party, known as the "Prohibition Party," 
which labors for the prohibition of the manufacture, importation and sale 
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, has rapidly increased in strength, and has 
assumed a national character. The Prohibitionists held a national Convention 
at Indianapolis on the 30th and 31st of May, nominated General Clinton B. 
Fiske of New York for President of the United States, and John A. Brooks 
of Missouri for Vice-President, and adopted a national platform. A Demo- 
cratic National Convention, held at St. Louis on June 5, 6, and 7th nominated 
President Cleveland for the high position he occupied, and Allen G. Thurman 
of Ohio for Vice-President. They adopted a platform of principles in agree- 
ment with the President's annual message in December, 1887. The Repub- 
licans held their National Convention at Chicago from June 19th to June 25th. 
There were many candidates for the presidency, nineteen persons receiving 
one or more votes for the nomination. They also adopted a platform of 
principles. They nominated General Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a 
grandson of President W. H. Harrison, for President, and Levi P. Morton, of 
New York, for Vice-President. 

On the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, soldiers of the National 
and Confederate armies who were engaged in that decisive struggle met in 
friendly reunion. The special re-union ceremonies were held in the National 
Cemetery and the most cordial good feeling prevailed. 

During the months of August and September (1888) the city of Jackson- 
ville, Florida, was frightfully scourged by yellow fever, while the rest of the 
Union seems to have been almost entirely free from the dreaded pestilence. 

The first session of the Fifty-first Congress closed on October 20. It was 
the longest session of Congress ever held. Ten days afterwards (October 30) 
the British Minister at Washington, Lord Sackville West, was dismissed by 
the President, for words uttered in a reply to a correspondent in California 
who made insinuations of bad faith and deception on the part of the President, 
in his dealings with the fishery question. In his reply, the Minister acqui- 
esced in his correspondent's opinions of the character of the President. His 
letter was marked " private." As fore-determined by the correspondent, it 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 



549 



was published broadcast. It was a political trick to secure votes against the 
President at the election about to take place. 

On November 6, at the close of a most exciting canvass, the Presidential 
election took place. It fesulted in the choice of Benjamin Harrison of Indi- 
ana for President, and Levi P. Morton of New York for Vice-President. 

The second session of the Fifty-first Congress began on the first Monday 
in December, 1889. The President in his Message reiterated with emphasis 
his sentiments concerning revenue reforms. The most important act of this 
session was the creation of four new States: Washington, North Dakota, 
South Dakota and Montana. The President signed the bill on the 22d of 
February, 1889. 




OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS 

AND THE WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR MATERIAL. 
RESOURCES SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. 

The war had been practically ended with the surrender of Generals Lee 
and Johnston in April, 1865, and both sections of the country rejoiced at the 
return of peace. The South had suffered most heavily and lost her all. 
Many wealthy families were reduced to the verge of necessity. Their slaves 
were free, their plantations were uncultivated, and their prospects for the 
future were dark indeed. Where the land remained in possession of its- 
former owners they had not the means to cultivate it nor the money to buy 
seed. The worthless Confederate bonds and currency in which they had in- 
vested or which had been forced upon them was of no use to them now. 
Their towns and villages were filled with brave men who were shattered in 
life and limb, and had no government to care for them. Their industries 
were paralyzed and their commerce destroyed, and their political status was 
as yet uncertain. The first thought was for personal preservation, and all 
classes bent their energies to the raising of the first crop of cotton, for which 
the manufacturers of the world were waiting. The demand for cotton and 
their ability to supply this demand was the only line of hope. Bravely and 
grandly did they seize upon it. Could it be produced without slave labor? 
This was a problem as yet unsolved. It must be done. The freedman was 
given an interest in the growing crop, and he labored with more zest than he 
had ever shown for the kindest master. He was dependejit upon his own 
resources now, and with no owner to care for him his first experience in the 
new condition of things was at best a hard one. Even with the kindest dis- 
position the white people were unable to aid the blacks. The bounty of the 
Government was extended to all alike. The United States issued rations, 
of food and clothing to both blacks and whites in many places, and thus the 
first season after the return of peace was passed. The cotton crop brought 
a good market. The deserted factories in the North sprang into action, and 
the production of cotton goods, which had been curtailed for years, was ac- 
tively resumed once more. 



OUR NATION. 551 

In the North the industries had been somewhat disarranged, but not to the 
extent they had been in the South. The manufacturing of all manner of 
army supplies had been pushed to its utmost limit. Iron factories had been 
running day and night. The demand of the army for clothing and equip- 
ments had been immense ; but that was all changed by the disbanding of the 
army, and the industries of the North must be turned to other channels. 
The vast numbers of returned soldiers must be provided with means of liveli- 
hood and positions for peaceful employment. There was an abundance of 
paper money in the country, but it was below par value and prices were high. 
There had been a disposition to withdraw capital invested in mercantile and 
manufacturing pursuits. But with the return of specie payments and depre- 
ciation in prices in 1879 came a general impulse for investments. The capital 
of the North was moving southward. Cotton mills and other factories were 
being erected nearer to the supply of the raw material. There arose a 
period of railroad development, and thousands of miles of new roads belted 
the country. Real estate was advancing in price, and the desire for specula- 
tion was upon the nation before they were aware of it. All the while the 
South was recuperating most rapidly. The vast war debt of the nation was 
being reduced and its interest lessened. A long panic followed, in which the 
public was taught to contract private expenditures and perform business 
upon solid principles. The lesson was a bitter but a needful one, and the 
people were taught by a hard experience that inflated values and high living 
are destructive to financial success. Slowly the public confidence returned, 
and the revival of business began and assumed a healthy tone. 

The Centennial Exposition had displayed to the amazed countries of the 
world the wonderful progress in all the arts, manufactures and improvements 
of the age, the United States leading in nearly every department of trade, 
and at the same time showing the old world her desirable advancement in 
the refined arts and scientific discoveries. In machinery and labor-saving 
appliances she had distanced the nations of Europe. While in defensive and 
offensive military armature she had given them lessons which they were but 
too ready to learn and improve upon. A grand impetus was given by this 
exhibition to all the industries of the United States, while it opened up the 
markets of the world as never before. The fertile wheat and corn-growing 
sections of the great central Western States, as well as the cotton-growing 
South, found a ready market in the old world. 

The public debt has been largely reduced year after year, and refunded 



552 OUR NATION. 

at a low rate of interest. The cities of the South and the North have shared 
in the general prosperity and largely regained the lost ground caused by the 
war. The enterprise of the whole country has been stimulated by a health- 
ful rivalry in business, and the bonds of connmercial intercourse are fast blot- 
ting them out. The following extract shows the real feeling of the South, 
especially among its young men : 

From the Century. 

The Southern States are now rearing a large number of young men before whom the outlook is 
bright. Some of them are sons of the old ruling families, but many of them have sprung from the 
lower and middle classes. They enjoy the advantages of poverty; they have no money to spend in 
luxuries or diversions; they have fortunes to retrieve or to gain; they have grown up since the war, 
and have inherited less than could be expected of its resentments. " Well," said a bright fellow at the 
close of a college commencement in Virginia last Summer, "Lee and Jackson have been turned over 
in their graves but once to-day." The sigh of relief with which he said it indicates the feeling of many 
of these young men. They keep no grudges and have no wish to fight the war over again. The senti- 
ment of patriotism is getting a deep root in their natures. 

Yet they are full of faith in the future of their own section. Well they may be. During their 
lifetime the industry of the South has been revolutionized, and the results already achieved are marvel- 
ous. An era of prosperity has begun; and there are few intelligent men at the South to-day who will 
not at once confess that it is destined to be a far brighter era than they have ever seen. Free labor is 
unlocking the wealth of farms and mines and falling waters in a way that slave labor never could have 
done. New machinery, new methods are bringing in a new day. In the midst of the stir and move- 
ment of this industrial revolution these young men are growing up. Hope and expectation are in the 
air; the stern discipline of poverty goads them on, and the promise of great success allures them. All 
the conditions are favorable for the development of strong character; and any one who will visit the 
Southern colleges and schools will find in them a generation of students alert, vigorous, manly and 
tremendously in earnest. Probably they do not spend, on an average, one-third as much money per 
capita as is spent by the students of the New England colleges; and in the refinements of scholarship 
the average Southern student would be found inferior to the average Northern student; but they are 
making the most of their opportunities. They ought to have better opportunities. Most of the South- 
ern colleges and schools are crippled for lack of funds, and much more of the flood of Northern bounty 
might well be turned southward, to the endowment of schools and colleges for whites as well as blacks. 
The generous sentiment of the young South would thus be strengthened, and the bonds of union more 
firmly joined. But whatever may be done in this direction it is evident that a race of exceptional moral 
earnestness and mental vigor is now growing up in the South, and that it is sure to be heard from. If 
the young fellows in the Northern colleges expect to hold their own in the competition for leadership, 
they must devote less of their resources to base ball and rowing and champagne suppers and come down 
to business. 

The "Cotton Exposition" in the beautiful and rejuvenated city of At- 
lanta, Georgia, in October, 1882, was a gigantic exhibition of the resources 
of the great cotton-growing States, and displayed the rapid stride made by 



THE STORY OF ITS PROGRESS AND GROWTH. 553 

a people but a few years ago prostrated by an exhaustive and unsuccessful 
struggle. The vast domain of the South-west is being rapidly opened up by 
the means of railroad communications and the influx of immigration. The 
crowded denizens of the old world are thronging in inconceivable numbers 
to the western republic as never before in the history of the country. Since 
1820, when the Government first began to keep the official account, there 
have come to the United States no less than 11,800,000 persons of foreign 
birth to find homes in this country. In addition to these there have come 
over 230,000 Chinese who have been less welcome and more harshly treated 
than any of the rest. 

This vast heterogeneous mass of men and women of different races and 
types has become assimilated and equal under the law. They have aided 
much in developing the resources of the land and added to its material wealth 
in many directions. The vast improvement in every department of science 
has kept pace with the demands of the age. The telephone, the audiphone, 
the electric light, have been invented during the period of which we are writ- 
ing. The future success of this republic is assured if the institutions of its 
founders are maintained and its constitution and laws are kept unimpaired. 
The purity of the ballot-box, the maintenance of public honor, the education 
of the masses and the civilization and Christianization of the foreign element 
and of the aborigines are demanded by the spirit of the hour. The great 
blots still remaining up^n the national character — the permission of polygamy 
and the treatment of the Indians — should be removed. The sanctity of the 
marriage relation and observance of the Sabbath should be required. Public 
faith with nations, tribes and individuals is imperatively demanded, and then 
the fondest dreams of the most enthusiastic well-wisher of his country will be 
realized. Private integrity, sobriety and industry, Avith the qualities above 
mentioned, Avill secure us from the fate of the old republics that tottered to 
their fall as soon as these were wantincr. 




THE BIRTHPLACE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



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SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



BECLAEATION OF IKQEPEIENGE. 



In Congress, July 4th, 1776. 
By the Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled. 
A DECLARATION. 



HEN, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
which have connected them with another, and to 
assume among the powers of the earth the separate 
and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 
nature's God entitled them, a decent respect for the 
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare 
which impel them to the separation. 

old these truths to be self-evident : — that all men are 
lal : that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
nalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
ursuit of happiness ; that, to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent 
of the governed ; that whenever any form of government becomes 
destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate 
that governments long established should not be changed for light and 
transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind 
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long 
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it 
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; 
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former sys- 
tem of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let 
iacts be submitted to a candid world. 




556 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for 
the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be 
obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre- 
sentation in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to 
tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- 
fortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the 
sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with 
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights o the people. 

He has refused, for a long time ter such dissolutions, to cause others to 
be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the 
mean time, exposed to all the dan^, r invasion from without and convulsions 
within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that 
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
ofifices and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of 
ofificers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without tiie 
consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the 
civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their 
acts of pretended legislation,— 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world • 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free system of English law in a neighboring province 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 557 

establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so 
as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and 
altering fundamentally the forms of our government : 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, 
and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to 
complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun, with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralled in the most barbarous 
ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive on the high seas, 
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to 
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, 
and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the 
most humble terms ; our petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may 
•define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature 
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have 
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured 
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. 
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We 
must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, 
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war — in peace, 
friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in 
general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of 
the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare that these 
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; 
that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all 
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as independent States, they have fuU 



558 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. 
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protec- 
tion of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress. 

JOHN HANCOCK, President. 

Attested, CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

JOSIAH BaRTLETT, 

William Whipple, 
Matthew Thornton. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 

Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

RHODE ISLAND, Etc, 
Stephen Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, 
William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

NEW YORK. 
William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 

NEW JERSEY. 
Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 



James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Ross. 

DELAWARE. 

Ci*:sAR Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

MARYLAND. 
Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 
Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 

VIRGINIA. 
George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

SOUTH CAROLINA 
Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

GEORGIA, 
Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
George Walton. 



GONSTITUTM OF THE IITED STATES OF AlEEIGA. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common de- 
fense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to 
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of 
the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section I. — All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 
Representatives. 

Sec. II. — I. The House of Representatives shall be composed of mem- 
bers chosen every second year by the people of the several States ; and the 
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the 
most numerous branch of the State legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained the 
age of twenty-iive years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State in which he 
shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the sev- 
eral States which may be included within this Union, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number 
of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and ex- 
cluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual 
enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the 
Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term often years^ 
in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives 
shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at 
least one representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State 
of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; Massachusetts, eight ; 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one; Connecticut, five; Neiv York, 
six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; Delaware, one; Maryland, six; 
Virginia, ten ; North Carolina, five ; South Carolina, five ; Georgia, three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the ex- 
ecutive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
ofificers, and thall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. III. — I. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 



56o CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and 
each senator shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first 
e-lection, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The 
seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the 
second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the 
third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen 
every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, dur- 
ing the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make 
temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall 
then fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained the age of 
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be 
chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be president of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro 
tempore in the absence of the vice-president, or when he shall exercise the 
office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When 
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside ; and no 
person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the mem- 
bers present. 

7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, 
trust, or profit under the United States ; but the party convicted shall, never- 
theless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, 
according to law. 

Sec. IV. — The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature there- 
of ; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, 
except as to the places of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year ; and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

Sec. V. — I. Each house shall be judge of the elections, returns, and 
qualifications of its own members ; and a majority of each shall constitute a 
quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, 
and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members in such 
manner and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its 
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, 
expel a member. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 56i 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, fron^i time to 
time, publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, 
require secrecy : and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on 
any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on 
the journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the con- 
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place 
than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Sec. VI. — I. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensa- 
tion for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury 
of the United States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, and 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the 
session of their respective houses, and in going to or returning from the same ; 
and for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in 
any other place. 

2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have 
been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any ofifice under the 
United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in 
oflSce. 

Sec. VII. — I. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as 
on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the 
United States; if he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, 
with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall 
enter the objections at large on their journal and proceed to reconsider it. 
If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the 
bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house ; and if 
approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such 
cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays ; and the 
names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the 
journals of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the 
President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless 
Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return ; in which case it shall not 
be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of 
adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States, and 
before the same shall take effect shall be approved by him or, being disap, 
proved by him, shall be recassed bv two-thirds of the Senate and House of 



562 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case 
of a bill. 

Sec. VIII. — The Congress shall have power — 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises: to pay the 
debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States : but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the 
United States : 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes: 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the 
subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States : 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix 
the standard of weights and measures : 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and 
current coin of the United States : 

7. To establish post-ofifices and post-roads : 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for 
limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries : 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court : 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and offenses against the law of nations : 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules 
concerning captures on land and water : 

12. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of money to that 
use shall be for a longer term than two years : 

13. To provide and maintain a navy: 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and 
naval forces : 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions : 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and 
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the 
officers, and the authority of trainii^g the militia, according to the discipline 
prescribed by Congress : 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such 
•district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may by cessionof particular States, 
and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United 
States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent 
of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of 
forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings : And, 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this con* 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITEl5 STATES. 563 

stitution in the government of the United States, or in any department of 
officer thereof. 

Sec. IX. — I. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
States, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight ; but a 
tax or duty may be imposed on such importations, not exceeding ten dollars 
for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require 
it. 

3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall' be passed. 

4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to 
the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. No 
preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the 
ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to or from 
one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of 
.appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to 
time, 

7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of 
any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or. foreign State. 

Sec. X. — I. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confed- 
eration ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of 
credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; 
pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of 
■contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or 
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts 
laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury 
of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and 
control of the Congress. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, 
lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter 
into any agreement or compact with another State or with a foreign power, 
or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will 
not admit of delay, 

ARTICLE II. 

Sec. I. — I. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of foui 



564 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

years, and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be 
elected as follows : 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and 
representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no 
senator or representative, or person holding an ofifice of trust or profit under 
the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

3. [Annulled. See Amendments, art. 12.] 

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the 
day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the 
ofifice of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who 
shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a 
resident within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said office, the 
same shall devolve on the Vice-President ; and the Congress may by law 
provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the 
President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, 
and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a 
President shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a com- 
pensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period 
for which he shall have been elected ; and he shall not receive, within that 
period, any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the follow- 
ing oath or affirmation : — 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office 
of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the UniDtd States." 

Sec. II. — I. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when 
called into the actual service of the United States : he may require the 
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive depart- 
ments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices ; and 
he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the 
United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen- 
ate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur ; and 
he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall 
appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the 
supreme court, and all other officers of the United States whose appoint- 
ments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 565 

by law. But the Congress may, by law, vest the appomtment of such inferior 
ofificers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in 
the heads of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall 
expire at the end of their next session. 

Sec. III. — He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress informa- 
tion of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordi- 
nary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disa- 
greement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may 
adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassa- 
dors, and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully 
executed ; and shall commission all the ofificers of the United States. 

Sec. IV. — The President, Vice-President, and all civil ofificers of the. 
United States, shall be removed from ofifice on impeachment for, and convic- 
tion of. treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Sec. I. — The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one 
supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to 
time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated 
times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished 
during their continuance in office. 

Sec. II. — I. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and 
equity arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and 
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases- 
affecting ambassadors, and other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of 
admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the Unitdl 
States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more States . 
between a State and citizens of another State ; between citizens of different 
States ; between citizens of the same State, claiming lands under grants of 
different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign 
States, citizens or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, 
and those in which a State shall be a party, the supreme court shall have- 
original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned, the supreme court 
shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, 
and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have 
been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be 
at such a place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 



566 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Sec. III. — I. Treason against the United States shall consist only in 
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid 
and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testi- 
mony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confessions in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except 
during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Sec. I. — Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public 
acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Con- 
gress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in Avhich such acts, records, 
and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sec. II. — I. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand 
of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to 
be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime, 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, 
be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered upon claim 
of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Sec. III. — I. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union, but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of 
any other State ■. nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more 
States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislature of the States 
concerned, as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to 
the United States . and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as 
to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 

Sec. IV. — The United States shall guarantee to every State of this Union 
a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the 
legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, 
shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application of the 
legislatures of two-thirds of the several. States, shall call a convention for pro- 
posing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of this constitution, when 'ratified by the legislatures of three- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 567 

fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as 
the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; 
provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one 
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and 
fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, with- 
out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the United States 
under this constitution as under the confederation. 

2. This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the 
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both 
of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by an oath or 
affirmation to support this constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United 
States. 

ARTICLE YII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this constitution between the States so ratifying the 
same. 

•Done in convention, by the unaniinous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto 
subscribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

President, and Deputy from Virginia, 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. NEW YORK. 

John Langdon, Alexander Hamilton. 

Nicholas Oilman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 
Nathaniel Gorham, ^EW JERSEY. 

RuFus King. William Livingston, 

CONNECTICUT. David Brearlev, 

Wm. Samuel Johnson, William Patterson, 

Roger Sherman, Jonathan Dayton. 



568 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Benjatsiin Franklin. 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer 
Thomas Fitzsimons, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
James Wilson, 
Gouverneur Morris. 

DELAWARE. 

George Read, 
Gunning Bedford, Jr., 
John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, 
jAcor. Broom. 

MARYLAND. 
James M'Henry, 
Dan'l of St. Tho. Jenifer, 
Daniel Carroll. 



VIRGINIA. 

John Blair, 
James Madison, Jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA, 

William Blount 
Rich. Dobbs Spaight, 
Hugh Williamson. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

John Rutledge, 
Charles C. Pinckney, 
Charles Pinckney, 
Pierce Butler. 

GEORGIA. 

William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin. 



Attest, WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Art. I. — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and 
to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Art. II, — A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a 
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
infringed. 

Art. III. — No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be 
prescribed by the law. 

Art. IV. — The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be 
violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by- 
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and 
the persons or things to be seized. 

Art. V. — No person shall be held to ans^ver for a capital or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, 
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in 
actual service, in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be sub- 
ject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb : nor shall 
be compelled, in any criminal case, to be witness against himself, nor be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Art. VI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been. 



CONSTITITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 569 

•previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have 
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the 
assistance of counsel for his defense. 

Art. VII.— In suits of common law, where the value in controversy 
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and 
no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the 
United States than according to the rules of the common law. 

Art. VIII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- 
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

Art. IX. — The enumeration in the constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Art. X. — The powers not delegated to the United States by the consti- 
tution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec- 
tively, or to the people. 

Art. XL— The judicial power of the United States shall not be con- 
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or 
subjects of any foreign State. 

Art. XII. — I. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be 
an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their 
ballots the persons voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice-President : and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of 
the number of votes for each : which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of the United States, 
directed to the president of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in 
the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the 
certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the 
greatest number of votes for President shall be President, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed : and if no person have 
such majority, then from the persons having the highest number, not exceed- 
ing three, on the Hst of those voted for as President, the House of Represen- 
tatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But, in choosing 
the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each 
State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member 
or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States 
shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not 
choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall 
^ct as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
the President. 

2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President 
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole 



570 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a majority, then from 
the two highest numbers on the Hst the Senate shall choose the Vice-Presi- 
dent ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole 
number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary 
to a choice. 

3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 
be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

Art. XIII. — I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis- 
lation. 

Art. XIV. — l. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and 
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which- shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 
States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
equal protection of the laws. 

2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several States accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any 
election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the 
United States, representatives in Congress, the executive or judicial officers 
of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of 
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be 
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear 
to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 
of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the 
United States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath as a 
member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of 
any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to 
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrec- 
tion or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove 
such disability. 

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, 
including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services 
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither 
the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 5;i 

claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave : but all such debts, obliga- 
tions, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the 
provisions of this article. 

Art. XV. — i. The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account 
of race, color or previous condition of servitude. 

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate. 
legislation. 



THE EMlETfffl PmilAT 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.. 

V 

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a Proclamation was issued 
by the President of the United States, containing among other things the 
following, to wit : 

*' That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or 
designated part of a State, the people whereof, shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever free, and the exec- 
utive government of the United States, including the military and naval 
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, 
and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any 
efforts they may make for their actual freedom." 

"That the executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proc- 
lamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people 
thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States, and 
the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good 
faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State 
shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testi- 
mony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof 
are not then in rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army and 
Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the 
authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war 



^-72 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

■measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accord- 
ance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaim for the full period of one 
hundred days from the day the first above-mentioned, order and designate, as 
the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this 
day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit : 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, 
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assump- 
tion, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including 
the city of New Orleans), MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, South 
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight coun- 
ties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, 
Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including 
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the 
present, left precisely as if this Proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and 
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts 
of States are, and henceforward shall be free ; and that the executive govern- 
ment of the United States, including the military and naval authorities there- 
of, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain 
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense, and I recommend to them 
that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable con- 
dition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison 
forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 
said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted 
by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
ment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal 
of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the 

[l. S.] year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 

and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh, 

Abraham Lincoln. 
My the President : 

William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



OUR GREAT CONTINENT. VOLUME TWO. 

WITHIN AND BEYOND 
THE STATES; 

ILLUSTRATED SKETCHES OF 

GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH, PREPARED 

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE AUTHORITIES 

OF THE RESPECTIVE CITIES: 

Views in the Great Wonderlands of Our Republic, 

INCLUDING NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS : 

WITH 

OUR CONTINENT BEYOND THE STATES, 

COMPRISING PICTURESQUE AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES 

OF 

THE DOMINION OF CANADA: HER PROVINCES AND CITIES. MEXICO: THE REPUBLIC, 

THE CAPITAL AND THE SEA PORT. CUBA: "THE GEM OF THE ANTILLES," 

AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. THE COUNTRIES OF 

SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA: THEIR CAPITALS AND SEA PORTS. 

BY 

GEOEGE. J. HAGAE, 

ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE NEW JERSEY IIIST'IRICAL SOCIETY, EDITOR OF " WFIAT TIIK WOULI> BELIEVES," CONTRIBUTOR 

TO APPLETON's "annual cyclopaedia," APPLETON'S "cyclopaedia of AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY" 

AND ALDEN '3 " MANIFOLD CVCLOPvEDIA," AUTHOR OV "A IIISTORV OFTUE UNITED 

STATKS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER," ETC. 

A. II. GUEEI^SEY, PH.D., 

AUTHOR OF "harper's PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE REBELLION," "THOMAS CARLYLE," 

"the world's OPPORTUNITIES," ETC., AND FORMERLY EDITOR 

OP "harper's MAGAZINE." 

JOHN E. EEAD, 

AUTHOR OF "farming FOR PROFIT," CONTRIBUTOR TO ALDEN'S 

" MANIFOLD CYCLIiPaBDIA " AND OTHER STANDARD 

PUBLICATIONS. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER TWO HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS. 



Copyrighted 1889 by JOHN E. READ. 



WITHIN THE STATES. 



Great Cities of ttie United States ; tlieir Origin 
and Wonderful Growtli. 




WASHINGTON, D. C. 

ASHINGTON is the Capital of the United States; it is in the Fed- 
eral District of Columbia, situated on the left bank of the Potomac 
River, i6o miles from its mouth, between Anacostia River and Rock 
Creek, which separates it from Georgetown. It is 37 miles from Baltimore, 
136 from Philadelphia, 120 from Richmond, 225 from New York, 432 from 
Boston, 700 from Chicago, 856 from St. Louis, 1,033 from New Orleans, and 
2,000 from San Francisco. The Potomac at Washington is one mile wide, 
and deep enough for the largest vessels. 

When, in October, 1800, the transfer of the Government of the United 
States was made to its present seat, the most visionary dreamer could hardly 
hpve foreseen the magnificence and beauty of the city of Washington as it 
is to-day. 

The grandeur and greatness of the model government of the world is fit- 
tingly represented by the stately city, which is the home of the central gov- 
ernment of the most powerful republic the world has ever known, and its 
growing splendor (the evidence of the prosperity of the people) is but an ex- 
emplification of the saying of the great President Lincoln, that " a Govern- 
ment of the people and by the people shall not perish from the face of the 
earth." 

In points of historic interest there is not a city in the world possessing 
the attractions to the American citizen that the Capital of the nation affords. 
In accordance with the act of Congress (March 3, 1791) the city was laid out, 



576 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITEl^ STATES. 

under the direction of President Washington, on a plateau 40 feet above the 
river, with several elevations, with over 250 miles of streets and avenues. 
The streets are from 80 to 120 feet wide, and the avenues 130 to 160 feet — 
the latter are named after various States. General Washington called it the 
Federal City, and it was not until after his death that it received his name. 
The streets from north to south are numbered, and those from east to west 
are lettered. Twenty-one avenues cross these in various directions; the new 
Executive Avenue winds from the White House around the city to the Capxi- 
tol. The original plan of the city was so extensive and the increase of popu- 
lation so small, that Washington was often called " the city of magnificent 
distances." 

In 1839 ^^^ English traveler said: "The town looks like a large straggling 
village reared in a drained swamp." In 1851 the work of laying out and 
adorning the reservations and parks was commenced under the skillful guid- 
ance of A. J. Downing, but his death, the next year, and the neglect of Con- 
gress, arrested it for twenty years. In 1871 a government for the District 
was established by Congress, with a governor and legislature and a board of 
public works, to which was given control of the streets, avenues, and sewers 
of Washington and Georgetown, with authority to improve them under a 
general plan. A system of sewerage and of pavements was organized, which 
resulted in regrading most of the highways, paving 160 miles "of streets with 
stone, wood, or concrete, planting about 30,000 shade tree?, and improving 
the public squares with fences and trees. In three years the city was trans- 
formed. From that time to the present a very large number of public build- 
ings and private residences have been erected. The city covers about 6,000 
acres, of which the Government reservations comprise 500, and the streets 
2,500, leaving 3,000 for the lots on which private residences are built. As open 
places are in all parts of the city, fresh air is abundant, and healthfulness is 
greatly promoted. The undulating surface of the city produces a constant 
variety of scenery without obstructing the travel. Its environs present a 
beautiful and picturesque landscape, which is seen to the best advantage from 
the portico or dome of the Capitol, and drew from Humboldt the declaration, 
" In all my travels I have not seen a more charming panorama." 

THE CAPITOL BUILDING. 

Travelers who have visited all the capitols of the world pronounce this to 
be the finest civic building extant, and certainly every American may well be 




THE WIUTE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 




NATIONAL CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



578 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

proud of it. It stands upon Capitol Hill, fronting both east and west. It is 
751 feet long from north to south, 350 feet in width, covers an area of three 
and one-half acres of ground, and has cost upward of $15,000,000. The cen- 
tral portion is of sandstone, painted white; this was partially destroyed in 
1 8 14 by the British. The extensions are of Massachusetts marble, with 
monolith columns of Maryland marble. The dome is of iron, and weighs 40 
tons. It is surmounted by a statue of " Freedom," from designs made by 
Thomas Crawford under a special commission from Congress. The corner- 
stone of the original Capitol, now the central part of the structure, was laid 
in 1793, by George Washington, with Masonic ceremonials. The corner-stone 
of the extensions was laid in 1851, Daniel Webster delivering the oration. 




THE SENME CllAMIiER. 



The Capitol is always open to visitors except on legal holidays. The admis- 
sion is free, and parties endeavoring to collect an entrance fee to this or any 
other public building in Washington are impostors, and ought to be handed 
over to the police without ceremony. 

Here the objects of interest are so numerous that space can be given only 
to a brief mention of each of them. Upon a platform erected in the east cen- 
tral portico, the oath of ofifice is administered to the President in the presence 
of the public, and here he delivers his inaugural address. Fronting the por- 
tico is Greenough's statue of Washington. On each side the steps leading up 
to the portico are emblematical groups in marble; the one on the south side 
is Persico's " Discovery," the one on the north Greenough's " Civilization." 
The first represents Columbus holding a globe aloft, while an Indian maiden 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



579 



crouches by his side. In the other the pioneer husband and father rescues 
the wife and child from impending death at the hands of the bloodthirsty In- 
dian. Within the portico are statues of " War " and " Peace " in niches. The 
door opening into the rotunda is the Rogers bronze door, so widely famous. 
It is well worth the closest study. It was cast in Munich, in 1861, from de- 
signs by Randolph Rogers, and cost altogether about $30,000. It is nine feet 
wide and seventeen feet high, and here, in a great bronze picture, is told the 
story of the life of Christopher Columbus. 

Having studied this magnificent work of art, the visitor enters the rotunda, 
a vast circular room, 95^ feet in diameter, 300 feet in circumference, and 180 

feet in height to the 

base of the canopy 
which surmounts it. 
The lower part of the 
wall of the rotunda 
is occupied by eight 
historical pictures. 
Four of these pict- 
ures, viz. : " Declara- 
tion of Independ- 
ence," " The Surren- 
der of General Bur- 
goyne," "The Sur- 
render of Lord Corn- 
wallis," and "The 

Resignation of General Washington," were painted by John Trumbull, son of 
Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, and for a time an officer of General 
Washington's staff. The chief value these paintings have lies in the fact that 
every face in them is a portrait. These four pictures cost the Government 
$32,000. Beside these are " De Soto Discovering the Mississippi," by Wm. 
H. Powell, for which the Government paid $15,000; "The Landing of Co- 
lumbus," by Vanderlyn, $12,000; "The Baptism of Pocahontas," by Chap- 
man, $10,000; and "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims," by Weir, $io,ooo. 
There are four doors opening into the rotunda, and over each is an alto 
relievo, viz. : over the north door, " Penn's Treaty with the Indians in 1682," 
by Gevelot ; over the south door, " The Conflict between Daniel Boone 
and the Indians in 1775," by Causici ; over the east door, "The Landing 




TREASURY DEPARTMEN'I . 



5 So 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock," also by Causici ; and over the west 
door is the " Preservation of Captain Smith, by Pocahontas," by Capellano. 
Above the architrave is a fresco in chiaro-oscura of sketches from American 
history. The work was begun by Brumidi, and at his death was taken up 
by one of the masters of his school. It will, perhaps, be completed by the 
end of the present year. In the canopy above is Brumidi's allegorical paint- 
ing, representing " Washington Seated in Majesty." By climbing 365 steps 
the visitor may ascend to the top of the dome, whence a magnificent view of 
the city of Washington and the surrounding country may be had. 

The old hall of the House of Representatives is reached by passing through 
the south door of the rotunda. The finest piece of sculptured work in Wash- 
ington is the mar- 




EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



ble clock in this 
hall. It is by 
Franzoni, and 
represents the 
" Genius of His- 
tory Making up 
Her Records." 
This hall is now 
known as " Stat- 
uary Hall," and ■ 
is reserved for the 
reception of sta- 
tucs^each State 



being permitted to send statues of two of her chosen sons. Of these there 
are already here Ethan Allen, of Vermont ; John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, 
of Massachusetts; George Clinton and Robert R. Livingston, of New York; 
Edward D. Baker, of Oregon; William King, of Maine; Nathaniel Greene 
and Koger Williams, of Rhode Island; Jonathan Trumbull and Roger Sher- 
man, of Connecticut; and Robert F. Stockton and Philip Kearny, of New 
Jersey. Besides these, there are a plaster cast of Houdan's Washington; 
Vinnie Ream's Lincoln ; a bust of Kosciusko ; Ames' bust of Lincoln ; statues 
of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, and Thomas Jefferson; bust of Thos. 
Crawford, the designer of the statue of " Freedom " and the Senate bronze 
doors; a mosaic portrait of Lincoln, made by an Italian who never saw him; 
portraits of Joshua Giddings, Gunning Bedford, Henry Clay, Charles Carroll 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



58r 



of CarroUton, General Washington, Benjamin West, and Thomas Jefferson. 
A large safe standing in this hall is filled with papers of historical value, placed 
there in 1876; the safe is not to be opened till 1976. 

Proceeding still further south, through a corridor of handsome proportions, 
the new hall of the House of Representatives is reached. This is 139 feet 
long, 93 feet wide, and 36 feet high. Galleries which will accommodate over 
1,000 people range about the sides of the chamber, and are always open to 
the public when the House is in session. There are reserved spaces for fami- 
lies of the Representatives, newspaper correspondents, and the diplomatic 
corps. The ceiling is a vast skylight, the opaque glass being set in panels in 
great iron frames, 
each panel bearing 
the arms of a State. 
On one side of the 
Speaker's chair is a 
portrait of Wash- 
ington, by Vander- 
lyn ; on the other 
a portrait of Lafay- 
ette, by Ary Sche- 
fer, both full length ; 
there are also paint- 
ings by Bierstadt. 
" The Landing of 
Henry Hudson " 

and " Discovery of California," and some frescoes by Brumidi, also find space 
here. The Capitol is floored with English Minton tiles. The corridors are lined 
with rooms for the use of the various committees of Congress, elaborately fres- 
coe.d and furnished. The staircases on the House side leading to the galleries 
are of Tennessee marble. Over the western staircase is Deutze's great pict- 
ure, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes it Way ; " over the eastern is 
Carpenter's picture, " The Pi-oclamation of Emancipation." The library of 
the House is located on the second floor. The ground floor is used for com- 
mittee-rooms, the House post-ofifice, the House restaurant, folding-rooms, etc., 
etc. Still further down are the engines and furnaces which supply heat and 
ventilation to the south end of the building. Underneath the rotunda is the 
crypt, now nearly all taken up with temporary rooms in which are stored the 




THK INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 



582 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



surplus books belonging to the Congressional Library proper, for which ac- 
commodations are lacking in the rooms assigned to the library above. 

Retracing his steps from the House wing, the visitor on entering the ro- 
tunda will gain admission to the Congressional Library through swinging 
doors on the west. Here he finds himself in the midst of a library comprising 
upwards of 590,000 volumes. They are stored in three beautiful halls, the 
main one being 91 feet long, 34 feet wide, and 38 feet high; the two side halls 
are each 95 feet long and 30 feet wide. The general public is admitted to 
the library between the hours of nine and four every day except Sunday; and 
persons are at liberty to call for any desired book for purposes of reference, 

but are not allowed 
to take them away. 
Tables and chairs are 
furnished for the 
convenience of read- 
ers. Members of 
Congress and certain 
officials are allowed 
to take books away, 
with the understand- 
ing that they must 
be returned within a 
certain time. 

Leaving the li- 
brary, the visitor 
passes through the north door to the Supreme Court Room. This was for- 
merly the Senate Chamber. Admission can only be had when the court is 
in session. It was in this room that the Electoral Commission sat in Febru- 
ary, 1877. 

Thence through a broad corridor the visitor passes to the Senate Cham- 
ber, a room of similar arrangement to the Hall of the House of Representa- 
tives. It is not so large, however, being but 1 13!- feet long by 80^ wide, and 
it is much better furnished than the Hall of the House. Back of the Vice- 
President's chair, and separated from the Senate by a spacious lobby, is the 
famous Marble Room, where Senators may receive callers during sessions of 
the body. This is a well-proportioned and beautiful room, the ceiling sup- 
ported by lofty Corinthian columns of Italian marble, and the walls lined with 




TIIK lilKKAT <i|.- ACKIiri.rrRE, 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



583 



costly mirrors. Adjoining it on the north is the President's room ; it is so 
called because it is used by the President whenever he has occasion to visit 
the Capitol to confer with members of Congress in person. During the last 
hours of a session the President invariably occupies this room with the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet to sign bills as they are passed by the two Houses, as in 
•case he does not sign before the session closes these enactments fail of be- 
coming laws. At the opposite end of the lobby is the Vice-President's room. 
Here Henry W^ilson died. East of this room is the vast apartment known as 
the Ladies' Reception-room, where ladies may come to call on Senators on 
business. Still further south is the post-ofifice of the Senate, from which en- 
trance is gained to 
the ofifice of the Ser- 
geant-at-Arms. On 
the north side of the 
Senate Chamber are 
the ofifices of the Sec- 
retary of the Senate. 
Passing out upon 
the portico over the 
eastern entrance to 
the Senate, the cele- 
brated Crawford 
Bronze Door will be 
found worthy of at- 
tention. It illus- 
trates Revolutionary history, and cost in the neighborhood of $60,000. It 
was cast at Chicopee, Mass. Over the centre of the portico are a number of 
figures illustrating the " Progress of American Civilization and the Decadence 
of the Indian Race." Returning to the interior, the visitor will find over the 
staircase on the west side of the Senate Chamber, Walker's oil painting of 
"The Battle of Chapultepec," in many respects one of the most remarkable 
works of art in Washington; over the east staircase hangs Powell's painting 
of " Perry's Victory at Put-in-Bay, Lake Erie." The west staircase on the 
Senate side is of white marble; on the east side it is of Tennessee marble. 
The ground floor is occupied by committee-rooms, bath-rooms, the Senate 
restaurant, etc. In the basement is located the heating and ventilating ap- 
paratus — well worth a visit. 




THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART. 



584 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

The central building, situated on the summit of a gentle elevation, was 
designed chiefly by B. H. Latrobe, and commenced in 1793. The extension, 
with the dome, was designed by Thomas U. Walter. The grounds consist of 
35 acres. It was burned by the British troops in 18 14, completed in 1827, 
and extended by the addition of two spacious wings in 1851-59. 

The new Hall of Representatives was occupied in 1857, and the Senate 
Chamber in 1859. During the war of the Rebellion the work was carried on; 
the great dome rose from day to day while the city was an intrenched camp, 
and at the close of 1863 the statue of " Freedom " was lifted to its place. 

There are many other objects of interest in the Capitol building to which 
a lack of space prevents reference. Regularly authorized guides may be 
found in the building, who are allowed to charge visitors a moderate fee for 
their services. 

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS. 

The visitor may pass out of the western entrance and in a very few min- 
utes' walk reach the Botanical Gardens, with their eleven conservatories, the 
largest being 300 feet long. To naturalists and lovers of rare plants and 
trees, there is much here of highest interest. 

On the east of the President's house is the massive Treasury building, of 
freestone and granite, 468 feet by 264, with Ionic porticoes on all four sides, 
the monolithic columns on the south front being 31^ feet high and 4^ feet in 
diameter; and on the west, the magnificent building for the State, War, and 
Navy Departments, of granite, in the Roman-Doric style, ^\■ith four facades, 
of which those on the north and south, and on the east and west respectively, 
correspond. 

THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 

The doors of the Treasury Department are open at nine o'clock in the 
morning, and close to the general public at two in the afternoon. The White 
House is not open to visitors till ten A.M., and by the time the objects of in- 
terest in the Treasury Department have been seen, an entrance can be had 
to the President's house, the grounds of which adjoin those of the Treasur)'. 

The Department building covers the space occupied by two blocks. It is 
300 feet wide at the north and south fronts, and 582 feet long. The four 
fronts are elaborately finished in the colonnade style, with porticoes on the 
north, south, and west fronts. The east front, the first one built, is of Vir- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



585 



ginia freestone ; the others are of the Dix Island granite. The structure cost 
nearly $7,000,000. It was many years in building, having been added to from 
time to time, as the increase of business required ; and yet it is not large 
enough to accommodate all the bureaus belonging to the Treasury. The 
cash-room is the most beautiful in the building, if not in all Washington. 
The walls and ceilings are entirely of foreign marbles. A permit from the 
Treasurer of the United States can readily be secured, by means of which the 
great vaults can be seen, the visitors being under charge of a Government 
official. The offices of the Secretary of the Treasury are well wortn examin- 
ing. They are richly and tastefully furnished, and the rooms, facing south, 
are of noble r.nd 
beautiful propor- 
tions. 



THE 
WHITE HOUSE. 

The Executive 
Mansion, standing 
on elevated grounds 
between the Treas- 
ury on the east and 
the War, State, and 
Navy Department 
buildings on the 
west, is two stories 
high and 170 feet long. It is modeled after the palace of the Duke of 
Leinster, the architect, James Hoban, being from Ireland. It is of sand- 
stone, painted white. It fronts north on Pennsylvania Avenue, across which 
is Lafayette Park. From the north front projects a huge portico, under 
which the carriages of visitors are driven. The south front looks upon a 
lovely park stretching down to the Washington Monument. The visitor en- 
ters at the north door, and finds himself at once in a magnificent vestibule, 40 
by 50 feet in size. A sash screen, filled with colored and ornamented glass, 
separates the vestibule from the corridor running in front of the Blue, Red, 
and Green parlors and the State dining-room. Ushers are in attendance to 
show to visitors those portions of the house open to the public. The East 
Room is 80 feet long by 40 in width, and is 24 feet high. The ceilings are 




THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



586 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



paneled and richly frescoed, while the chandeliers, mirrors, furniture, and 
carpets are of the most magnificent description. This room is used on all 
occasions of ceremony, grand receptions, etc. The Green Room adjoins on 
the west, and is so called because it is entirely furnished and adorned in green. 
The Blue Room comes next, furnished in blue; in turn the Red Room is en- 
tered, still proceeding west. This last is used more than any other, as the 
sitting-room for the President's family. The State dining-room is in the 
southwest corner of the house. It is 40 by 30 feet, and is very richly fur- 
nished. The family dining-room is also on the first floor, in the northwestern 
part of the house. The east half of the floor above is used for the transac- 
tion of public busi- 



ness. Here the clerks 
and secretaries are 
found, and here is 
the Cabinet Room,_ 
where Cabinet ses- 
sions are held, and 
where the President 
usually receives visi- 
tors on ordinary rou- 
tine business. The 
kitchens, storerooms,. 
servants' quarters, 
etc., are in the base- 
ment. The conser- 




NATKtNAL MUSKLM IILILDING. 



vatory is attached to the west end of the building. It is beautiful and com- 
pletely appointed, and cost over $40,000. The Executive stables are at some 
distance southwest of the mansion. They cost over $30,000. The White 
House was first occupied by John Adams, in 1 800, the corner-stone having 
been laid in 1792. It was burned by the British in 1814. The cost of the 
present structure was something over $300,000. Portraits of the various 
Presidents are hung throughout the building. 

THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 

The Department of the Interior has a grand Doric building, commonl)^ 
known as the Patent Office. A visitor can take one of the cars on the Met- 
ropolitan Street Railway and in five minutes reach the Interior Department 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



587 



building, within which are located the Patent Office, the General Land Office, 
the Geological, the Indian Office, the Census Office, the Educational Bureau, 
etc. For the purpose of saving time, however, he may wisely stop at Tenth 
Street, whereon is located within half a square of " F " Street the old Ford's 
Theatre in which President Lincoln was assassinated, and the house directly 
opposite, where the great martyr died. The old theatre is now used as the 
Army Medical Museum, having been bought by the Government after the 
assassination. 

The Interior Department building covers two squares of ground, be- 
tween Seventh and 
Ninth and " F " and 
" G " Streets. Its 
dimensions are 410 
by 275 feet. It is 
of the Doric style of 
architecture. The 
centre, the first part 
built, is of freestone, 
the rest of marble 
and granite, and its 
cost was nearly $3,- 
000,000. There are 
thousands of patent the war, state, and navy departments. 

models and others objects of interest in this building. 

THE WAR, STATE, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. 

A short walk brings the visitor to the building occupied by the War, 
State, and Navy Departments, just west of the White House. This is one of 
the most beautiful structures in Washington. It is in the Italian renaissance 
style, and is built of Maine and Virginia granite. The architect was A. B. 
Mullett. It is 342 feet in width, and runs 567 feet from north to south. The 
interior finishing is in harmony with the exterior. Taking everything into 
consideration, it is probably finished more handsomely and expensively than 
any other public building in the country. The State Department has charge 
of the original Declaration of Independence. The War and Navy Depart- 
ments have each museums of interesting relics, etc., and superb libraries. In 
all the departmental buildings are to be seen portraits of the various Secre- 




588 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

taries, from the earliest days to the present. It will be some years before 
this building is entirely finished, for, although it is now occupied, the west 
wing yet remains to be built. 

THE DISTRICT COURT-HOUSE, 

where the District Courts hold their sessions, is located on the southern 
part of Judiciary Square, between Fourth and Fifth and "D" and "G" 
Streets. The new building for the accommodation of the Pension Bureau is 
now being constructed on the north side of this square. It was in the Dis- 
trict Court-House that Guiteau was tried and the famous Star Route trial 
was held. 

The Post-Office Department building stands opposite to the Interior De- 
partment building, on the square bounded by " E " and " F " and Seventh 
and Eighth Streets. It is of white marble, and is of the Corinthian style of 
architecture. The Dead-Letter Ofifice is the chief object of interest in this 
building, to which access is readily had. 

The Department of Justice, or Attorney-General's office, is situated at the 
corner of Sixteenth-and-a-half Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, north of the 
Treasury Department. The building, of brick and brown-stone, was erected 
by the Freedman's Bank for its own uses, and was subsequently purchased 
by the Government. There is nothing here to attract the tourist. 

THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING 

is located on an eminence but a short distance southwest of the Agricult- 
ural building. Here the printing of Government bonds, greenbacks, na- 
tional bank notes, internal revenue stamps, etc., etc., is done. No place in 
Washington is more attracti\'e to visitors. The building is very handsome in 
itself, and with its wonderful machincr}- and hundreds of employes rates sec- 
ond to none in interest. 

The Washington Monument is but a short distance south of this building. 
It is undoubtedly the loftiest artificial structure in the world 

The 1880 Census Office, b.axing finished its work, is in a few rooms over the 
Second National l^ank, Seventh Street, opposite the Post-Office Department, 
he Smithsonian Institution is located just east of the Agricultural Bu- 
reau. It is of a red stone, and with its towers and gables of the twelfth cent- 
ury, Norman style of architecture, makes a very pleasing impression. An 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



589 



immense volume would be required to catalogue the curiosities to be found 
here. Adjoining it on the east is the still more interesting National Museum 
building, which is also crowded with curios from all parts of the world. It 
was in this building, then incomplete, that the Garfield Inaugural Ball was 
held in 1881 

THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING-OFFICE. 

This is said to be the largest and best equipped printing-ofifice in the 
world. It is situated at the corner of " H " and North Capitol Streets, and 
covers more than two-thirds of a square of ground. It is in a building 300 
feet by 175, has a 
complete equipment, 
and manufactures 
about 1,000,000 vol- 
umes annually. 

The Navy Yard 
covers about 27 
acres, and though 
not much used for 
the construction of 
vessels, is of great 
importance in manu- 
facturing and storing 
supplies. Besides 
the public buildings 
already erected, others in different parts of the city are rented for the De- 
partment of Justice, Pension Office, Commissary Bureau, and other branches 
of service. 




THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. 



THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM 

contains 10,000 MS. volumes of hospital reports and a large assemblage of 
specimens representing the effects of wounds, diseases, and surgical opera- 
tions. The microscopic section is admirable; and the models of barracks, 
hospitals, ambulances, and surgical instruments, are not equaled in any simi- 
lar collection. The medical library contains about 40,000 volumes. 

The great interests centering in the legislation for over 55,000.000 of peo- 
ple, bring to the city multitudes of people of every class and for various ob- 



590 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



jects; and its pleasant winter climate makes it attractive to persons of wealth 
and leisure from all parts of the country, and to visitors from other lands. 
The fashionable season begins with the meeting of Congress in December. 
From Christmas to Lent, receptions, balls, and dinners abound; the levees of 
the President, members of the Cabinet, and Speaker of the House, are open 
to all comers: the President receives the calls of the public, and on Jan. ist 
his reception is attended by foreign ministers in ofificial costume, officers of 
the Army and Navy in uniform, officers of the Government, members of Con- 
gress, and citizens generally. 

The Pension Office was located (1889) in the Shepherd Building, at the 

corner of Twelfth 
Street and Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue. 

In the long sum- 
mer evenings it is 
the almost universal 
custom in Washing- 
ton to drive out after 
dinner to the Sol- 
diers' Home, where 
there are twenty 
miles of the finest 
roadways in the 
world in the noble 
public park belong- 
ing to this institution, and is well deserving a visit. In the winter the bright,, 
bracing afternoons offer the most favorable opportunities for this purpose. 

The Soldiers' Home, a national institution for invalid soldiers, was estab- 
lished in 185 1. It has since been greatly enlarged, and is maintained with a 
fund accumulated by retaining 12^ cents a month from the pay of each priv- 
ate soldier. The buildings are handsome, and the grounds adorned with 
meadows, groves, and lakes. The Naval Hospital supplies a similar home for 
sick and disabled seamen of the Navy. The buildings of the Home are for 
the most part of Ohio or other white sandstone, and while they are pictures- 
que, afford most comfortable homes for the old veterans. President Lincoln 
occupied one of these cottages for his summer residence. 




ARLINGTON, HOME OF ROBERT E. LEE. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



591 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

occupies a building of brick and brown-stone, in the renaissance style, 170 
feet by 61, with green-houses, graperies, and experimental grounds, around 
it, covering 10 acres. The business of the Department is the distribution 
over the country of seeds, plants, and general agricultural information. 

THE UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 

The LTnited States Naval Observatory is on the Potomac, between Wash- 
ington and Georgetown. The grounds attached to it are 19 acres in extent. 
From the flagstaff 
on the dome of the 
principal building a 
signal-ball is dropped 
daily at noon, trans- 
m i 1 1 i n g by tele- 
graphic connections 
the mean time to all 
parts of the United 
States. Another % 
edifice has been spe- 
cially adapted to the 
reception and em- 
ployment of the 
great equatorial telescope made by Alvan Clark, and mounted in 1873. It 
has an object-glass of 26 inches, and cost nearly $50,000. 

MOUNT VERNON. 

The Tomb of George W^ashington is at Mount Vernon, Washington's old 
home, seventeen miles down the beautiful Potomac. Every day except Sun- 
day a steamer runs to Mount Vernon for the accommodation of tourists, leav- 
ing the city at nine A.M. and returning at four P.M. 

The city has 120 churches. Some of the public halls are Lincoln, Odd 
Fellows', Willard's, Tallmadge, and the Masonic Temple; and of the hotels, 
Willard's, the Arlington, Ebbitt House, Riggs House, National, and Metro- 
politan are widely known. Boarding-houses greatly abound. The number 
of Government ofificers and clerks is about 7,000. During the RebelHon 




THE SOLDIERS HOME. 



592 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Washington was the centre of vast military operations. The mihtary works 
were serviceable for the safety of the city after the disasters of 1862, and 
when Early inarched on the city. Throughout the war Washington was a 
vast depot for military supplies; long trains of army wagons were almost 
constantly passing through its streets; immense hospitals for the sick and 
wounded were erected, and many churches, public institutions, and the Capi- 
tol itself, were at times given up to this service. 

WILLARD'S HOTEL. 

While there are a great many noble buildings and historic spots in Wash- 
ington which have the highest interest to the visitor, Willard's Hotel stands 

second to none of 
t h e m , historically 
considered. 

It was in the very 
early days of the 
Republic, and very 
soon after the Na- 
tional Government 
had become fixed in 
its new quarters on 
the Potomac, that 
the first humble be- 
ginning of what is 
now a magnificent 
and luxurious struct- 
ure, was made on a spot directly adjoining the present site of the house. 
The enterprise of that early day located with wonderful accuracy the 
point that would be most convenient and most desirable for a hotel. Wil- 
lard's was known seventy-five years ago as the "City" Hotel, subsequently 
it was called " Williamson's," and later on it took the name of " Fuller's," 
which it kept until a few years before the Civil War, when, passing into the 
hands of the Willards, it was given its present name. 

From a time whereof the memory of even the oldest inhabitant of the 
city runneth not to the contrary, our Presidents have gone from the suites of 
rooms on the second floor at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Four- 
teenth Street, escorted with all the pomp and pageantry which have grown 




MOUNT VERNON. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



593 



up around the ceremony, to the east front of the noble Capitol building, 
there to assume the oath of their high office in the presence of waiting thou- 
sands, and to deliver their inaugural addresses which marked out the policy 
to be pursued by the new administration. 

Of the vast armies which ebbed and flowed through Washington during 
the late war, there are thousands of old soldiers who will recall with delight 
the hours spent within the hospitable doors of Willard's. The old statesmen 
who served their country in the halls of Congress or the Cabinets of the 
Presidents will recall, at the sound of the name, the grave and patriotic con- 
sultations held within the walls of the famous old house — consultations which 

had for their object _^- _^_* ^^. ^ -- ^ 

the happiness of mil- ^ - -- ^ - j-n^ - ^ ^ 

lions of people, the 
welfare of the great 
Republic. 



THE CORCORAN 
GALLERY OF 
ART. 

This building, 
with a large num- 
ber of paintings and 
an endowment fund 
of $900,000, was given to the United States by Mr. W. W. Corcoran, a retired 
banker of great wealth, well known for his generous endowments, who re- 
sided in Washington until his death in 1888. Handsome additions of works 
of art are made to the gallery every year, and it is well worth a visit. 




\\ II I ^RD S HO ILL. 



LAFAYETTE SQUARE. 

Leaving the art gallery and passing east, this lovely park is reached by a 
walk of half a square. In the centre is Clark Mills' celebrated equestrian 
statue of General Jackson. The public parks are kept in admirable order by 
appropriations made by Congress, and expended under the direction of an 
officer of the Army Engineers detailed to the charge of public buildings and 
grounds. 

38 



594 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



. STATUES AND MONUMENTS. 

There are a great many statues of distinguished soldiers and statesmen 
scattered over the city, located in the various parks and squares. Of these 
may be enumerated the Thomas equestrian statue, in Thomas circle, at the 

junction of Fourteenth 
Street and Vermont Ave- 
nue; Scott's equestrian 
statue in Scott circle, at the 
junction of Sixteenth Street 
and Massachusetts Avenue ; 
McPherson's equestrian 
statue in McPherson 
Square, Fifteenth and ' K " 
Streets; Farragut's statue 
in Farragut Square, Seven- 
teenth and "K" Streets; 
Jackson's equestrian statue, 
fronting the White House; 
Rawlins' equestrian statue, 
New York Avenue, be- 
tween Eighteenth and 
Nineteenth Streets; eques- 
trian statue of Washing- 
ton in Georgetown circle, 
Pennsylvania Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street ; these 
are all in the northwestern 
part of the city ; east of the 
Capitol, in Stanton Square, 
at t h e intersection of 
STATUES AND MONUMENTS. Maryland and Massachu- 

setts Avenues, is the equestrian statue of General Nathaniel Greene, of 
Revolutionary fame; and in Lincoln Square, due east of the Capitol a half a 
mile or more, is the bronze group, called " Emancipation," representing Pres- 
ident Lincoln striking the manacles off the slave. The National monu- 
ment to Washington was commenced in 1848, and after long delay is now 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 595 

completed as a lofty and plain obelisk, 70 feet square at the base and 600 
feet high. 

The population in 1880 was 147,293, and in 1889 was estimated to be 185,- 
000. The yearly city expenditures average $3,500,000, the cost per capita 
being $17.38. The natural situation of the city is pleasant and salubrious. 
It is one of the handsomest and most commodious cities in the world. Its 
great prosperity is due to the presence of the National Government. It has 
considerable retail trade, but the manufacturing or other business is unim- 
portant. 

VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 

The Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, at Kendall Green, ac- 
commodates 100 pupils in beautiful buildings, surrounded with 100 acres; the 
Hospital for the Insane has a commodious building in the midst of 400 acres, 
and shelters 600 patients; Providence Hospital has 200 inmates; the Louise 
Home is a beautiful building, on the finest avenue of the city, erected and 
endowed by Mr. Corcoran as a memorial of his daughter and a home for gen- 
tlewomen who have become poor. The Columbia Woman's Hospital, the 
Washington Orphan Asylum, Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, St. 
Joseph's and St. Vincent's Orphan Asylums, St. John's Hospital for Children, 
the Freedmen's Hospital, and the Home for the Aged, under the care of 
" The Little Sisters of the Poor," are among the charitable institutions with 
which the city abounds. Among its institutions of learning are Columbian 
University, Gonzaga College, under Jesuit instruction, and Howard Univer- 
sity, for colored youth, under Congregational and Presbyterian supervision. 



NEW YORK CITY. 




EW YORK, one of the greatest cities of modern times, is the most 
important city and seaport in the United States, and the third in 
the civilized world. If to the population of New York in 1889 
we add that of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and other neighboring communities, 
which are practically the suburbs of New York, we find within a radius of 
twenty-five miles from the City Hall a compact population of nearly 3,000,- 
000, which is the real population of the great city. Its wonderful increase 
can be attributed in great part to its admirable situation. The water in the 
outer and inner bay and in the river is so deep that great ships lie close to 
the piers. The navigation of the harbor is seldom impeded by ice, even 
when the Chesapeake and others are frozen up. The canal system connects 
it not only with Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, but also with the Ohio River, 
which gives it an outlet to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Soon 
after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York, which was at that 
time smaller than Philadelphia, began to make tremendous strides, and soon 
was far in advance of all other American cities. Its facilities for cheap 
communication with the Great West give it great advantage over Boston 
and other Eastern coast cities, and for this reason they can never rival it. 
Philadelphia and Baltimore are nearer the West, but are at a considerable 
distance from the ocean, and when their vessels arrive at the open sea they 
are left behind in the race to Europe, as they have a much further dis- 
tance to go than vessels leaving New York, which is a great loss and disad- 
vantage for steamers, not only in time and expense, but in earning capacity, 
as every extra ton of coal carried to complete the voyage means one ton of 
freight less, as it reduces the carrying capacity for freight to just that ex- 
tent. It is true the coal consumed in the voyage can be purchased cheaper 
in Baltimore and Philadelphia. New York's imports are annually about 
$320,000,000; domestic exports about $300,000,000; foreign exports about 
$13,000,000. The exports would probably be far in excess of the imports 
were it not for the fact that a great many goods from the West and 
South are exported by way of New Orleans, while most of the valuable arti- 
cles brought from abroad that are consumed in the same States come in by 
way of New York, 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



=97 



New York is situated on the east side of the mouth of the Hudson River, 
at its junction with the East River, which opens into Long Island Sound, in 
the State of New York, i8 miles from the 
ocean, and separated from the mainland 
by a narrow strait, called the Harlem 
River, on the east, and on the west hy 
Spuyten Duyvil Creek. This forms the 
island of Manhattan. The city also in- 
cludes several smaller islands, contain- 
ing the fortifications in the harbor and 
the public institutions in the East River, 
and since 1874 a considerable portion of 
the mainland north of Manhattan Island, 
Its boundaries (1889) are Yonkers on the 
north, the Bronx River and the East 
River on the east, the bay on the south, 
and the North or Hudson River on the 
west. The city extends 16 miles north 
from the Battery, its middle part is 41^ 
miles wide, and its total area 41^ square 
miles. 

HISTORICAL EPITOME. 

September 9, 1609, Henry Hudson, an 
Englishman in the employ of the Dutch 
East India Company, sailed his little ves- 
sel into New York Bay, and commenced 
his voyage up the river to which his name 
is attached, which he explored to a point 
above Hudson. All the land which he 
discovered was claimed by the Dutch, and 
named New Netherland, and in 161 1 the '^ 
States-General offered special privileges bartholdi statue— "liberty enlightening 
to any company opening and encouraging ^"^ world." 

trade with the natives of their newly-acquired possessions. This encourage- 
ment procured not only trading, but colonization. In 161 3 a fort was built 
on Manhattan Island, but the settlement about it was broken up by the Eng- 




598 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

lish. In the following year another Dutch colony established itself on the 
same spot, and continued in possession. In 162 1 the prospects of a lucrative 
commerce with America had induced certain merchants in Holland to com- 
bine in the organization of the Dutch West India Company, for colonization 
purposes, and two years later this company took out eighteen families, who 
settled at Fort Orange (Albany), and thirty families, who made a settlement 
on Manhattan Island, which they bought for $24, and founded New Amster- 
dam, now New York. This was accomplished by Peter Minnits, the Director- 
General, who, representing the Dutch West India Company, came here to 
take charge of their colonies. He was an able Governor. 




SCENE I.N NEW YDRK BAY. 



The English opposition to the Dutch colonization schemes was persistent 
from the beginning, and fruitful of much conflict. The English claimed the 
territory north of Virginia on the ground of the anterior discoveries by Cabot; 
and in 1664 a charter was granted by Charles II, to the Duke of York, which 
covered all the lands lying between the Hudson and the Delaware, and in- 
cluded New Netherland, as well as lands already held by prior grant, by 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In the summer of the year 
in which this charter was given, Colonel Nicolls was sent from England with 
sufificient force, and on arriving at New Amsterdam demanded the surrender 
of the Dutch possessions. The demand was acceded to by Governor Stuyve- 
sant, who was powerless to prevent its enforcement, and the country in ques- 
tion passed into the hands of the English without a struggle. The name New 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 599 

York was now given both to the settlement on Manhattan Island and to the 
entire province, and that of Albany to Fort Orange. A subsequent recap- 
ture by the Dutch was followed by a speedy restoration to the English ; and 
on the Duke of York ascending the throne of England under the title of 
James II., the province passed into the possession of the Crown. 

In 1696 the first Trinity Church was built. A slave market was estab- 
lished in 171 1. The Nczv York Gazette was established in 1725; this was the 
first newspaper published in the city. About 1730 a line of stages was estab- 
lished between New York and Boston ; they occupied two weeks in making 
the trip. In 1750 the first theatre in the city was opened. In 1755 the Stamp 
Act created great excitement ; the Colonial Congress assembled in the city, 
and the Stamp Act was publicly burned. In 1765 the Sons of Liberty were 
organized. The statue of George III. was destroyed in 'lyjo, and the duty 
on tea was resisted in the same year. In 1774 a ship laden with tea was re- 
turned to England after eighteen chests were destroyed. In 1776 the city 
was occupied by an American force, but the battles of Long Island and others 
in the immediate vicinity being disastrous to our arms, Washington and his 
army abandoned it, and the British took possession of the city and held it for 
seven years, from August 26, 1776, to November 23, 1783. The building of 
the present City Hall was commenced in 1803, and finished in 18 12. Robert 
Fulton made his first steamboat voyage to Albany in 1807, and in 1812 began 
running the ferries from New York to Brooklyn by steam. In the same year 
gas was introduced, but did not come into general use until 1825. 

The Erie Canal was begun in i8i7and finished in 1825. The effect of this 
great work was to enrich the State, while opening the way for the stream of 
commerce which has resulted in making the city of New York the metropolis 
of the Western Continent. 

In 1826 the Hudson & Mohawk Railroad was chartered — probably the 
first railroad charter granted in the country. This road was commenced in 
1830, and the New York & Erie in 1836. The gradual absorption of the vari- 
ous New York lines which form the Hudson River Railroad, and the consoli- 
dation of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroads into one pow- 
erful four-track trunk line connecting the metropolis with the West, were 
significant events in the development of the city and State. 

In 1832 an epidemic of cholera caused the death of nearly 4,000 persons, 
and in 1834 about 1,000. The east side of the city below Wall Street was 
destroyed by fire in 1835, the entire loss being $18,000,000. In 1837 a finan- 




GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT. SHOWING ELEVATED RMLROAD. N Y. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 6oi 

cial panic brought failures and general loss to the entire country. The Astor 
Place riots in 1849, '^"cl the cholera epidemic of that year, which carried off 
5,071 persons, were important events. The first city railroad was built in 
1852, and on July 14, 1853, the Crystal Palace Industrial Exhibition was 
opened, the President of the United States officiating. A second financial 
panic occurred in 1857. From i860 to 1865 the city was engaged in patriotic 
and generous service in behalf of the Union, threatened by the secession of 
the Southern States. In the fall of 1873 occurred the great financial panic 
which began with the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. During several years at 
this period an investigation took place into the acts of the so-called " Tweed 
Ring," by which the city had been plundered of many millions of dollars. 
The arrest, flight, and punishment of most of the offenders, and the death of 
Tweed himself in prison, was a lesson that seems to have been forgotten by 
the aldermen that granted the Broadway Railroad franchise in 1884, which led 
to the indictment of all but two. In 1883-4 there was great depression in 
business, which at one time almost amounted to a panic. The election in the 
fall of 1884, which placed Grover Cleveland in the Presidency, created great 
excitement in the city, and caused general depression in trade, which, after 
the inauguration, speedily revived. 

New York is connected with Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Bridge, also by 
numerous steam ferries ; there are also many large steam ferry-boats running 
to Jersey City and other places. Manhattan Island is 13^2 miles long and 
one and three-fifths wide. There are eighty-five piers or wharves on the 
Hudson River, and seventy-five on the East River. At the piers on both 
sides of each river is accommodated the great sailing commerce of the city. 
A ridge runs through the centre of the city like a backbone; it rises at Wash- 
ington Heights to 238 feet. Avenues 100 feet wide and 8 or 10 miles long, 
mostly in straight lines, are crossed at right angles by streets from 50 to lOO 
feet wide, extending from river to river. There are five avenues designated 
respectively A, B, C, D, and E. The numbered cross-streets are designated 
east and west from Fifth Avenue. There are also 13 numbered avenues, 
nearly 200 numbered streets, and about 400 named streets, avenues, etc. 

NOTABLE BUILDINGS. 

New York is built of brick, sandstone, granite, iron, and white marble. 
Among its finest edifices are the City Hall, Custom-House, County Court- 
House, Post-Office, Trinity Church, Grace Church, two universities, the Roman 



6o: 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Catholic Cathedral, .Vcademy of Music, Metropolitan Opera House, Casino, 
Cooper Institute, numerous great hotels, and man}^ fine public and private 
structures. Besides, there are thirty-five Roman Catholic schools and colleges 
and academies of the religious orders. The hospitals and institutions of char- 
ity are on a liberal scale; and besides legal outdoor relief, the poor are visited 
and cared for by a public society, with agents in every direction. Among the 
charities are asylums for insane, blind, deaf and dumb, magdalens, foundlings, 

etc. The Astor Free 
Library, founded by 
John Jacob Astor, has 
150,000 carefully se- 
lected volumes; the 
Mercantile Library, 
150,000 volumes, with 
a large, reading-room ; 
Society Library, 64,- 
000; Apprentices' Li- 
brary, 50,000, with rich 
museums of antiquities ; 
the Cooper Institute, a 
present to the city by 
Peter Cooper, has a free 
reading-room, picture- 
gallery, art-schools, etc. 
Annual art exhibitions 
are given by the Na- 
tional Academy of De- 
sign, Dusseldorf, and 
International Galleries. 
Among the clubs are the Army and Navy, Knickerbocker, Lotos, Man- 
hattan, Century, Down-Town, Harmonic, Merchants', New York, Press, Rac- 
quet, St. Nicholas, Union League, Union, Arion and Liederkranz (singing), 
and University. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 for the purpose of 
encouraging the study of the fine arts, and the application of the principles 
of art to manufactures and to practical life, and for the purpose of furnishing- 
popular instruction. The building was erected at a cost of $500,000, and 




liKOADWAY AM) IRIMl\ CHURCH. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



603 



opened March 30, 1880, by the President of the United States. It is located 
in Central Park at Fifth Avenue and Eighty-second Street. It is 218 feet 
long and 95 broad, and contains numerous articles of great beauty and inter- 
est. It is open free of charge to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fri- 
days, and Saturdays; 50 cents is charged for admission on Mondays and 
Tuesdays. The Museum of Natural History is located in Central Park at 
Eighty-first Street and Eighth Avenue; admission free. The city contains 
numerous art galleries, over 300 public schools, and about 400 churches. The 
Bartholdi statue is on Bedloe's Island, a short distance from the Battery, 
which is at the foot of Broadway. 

The Stock Exchange is a fine white marble building, located in Broad 




FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL. 



Street, having an extension to Wall Street and running back to New Street. 
Seats in the Exchange are now worth $32,000. None but members are 
allowed on the floor. Ten thousand dollars is paid to the heirs of every de- 
ceased member from the Gratuity Fund established by the Exchange. 

Among the important buildings deserving notice is St. Patrick's (Roman 
Catholic) Cathedral, occupying the block on Fifth Avenue, between Fiftieth 
and Fifty-first Streets. The corner-stone was laid on August 15, 1858, and 
it was dedicated by Cardinal McCloskey, May 25, 1879. The architecture is 
of the thirteenth century style, the ground plan being in the form of a Latin 
cross. The dimensions are: Interior length, 306 feet; breadth of nave and 
choir, 96 feet, with the chapels, 120 feet; length of transept, 140 feet; height. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 605 

108 feet. The Fifth Avenue front comprises a central gable 156 feet in height, 
with towers and spires, each 330 feet high. The building is of white maible, 
with a base-course of granite. The total cost was about $2,500,000. The 
building of the Young Men's Christian Association, Fourth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, was erected in 1869, and cost $500,000. It is French 
renaissance in style, five stories high, 175 feet front and 86 feet depth. 

Castle Garden is now used as a depot for emigrants, for which purpose it 
has been employed since 1855. It is situated in the Battery Park, at the ex- 
treme southern end of Manhattan Island, convenient for foreign steamers and 
shipping. The business of receiving, caring for, and shipping to their desti- 
nation the many thousands of immigrants is in charge of seven Commission- 
ers of Emigration. During a single year 372,880 persons arrived at this port, 
of whom 320,607 passed through Castle Garden. Their destinations were — 
Eastern States, 63,368; Western States, 112,119; Southern States, 6,497; 
New York State, 137,561 ; Canada, 1,627. 

The Croton Aqueduct brings a river of pure soft water from 40 miles dis- 
tance, which is received in reservoirs of a capacity of 1,500,000,000 gallons, 
and distributed with such a head as to supply public fountains of 60 and 80 
feet jet, and the upper stories of most buildings. 

Central Park is laid out in the finest style of landscape gardening, and is 
two and one-half miles long by three-fifths of a mile wide. It was begun in 
1858, and includes between 59th and i loth Streets and between Fifth and 
Eighth Avenues, and contains 840 acres, in which are two large lakes. It 
is inferior in some respects to older parks, especially when its trees are com- 
pared with old park forests. Its lawns are necessarily limited in space, yet 
in proportion to the space which it covers it has developed many beauties 
and much interest for the public. The plans for its laying out were sub- 
mitted and executed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. Four 
thousand men were engaged on the work in 1858. The ground was a region 
of hills and swampy hollows, containing a few old farms and mansions. 
Within five years the transformation was astonishing. The reservoirs within 
it occupy 142 acres. In addition to this water there are six artificial lakes, 
containing 42 acres; the lawns cover nearly no acres. It contains nearly 10 
miles of carriage roads, 28 miles of walks, and nearly 6 miles devoted to 
equestrians; there are in all 46 bridges. The visitors to the park often num- 
ber 100,000 a day. 

Riverside Park, which is now famous as General Grant's last resting-place, 



6o6 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



is situated above Central Park, on the east bank of the Hudson River. It is 
a long, narrow strip of land, and is visited by thousands from all parts of the 
country. The tomb can be seen by travelers on the Hudson River boats, as 
the site commands a fine view of the river. About twenty other smaller pub- 
lic parks are to be found in the city. 

New York is the great centre of Am.erican finance and commerce. It 
receives 66 per cent, of all imports, and sends out 50 per cent, of all exports. 

The New York & Harlem, 
the New York, New Ha- 
ven & Hartford, and the 
New York Central & Hud- 
son River Railroads ter- 
minate at the Grand Cen- 
tral Depot at Forty-second 
Street, while many rail- 
roads terminate at Jersey 
City, the passengers being 
carried across the Hudson 
River on the companies' 
large and commodious fer- 
ry-boats. The Long Is- 
land Railroad terminates 
at Hunter's Point, L. I., 
and connects with the city 
by ferry. The finest pas- 
senger steamboats in the 
world pass up the Hudson, Long Island Sound, and down the Narrows,, 
through the Lower Bay. 

GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION. 

The government of the city is vested in the " Mayor, Aldermen, and com- 
monalty of the city of New York." The legislative power is vested in a board 
of twenty-four aldermen. The executive power is vested in the Mayor and 
heads of departments appointed by the Mayor, and confirmed by the Board 
of Aldermen, for a term of six years (except in special cases). The salary of 
the Mayor is $i2,ooo, and that of each Alderman $4,000 per annum. The 
Finance Department is under the direction of the Comptroller, who receives 




THE CUSTOM HuLSE, 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 607 

a salary of $I0,000 per annum. The City Chamberlain receives a salary of 
$30,000, out of which he pays all the expenses of his of^ce. 

The Health Department is under the direction of a Board of Health, 
which has charge of all sanitary matters except the cleaning of streets. The 
expense of the Fire Department, which is very efficient, is about $1,500,- 
000 annually. The Building Department supervises the erection of new 
buildings and additions to old structures within the city limits. 

The Police Department is governed by a Board of four Commissioners, 
who receive $6,000 a year each, excepting the President of the Board, who 
is selected by themselves from themselves, and receives $8,000. Patrolmen 
receive $1,000 a year; roundsmen, $1,200; sergeants, $1,500, and captains, 
$2,000. The city has a large number of public markets under the general 
direction of a superintendent. Besides the General Post-Ofifice, there are 
19 sub-stations and over 1,000 lamp-post boxes, from which collections are 
made seven times daily (Sundays excepted). Each police court has connected 
with it a prison, viz. : The Tombs, or City Prison, in Centre Street ; Essex 
Market, in Essex Street ; Jefferson Market, Sixth Avenue and West Tenth 
Street; Yorkville, Fifty-seventh Street; Harlem, 125th Street. Ludlow 
Street Jail is used for prisoners from the Federal and State Courts. 

The evening schools supply instruction to about 20,000 children and 
others who are obliged to work during the day. The College of the City of 
New York was established in 1847, ^^^ until 1866 was known as the New 
York Free Academy. It is open only to pupils from the public schools who 
have been in attendance at least one year. The college confers the degrees 
of B.A., M.A., B.S., and M.S. The buildings are on Lexington Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, and valued at $150,000; they contain a library, natural 
history cabinet, and scientific apparatus, the whole valued at $75,000. The 
annual cost of maintaining the college is about $150,000. The Normal Col- 
lege for Women is on Sixty-ninth Street, between Lexington and Fourth 
Avenues. The building is 300 feet long and 125 feet wide, fronting on Fourth 
Avenue; its cost was $350,000. There is also a model or training school for 
practice. Its object is to prepare teachers for the common schools. The 
cost of maintaining this institution is about $100,000 per annum. Other in- 
stitutions of learning are Columbia College, the University of the City of New 
York, and the medical, law, and theological schools and seminaries. Colum- 
bia College, originally King's College, was chartered in 1754. The Corpora- 
tion of Trinity Church erected the first college building on the church lands 



6o8 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



between College Place and the Hudson River. About 1850 the old buildings 
were surrendered, and the college removed to its present site on Madison and 
Fourth Avenues, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets. The departments are the 
Academic, the School of Mines, and the Law School. The University of 
the City of New York is comprised in the university building on Washington 
Square, and the Medical College building on East Twenty-sixth Street, oppo- 
site Bellevue Hospital. The university was chartered in 1830, and is non- 
denominational. Instruction in the departments of the arts and sciences is 
given free of charge. 

The regular medical schools or colleges are Bellevue Hospital Medical 




THE GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT. 



College, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the University Medical 
College, the second of these being the Medical Department of Columbia 
College, Bellevue Hospital Medical College is located within the hospital 
grounds, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth Street. It was founded in 1801, 
and is under the control of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor- 
rections. Applicants for admission must be eighteen years of age. The course 
of study is three years. The fees in all amount to $185. The college ranks 
high, and has about 500 students. 

The Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary is situated in what is 
known as Chelsea Square, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and Twentieth 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



609 



and Twenty-first Streets. It was founded in 1819 and chartered in 1822. 
The course of study lasts three years. The Union Theological Seminary is 
on University Place, between Waverley and Clinton Places. It was founded 
in 1836. The seminary course occupies three years, and the library has 35,000 
volumes. 

In 1700 there were only 800 dwelling-houses on Manhattan Island, and 
about 5,000 inhabitants. In 1790 the population was 29,906, and the city ex- 
tended as far north as the lower end of the City Hall Park. In 1805 the popu- 
lation was 79,770; in 1840,312,700; in 1880, 1,206,577, and in 1889, 1,500,000. 




SHIP-BUILDING. 




NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN BRIDGE. 



CITY OF BROOKLYN. 




ROOKLYN is situated at the west end of Long Island, and is the 
capital of Kings County, N. Y. There are thirteen lines of steam 
ferries plying between Brooklyn and New York, and the annex 
boats connect Jersey City with Fulton Street, Brooklyn, every twenty min- 
utes. The " Brooklyn Bridge," which crosses the East River, and connects 
Brooklyn with New York, is 125 feet above high water; its total length is 
5,989 feet, or about a mile and a quarter; it is 85 feet wide, and its grand 
stone piers rise 278 feet above high water; their size at high-water line is 
140x59 feet. The Bridge cost $15,000,000, and is a marvel of engineering 
skill. Occupying comparatively elevated ground, Brooklyn comm.ands a 
complete view of the adjacent waters and their shores. It is governed by 
a mayor and board of aldermen. Brooklyn has a very large number of 
churches (nearly 300 in all), whence it is often called the " City of Churches." 
It has an immense trade in grain, the warehouses being capable of holding 
about 12,000,000 bushels. It possesses also a National navy yard, which 
embraces 45 acres of land, and magnificent docks, including a wet-dock 
for the largest vessels, the most extensive in the Union. Along the entire 
river front is an almost unbroken line of storehouses. The Atlantic 
Dock warehouses of South Brooklyn, opposite Governor's Island, cover a 
space of 20 acres, and inclose a basin 40 acres in area, and about 25,000 ves- 
sels, exclusive of canal boats and lighters, are said to be annually unloaded 
there. The principal articles are molasses, sugar, grain, coffee, oil, hides, and 
wool. The annual storage of merchandise in Brooklyn is valued at nearly 
$300,000,000. The streets, with the exception of Fulton Street, the principal 
thoroughfare, are generally straight, have a width of from 60 to 100 feet, and 
cross each other at right angles. The large number of persons who reside in 
Brooklyn and do business in New York has caused the city to be termed 
" the bedroom of New York," the largest part of the city being devoted to 
private dwelling-houses. 

Brooklyn is connected with other parts of Long Island by a number of 
railroads, besides lines of city horse railroads in every direction ; an elevated 
railroad extends from Fulton Ferry to East New York, a distance of 5^ miles, 
and connects with the Bridge cars. Several other elevated railroads are in 



6i2 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

course of construction. The city is well supplied with pure soft water. 
Under the act of consolidation the city comprises Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, 
Greenpoint, Wallabout, Bedford, New Brooklyn, Bushwick, Gowanus, and 
South Brooklyn, embracing an area of 16,000 acres, or 25 square miles. The 
city is 8 miles long, with a breadth from 2 to 5 miles; it has a water-front on 
the East River and Bay of New York, 8^ miles in length. Along the shore, 
near the end of the Island, is a bluff, which is called the " Brooklyn Heights," 
on wh'ich are many fine residences. A large portion of the city is level. 

Williamsburgh, now called Brooklyn, E. D. (eastern district), contains a 
large number of manufacturing establishments, and has its entire water-front 
devoted to commercial purposes. Greenpoint also contains large ship-yards 
and manufactories. 

South Brooklyn has an extensive water-front, and contains large wood, 
coal, stone, and lumber yards, numerous planing-mills, distilleries, breweries, 
plaster-mills, foundries and machine shops. 

Brooklyn has several parks; one of the finest in the county is Prospect 
Park. It was commenced in 1866, and covers 550 acres, including the Parade 
Ground. The site is one full of natural beauty, and on which some of the 
battles of the Revolution were fought. The Park has a fertile soil, magnificent 
views, fine forest trees, and a large, magnificent lake. It has a nobler effect 
in sylvan features than Central Park. Upon the Plaza afc the main entrance 
is a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln and a beautiful fountain. From 
Lookout Hill can be seen the palatial hotels at Coney Island, which is about 
seven miles distant, and the Atlantic Ocean. A fine wide boulevard lined with 
shade trees extends from the Park to the Island, on which are numerous hos- 
telries. The boulevard is under the supervision of- the Park Commissioners, 
is generally in fine condition and well patronized. The Park has 1 1 miles 
of walks and 10 miles of roads for driving and riding. 

Among the cemeteries which are widely known are Greenwood, Cypress 
Hills, and the Evergreens. 

The more important churches are — St. Ann's, on the Heights, which is a 
fine Episcopal church. The Church of the Holy Trinity is one of the hand- 
somest churches in the country. St. Paul's has a front of 75 feet, and a depth 
of 145 feet. The Church of the Pilgrims is built of gray stone, and inserted 
in the main tower is a piece of the Plymouth Rock; its pastor. Dr. R. S. 
Storrs, is a noted pulpit orator. Plymouth Church has accommodations for 
seating 2,800 persons; the late Henry Ward Beecher was its pastor for forty 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 613 

years, and the desire to hear him preach was so great that many pew-holders 
refused to give up their seats to strangers for the evening service. A Roman 
Catholic cathedral is in process of erection on Lafayette Avenue; it will be 
a very large and imposing structure. The Tabernacle is on Schermerhorn 
Street; the interior is well arranged for seating a large audience; the plan is 
a large semicircle, giving the speaker command of the entire building; its 
pastor is the well-known Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage. 

There are nearly 200 private schools and educational institutions in 
Brooklyn. Among the principal buildings are the City Hall, the Kings 
County Court-house, the new Hall of Records, the new Post-office, the new 
Brooklyn Orphan Asylum, the College of St. John the Baptist, the Art build- 
ing, the Academy of Design, and the Long Island Historical Society. The 
Academy of Music, on Montague Street, was built in i860; it contains seats 
for 2,300 persons. Opposite is the Brooklyn Library; the building was com- 
pleted in 1867, at a cost of $227,000. The Kings County Penitentiary is on 
Nostrand Avenue. The four principal theatres are the Park Theatre, on 
Fulton Street, opposite the City Hall Park; the Brooklyn Theatre, corner of 
Johnson and Washington Streets, on the site of one which was destroyed by 
fire December 6, 1876, causing the death of over 300 persons — the new struct- 
ure has proper means of exit; the Grand Opera House, on Elm Place; 
and the Criterion Theatre, on Fulton Avenue near Grand Avenue. The lat- 
ter was completed in the fall of 1885, and has a very handsome interior. 
There are twenty-one hospitals, dispensaries, and infirmaries, besides numer- 
ous other benevolent institutions. 

The first settlement of Brooklyn was in 1636; it was then called " Breucke- 
len," at which time a few Walloon colonists settled on the spot now known 
as the Wallabout. English and Dutch settlers followed. In 1667 the town 
received a charter from the Governor; in 1666 the first church was erected; 
in 1698 the population was 509 — of these, 65 were slaves; in 1776, on the 
site of the present city, the battle of Long Island was fought, and its neigh- 
borhood was one of the principal seats of the Revolutionary War. Brooklyn 
became a chartered city in 1834, and Williamsburgh became a city in 1851. 
In 1800 the population of Brooklyn was 3,298; in 1830, 15,292; in 1840, 2,6,- 
233; in 1850, 96,838; in i860, after its consolidation with Williamsburgh, the 
population was 266,661 ; in 1870 it was 396,099; in 1880, 554,696; and in 1889, 
it was estimated to be 805,855. 



JERSEY CITY. 



ERSEY CITY, the county seat of Hudson County, is situated in 
the State of New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River, 
opposite New York, of which it is in fact, though in another State, 
an extension. Large steam ferry-boats connect it with New York; they are 
hghted with gas and electricity, and travel day and night. In 1802 it con- 
tained but thirteen inhabitants, living in a single house. In 1804 the 
Legislature of the State granted a charter to the "Associates of the Jersey 
Company," who laid out the place in streets in 1820. It was incorporated 
as " the City of Jersey;" in 1838 the name was changed to " Jersey City." 
It is now about 5 miles long and 3 miles wide. Its principal public build- 
ings are the County Court-house, the City Hall, the Jail, and the Market; 
while the business portion of the city has numerous substantial business 
structures, yet it is not as imposing as might be expected from its popula- 
tion, but this can very properly be attributed to its close proximity to New 
York. The city has many handsome residences, many fine school buildings 
and churches. There are several small public squares; some of them 
contain fountains, and are adorned with trees. The Morris Canal, which 
connects the Delaware with the Hudson, terminates here. Numerous lines 
of railway approach New York at this point; among the principal are the 
Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Northern New Jersey, the New Jersey Midland, 
the Reading, the Central of New Jersey, and the New York and Midland, 
The work of constructing a tunnel under the Hudson between Jersey City 
and New York has been in slow progress several years. 

The city is a part of the New York Customs district, and, therefore, not 
a port of entry. The immense quantities of coal and iron brought to the 
city by the canal and railroads create a large business. The city has large 
manufacturing interests, including extensive glass works, the United States 
Watch Manufactory, steel works, crucible works, boiler works, zinc works, 
railroad repair and supply shops, locomotive works, machine shops, foun- 
dries, sugar refineries, breweries, medals, car springs, pottery, chains and spikes, 
planing-mills, soap and candles, articles in copper, saleratus, oils, fireworks, 
jewelry, drugs, lead pencils, chemicals, etc. Large numbers of animals are 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 615 

slaughtered in the northern part of the city for the New York market. The 
city is supplied with water from the Passaic River. 

Among the charitable institutions are the City Hospital, the Home for 
Aged Women, and the Children's Home. The number of churches is 60. The 
population in 1880 was 120,728, and in 1887 it was estimated at 185,000. 



CITY OF NEWARK. 



EWARK is a city and port of entry of New Jersey, and capital of 
Essex County. It is situated on an elevated plain on the right or 
west bank of the Passaic River, 10 miles from New York and 4 
miles from Newark Bay. Its principal street is over 2 miles long, 120 feet 
wide, shaded by great elm trees and bordering on three beautiful parks. The 
population, which has increased very rapidly, was, in 1780, 1,000; in 1870, 
105,059; in 1880, 136,400; and in 1889, between 175,000 and 180,000. The 
amount appropriated for expenditures in one year was $1,742,912. The 
College of New Jersey was located in Newark from 1747 to 1755 ; the Newark 
Academy was founded in 1792. The town was sacked, plundered, and 
nearly destroyed by the British in 1777. Newark is a very beautiful and 
industrious city, and contains 104 churches-,- an academy, high-school, and 26 
public schools. It has many fine public buildings, among which are the City 
Hall, Court-house, Custom-house and Post-of^ce. Among the prominent socie- 
ties are the N. J. Historical Society, the Newark Library Association, and the 
Y. M. C. A. Among the goods manufactured are carriages, india-rubber goods, 
jewelry, machinery, leather, paper, patent leather, and spool thread ; there 
are also very large breweries, in fact the city is noted for its varied manufact- 
ures, numerous industries, and large life and fire insurance companies. The 
shipping interests are very large, the docks being nearly a mile and a half in 
length. The total capital and assets belonging to the financial institutions 
amount to about $100,000,000. It is the largest city in the State, and contains 
nearly two hundred miles of streets and nearly fifty miles of sewers. Great 
quantities of building material are produced from the brown-stone quarries 
in and near the city. In 1682 Newark was famous for the manufacture 
of cider. In 1665 the colonies of Hartford and New Haven, Conn., being 
united in spite of the opposition of the people of Branford, the latter deserted 



6i6 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



that part of the country in a body, headed by their pastor, and taking with 
them their famiHes and household goods. They bought the land on which 
Newark now stands, from the Hackensack Indians, for £130, 12 blankets, 
and 12 guns, and there founded their city, laying it out in broad streets. No 
one was permitted to hold office, or vote, or was a freeman, who did not have 
membership in the Congregational Church. About four miles from Newark 
is the beautiful city of Orange, with a population of 15,000. One of the 
numerous horse railroads connects the two cities. 




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BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 





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FACSIMILE OF LETTER FEOM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO MR. STRAHAN. 



CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. 




HILADELPHIA is the chief city and seaport of Pennsylvania, and 
the second as to population and importance in the United States. 
^ It is situated on a plain on the west bank of the Delaware River 
(which separates it from New Jersey), at the mouth of the Schuylkill, which, 
since 1854, the time of the extension of the boundaries of the city to those 
of the county, flows through the 
city and joins the Delaware. The 
city between the two rivers is 
about 3 miles wide, and its water 
front on the Delaware is 23 miles 
in extent. It is 96 miles from 
New York, 135 from Washing- 
ton, and 96 from the open sea. 
Its extreme length is about 23 
miles north and south, it averages 
about 5^ miles wide east and 
west, and embraces 129 square 
miles. The city, as founded and 
planned in 1682 by William Penn, 
was bounded by Vine and Cedar 
Streets and the two rivers. That 
portion which lies west of the 
Schuylkill is now called West 
Philadelphia. Penn stated: "I 
took charge of the Province of 
Pennsylvania for the Lord's sake. I wanted to afford an asylum for the good 
and oppressed of every nation, and to frame a government which might be 
an example. I desired to show men as good and happy as they could be; 
and I had kind views to the Indians." With these ends in view he selected 
its name. The Indian name of its original site was Coaquenaka. In 1682 
twenty-three ships arrived containing settlers, who were mostly Friends. 




INDEl'ENDKNCE HALL. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 619 

SKETCH OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT. 

In 1684 the new settlement numbered over 300 houses and 2,500 popula- 
tion. It grew rapidly by large immigration from Germany and the North 
of Ireland. Penn returned to London, but revisited the city in 1699, at which 
period the population was 4,500. The city was incorporated in 1701, after 
which Penn took his final departure. In 1704, at the time of the war of Eng- 
land with France and Spain, the Governor of the Province created a militia. 
This was very obnoxious to the Friends, and in order to enlist them in its 
favor the Governor used stratagem. He sent a messenger from Newcastle 
on the P'air Day in 1706, with the news that the enemy's ships were in the 
river. The Governor, with drawn sword and on horseback, urged the people 
to arm for the defence of the city. Great excitement prevailed ; the people 
hid their valuables and fled, but the Quakers were not disturbed, and could 
neither be frightened nor coaxed to take an interest in the movement. When 
the fraud was finally discovered the Governor was displaced. 

In 1 7 19 was here printed the first American newspaper, the Weekly Mer- 
cury. The Gazette was established in 1728, and afterward edited by Benja- 
min Franklin, who, by the publication of his " Plain Truth," in 1 747, was the 
first to rouse a military spirit of enthusiasm among the people, which culmi- 
nated in a military force of io,ooo men. In 1755 a militia bill was passed, 
and Franklin became Colonel of the City Regiment. Philadelphia finally 
became very prominent from 1765 to 1774 in resisting British aggression. At 
Carpenters' Hall, September 5, 1774, was held the first Continental Congress; 
the second was held in the State House, May 10, 1775. It was here that 
Colonel George Washington, of Virginia, on June 15, 1775, was appointed 
General and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army. On July 4th 
the Declaration of Independence was adopted in the State House, and pro- 
claimed July 8, 1776. The city was in possession of the British from Septem- 
ber, 1777, to June, 1778; at that time the population of the city was 21,767. 
The battle of Germantown, of Revolutionary fame, was fought October 4, 
1777. The city expended much treasure in men and money in the cause of 
the Union. Except the period of the British occupation, the city was the 
capital of Pennsylvania until 1799, and the Government of the Union was 
conducted here from 1790 to 1800. It was the first city in America until 
surpassed by New York. In 18 12 the city was visited by yellow fever; in 
the same year the steam water-works at Fairmount Park were commenced. 



620 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 






^ 



111 1832 the Asiatic cholera caused nearly 1,000 
deaths. In 1837 specie payment was suspended, 
and the failure of the Bank of the United States 
in 1839 caused great depression in commerce. 
Serious riots disturbed the city at different times 
from 1834 to 1844. The Philadelphia, German- 
town & Norristown Railroad was completed in 
1832. Gas was introduced in 1836, and the first 
telegraph lines were established in 1846. The 
great Sanitary Fair held in Logan Square in 
1864 netted over $1,000,000. 

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION 

was opened in Fairmount Park, May 10, 1876, 
100 years after the Declaration of Independence, 
on a magnificent scale, covering 236 acres. The 
cost of the five principal buildings was $4,500,- 
000. The enclosure contained 200 separate 
buildings. The Main Building covered no less 
than 20 acres, and the roof was 70 feet high. 
It was 1,876 feet long, 464 feet wide, with pro- 
jecting wings in the centre 416 feet long. Space 
was apportioned as follows, in square feet : Ar- 
gentine Republic, 2,861 ; Austria-Hungary, 24,- 
727; Belgium, 15,598; Brazil, 6,899; Canada, 
24,118; Chili, 3,244; China, 6,628; France, 45,- 
460; Germany, 29,629; Great Britain and Ire- 
land, 54,155; India and British Colonies, 24,193 ; 
Hawaiian Islands, 1,575; Italy, 8,943; Japan, 
17,831; Luxembourg, 247; Mexico, 6,567 ; Neth- 
erlands, 15,948; Norway, 6,959; Orange Free 
State, 1,058; Peru, 1,462; Spain and Colonies, 
11,253; Sweden, 17,799; Switzerland, 6,693; 
Tunis, 2,015; Turkey, 3,347; United States, 
1 36, 684. 

This gives a fair idea of the magnitude of 
the main building. Within this vast space the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



wealth, power, industries, and greatness of 
the nations were exhibited to millions of ad- 
miring visitors. The exhibition was opened 
every day, except Sundays, for six months; 
the number of admissions was nearly lo,- 
000,000, of which nearly 8,000,000 paid the 
regular fee of 50 cents, and nearly 1,000,000 
paid the special rate of 25 cents. A large 
building was devoted to the progress of 
modern education. The Women's Pavilion, 
designed to receive the products of wo- 
man's ingenuity, covered an acre of ground. 
The Memorial Hall, or Art Building, re- 
mams as a permanent representative of the ^ 
exhibition. The building is 365 feet long 5 
by 210 feet wide, and 59 feet high. It is > 
made of granite, glass, and iron. It is a ^ 
beautiful structure. Machinery Hall covered | 
13 acres, and was the next in size to the main c 
building. The United States building was 504 i 
feet by 300, and the operations of the Gov- g 
ernment service were exhibited in this great § 
building. Horticultural Hall, which was in- "^ 
tended to be permanent, was built of iron r 

r 

and glass, by the city of Philadelphia. Its size 
is 383 feet by 193 feet and 72 feet in height, 
and covers 820 by 540 feet of ground. Sev- 
eral nations had pavilions for their commis- 
sioners and others. There were 26 buildines 
representing as many States. Many private ex- 
hibitors and companies had special buildings 
of their own. Among them were the Tele- 
graph Building, the Transportation Building, 
the Bankers' Building, the American Kinder- 
garten, the Bible Building, and others. The 
ingenuity of man was supplemented by bees 
making honey in the midst of all the crowd. 



% 



■ffel 



r 



622 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

HISTORICAL AND NOTED BUILDINGS. 

Among the places of historical interest in Philadelphia are — Carpenters' 
Hall, between Third and Fourth Streets, on Chestnut Street ; the legendary- 
treaty ground at Shackamaxon, with a monument marking the site of the elm 
tree, erected in 1827; the Germantown battle-ground, and Fort Miflin, on 
the site of the mud fort on the west bank of the Delaware; the old London 
Coffee-House on the southwest corner of Front and Market, and Independ- 
ence Hall, or the old State House, on Chesnut, between Fifth and Sixth 
Streets, built in 1732-35. It was in this building that the second Continental 
Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and where, July 8, 1776, 
the famous Liberty bell fulfilled the great mission inscribed on it in the words 
of the Scriptures: " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhab- 
itants thereof" (Lev^ xxv. 10). In one of the rooms of this building is the 
National Museum, filled with relics of the Colonial and Revolutionary history 
of our country. In the adjoining hall Congress met for ten years, and Pres- 
idents Adams and Jefferson were inaugurated. At the southwest corner 
of Seventh and Market is the house in which Jefferson wrote the Declaration 
of Independence. The new County Court House and City Hall is a magnifi- 
cent structure, probably the largest and finest in the country. It is situated 
at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets. It covers nearly 4^ acres, 
exclusive of the courtyard. The new United States Post-Office is one of the 
finest in America, and is located on Chestnut, Ninth, and Market Streets. 
The Custom-House and Mint are among the prominent buildings of the city. 
The Masonic Temple, at the corner of Broad and Filbert Streets, is said to 
be the finest Masonic structure in the world. It cost $1,300,000, and is in the 
Norman style. The Government arsenals. Navy Yard, Naval Asylum, and 
Naval Hospital are situated at Bridesburgh and Gray's Ferry Road. 

PARKS AND PLACES OF INTEREST. 

Fairmount Park is nearly 1 1 miles long and 2 miles wide, and is one of 
the finest parks in America, covering, 2,740 acres. Its fine old trees, broad 
expanses of turf, varied surface, and great extent, with the Schuylkill River 
flowing by its side, and the Wissahickon, flowing through a picturesque rocky 
valley clothed with the trees, shrubs, and wild vines of virgin nature, through 
dark dells, broken by numerous waterfalls, gi\-e it a different character from 
that of other parks. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



623 



Philadelphia has a number of public squares, five of which were laid out 
when the city was founded. Among the daily papers published in Philadel- 
phia twelve have an aggregate circulation of 350,000, and the weeklies have 
a still larger circulation. The city contains over 2,000 public schools; ev^en- 
ing schools are conducted during the autumn and winter months. The 
Girard College is one of the finest architectural buildings in the country. 
The University of Pennsylvania is the outgrowth of the College of Philadel- 
phia, founded through the influence of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and others. 
There are many other fine colleges in Philadelphia, including two dental col- 
leges; also, the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is strictly scientific, and 
has a library of 30,- 
000 volumes and fine 
collections. There are 
also the Wagner In- 
stitute and Franklin 
Institute. The Amer- 
ican Philosophical So- 
ciety was founded in 
1763. There are many 
theological colleges. 
The Byzantine Order 
has a superb structure 
on the west side of 
Broad Street devoted 
to art. It contains a 
copious collection of sculptures and paintings. It was organized in 1803, 
and is the oldest academy of art in the country. There is also a School 
of Design for Women, conducted on a liberal scale, and founded in 1850. 
There are numerous libraries in Philadelphia, the Apprentices' being free. 
The Historical Library of Pennsylvania is very large and valuable. The 
city has numerous charitable institutions of every kind, including 24 hospi- 
tals, 12 dispensaries, 20 asylums, and homes of various kinds. The Bank of 
North America is the oldest in the country. Many of the bank buildings 
have great architectural beauty and merit. On Chestnut Street are located 
some of the best hotels, the Times, Ledger building, many fine business 
structures, the Mint, and several handsome churches. On this street is 
conducted the finest retail trade of the city. In the magnificence of its 




carpenters' hall. 



624 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

public and private buildings Philadelphia is second only to New York and 
Washington. 

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS— MANUFACTURES— COMMERCE. 

The great financial centre is the neighborhood of Third Street, the latter 
being considered the Wall Street of Philadelphia. It is situated in the lower 
portion of the city. In this section can be found the great banking and in- 
surance companies, the courts, and the Custom-House. The city is famous 
for its building and loan associations, of which there are about seven hun- 
dred, mostly composed of tradespeople. Philadelphia leads every other city 
in the Union in the number of its manufacturing establishments, also in the 
number of persons employed, in the amount of capital invested, the value of 
the material used, and the variety of articles manufactured. It is second to 
New York only in the value of the products. The banks of the river are 
devoted to commerce, and manufacturing establishments are to be found in 
all directions. Nearly 13,000 manufacturing establishments give employment 
to about 250,000 hands; the capital invested in these establishments amounts 
to over $250,000,000; they produce about $500,000,000 annually. The com- 
merce of the city is of comparatively recent growth, and is of great impor- 
tance. In 1880 the imports amounted to $38,933,832, and exports, $50,685,- 
838; the exports included provisions, breadstuffs, tallow, petroleum, naphtha, 
tobacco, and benzine. The duties received in 1880 were $12,726,376.80. In 
the same year 16,886 male immigrants arrived, and 13,078 females. The coal 
trade of the city is simply enormous, vast quantities being brought here for 
shipment. The lumber trade is very extensive, the supplies coming from the 
northern part of the State, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Phila- 
delphia is one of the four great centres of the book trade; the others being 
New York, Boston, and Chicago. Publishing is conducted on a very extensive 
scale. It rivals any city in the Union in the manufacture of Family Bibles, 
The oysters of the Chesapeake and of the New Jersey coast form an impor- 
tant branch of trade. An extensive trade is done in Florida oranges, which 
are shipped in vast quantities to Philadelphia every year. It is also one of 
the principal markets for peaches and other fruit. The manufacturing facili- 
ties of the city are very extensive. Among these may be mentioned the coal 
and iron fields in close proximity, and the great water-power which abounds 
in the vicinity. Iron ship building is carried on at the Delaware and at 
Chester. The textile industries employ 75,000 persons, and produce about 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 625 

$90,000,000, distributed as follows: Carpets, $19,000,000; hosiery, $16,500,- 
000; worsted and woolen yarns, $11,000,000; silk and mixed goods, $6,- 
000,000; cotton goods, $19,000,000; woolen and mixed fabrics, $18,500,000. 
The iron and steel production amounts to $30,000,000; machinery, $10,000,- 
000; sugar, $20,000,000; building materials, $10,000,000. Boots and shoes, 
chemicals, hardware, tools, furniture, gold and silverware are among the other 
important industries. The Customs district includes the city of Camden, N. 
J., and all the shores of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and tributaries. 
There are many regular lines of steamers to Southern and various coastwise 
ports, aline to Havana and New Orleans, a line to Liverpool, and another to 
Antwerp. 

GROWTH AND GOA^ERNMENT OF THE CITY. 

T%€ rity has about 800 miles of paved streets. The streets intersect at 
right angles, and the cross-streets, running east and west, are in numerical 
order from the Delaware River, commencing with Front, First, Second, 
Third, etc. In numbering the houses 100 numbers are allotted to each block. 
In going north or south Market Street is the point where the enumeration 
begins. The city is exceedingly healthy, has an abundance of water and good 
drainage, and its growth is extraordinary. Its population in 1683 was 500; 
in 1777, 23,734^ in 1800, 70,287; in 1850, 300,365; in i860, after the exten- 
sion of the city, 508,034; 1870,674,022; 1889^846,980; 1886,1,100,000. The 
annual city expenditures are about $15,000,000. Philadelphia contains over 
160,000 dwelling-houses, all of solid material. The great extent of territory is 
such that the necessity of tenement-houses has not existed as in other cities; 
it is therefore pre-eminently a city of homes, as on the average a house con- 
tains only five persons. The city has over 30 markets, which furnish good 
food in great abundance. The water-works are controlled by the city, and 
the supply is obtained from the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Philadelphia 
contains 70 public fountains, 61 of which were erected by the Philadelphia 
Fountain Society. There are over 150 miles of sewers. The Fire and Police 
Departments are very efficient. 

The municipal government consists of the Mayor and Recorder, a Select 
and Common Council. The Mayor, elected for three years, has control of 
the police, and the right to approve or veto the ordinances of the City 
Councils. The Select Council consists of 31 members, representing the 31 
Wards, elected by the people for three years; the Common Council contains 



626 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

nearly lOO members, each representing 2,000 tax-payers, elected for two 
years. The management of the city is controlled by councils, and the differ- 
ent departments, trusts, and commissions. The Controller, Treasurer, Solic- 
itor, Collector of Taxes, and Commissioners are elected by the people. 
Philadelphia is represented in the State Legislature by 8 Senators and ^,8^ 
Assemblymen, and in Congress by 5 members. The United States Circuit 
and District Courts for Eastern Pennsylvania, and terms of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania are held in Philadelphia. There are four Common 
Pleas Courts, Courts of Oyer and Terminer, and of Quarter Sessions, and an 
Orphans' Court. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 

There are in Philadelphia about 650 religious congregations. The church 
having the greatest amount of historical interest is probabl)- Christ Church, 
which occupies the site of a frame building, erected in 1695, on Second Street, 
above Market. This, after many enlargements, finally gave place to the 
present noble structure, a portion of which was finished in 1731, and the 
whole finally completed in 1754. Its chime of bells, which was cast in Lon- 
don, was the first used in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, Washing- 
ton, and Adams worshipped in this church, and it was there that John Penn 
was buried. Some of the communion plate still in use was presented by 
Queen Anne. In the crypt of the school-house lie the remains of Robert 
Morris and Bishop White of Revolutionary fame. In the burying-ground 
belonging to the church at Fifth and Arch Streets lie the remains of Peyton 
Randolph, President of the first Continental Congress; Major-General Charles 
Lee, Benjamin Franklin, and Deborah, his wife. St. Peter's Church-yard 
contains the remains of Commodore Stephen Decatur. David Rittenhouse, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, sleeps in the church- 
yard of the old Pine Street Presbyterian Church. The oldest church in the 
city, except Christ Church, is the Gloria Dei, dedicated in 1700; originally 
connected with the Lutheran Church in Sweden, but for 50 years past with 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. Conspicuous for architectural beauty may 
be mentioned the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Logan 
Square; St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, Locust Street; the West 
Arch Street Presbyterian Church; the Beth-Eden Baptist Church, Broad 
Street; the Arch Street Methodist Church, and the Rodef Sholem Syna- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 627 

gogue. The whole number of cemeteries and burying-grounds in Philadel- 
phia is 45. The first is Laurel Hill, picturesquely beautiful. 

CLUBS— RAILROADS— BRIDGES, ETC. 

There are thirteen bridges across the Schuylkill, seven of which are built 
of solid material and six of wood. The Callowhill Street Bridge, with the 
approaches, is 2,730 feet long; it is 50 feet above tide-water, and is a work of 
great engineering skill. The river span is 348 feet, and a span which is 
thrown over the Pennsylvania Railroad is 140 feet. This bridge has an upper 
and a lower passage-way, the upper being 32 feet higher than the lower one. 
The South Street Bridge is 2,419 feet long. The handsomest bridge is the 
Girard. It is 1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide, and has five spans; it cost $1,- 
404,445. Small steamboats run on the Schuylkill, and seven ferries connect 
the city with points in New Jersey. 

Philadelphia contains five armories. Clubs of various descriptions, social 
and sporting, are numerous. Among the social clubs the Philadelphia, Union 
League, and Reform Clubs are conspicuous. The Union League House has 
the finest building; it is in the French renaissance style. Amusement and 
recreation have a superb temple in the American Academy of Music, Broad 
and Locust Streets, elegantly fitted within, with a seating capacity for 2,900. 
The leading theatres are the Walnut, Arch and Chestnut. The Young Men's 
Christian Association has a building of imposing architecture at Fifteenth 
and Chestnut Streets. 

In 1889 there were twenty lines of horse-cars, with an invested capital of 
over $13,000,000, the principal railroads connecting with the city being the 
Pennsylvania, the Bound Brook, the Philadelphia & Erie, the Reading & 
North Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore. 



CITY OF BOSTON 




OSTON is the great metropolis of New England, the capital of 
Massachusetts, and of our Amercian cities second to New York in 
commerce. It is 44 miles northeast of Providence, and 232 miles 
from New York. It is situated at the mouth of the Charles River, on the 
western extremity of Massachusetts Bay. The spot was first visited by 
Europeans in 162 1. In 1625 William Blackstone, an English clergyman, 

settled on Beacon Hill. 
In 1629 Charles I. 
granted a charter con- 
stituting " the Gov- 
ernor and Company 
oT the Massachusetts 
Bay in New England," 
and twelve men of ex- 
tensive fortune, among 
whom were John Win- 
throp and Richard 
Saltonstall, entered 
Boston June 17, 1630. 
The city, which was 
incorporated in 1822, 
1 vKk si Kill 1 )M N now contains nearly 

400 miles of streets, which cost over $36,000,000. There are many bridges 
connecting Boston with the suburbs. The milldam, which cost $700,000, is 
a continuation of Beacon Street, and once inclosed 600 acres of " flats " which 
were covered by the tide; these have since been filled in, and that section 
now contains some of the finest dwellings and churches in Boston. The 
scenery in the suburbs of Boston is very beautiful, and many of the private 
residences are very elegant. 

PLACES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 

Among the buildings remarkable for their historical interest is Christ 
church, the oldest church in the city, and the one from the steeple of which, 




GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



629 



in the Revolutionary War, Paul Revere's signal was hung out by Captain 
John Pulling, merchant, of Boston. The Rev. Mather Byles, Jr., who was 
rector of this church during the Revolution, left town on account of his 
attachment to the royal cause. The old South church, built in 1730, is one 
of the most famous in the country. In this building Joseph Warren delivered 
his memorable oration on the anniversary of the "Boston Massacre," March 
5, 1776. Here the patriots met to discuss the tax on tea. In 1775 the build- 
ing was " desecrated " by British soldiers, who tore out its galleries, filled it 
with earth, and used it as a place for cavalry drill. The most famous, per- 
haps, is Faneuil Hall, well known as the " Cradle of Liberty," from the fact 
that, during the period preceding the Revolution, it was used for public 
gatherings at which the patriotic spirit of the colonists was stirred by the 
eloquence of the great pa- 
triots. Faneuil Hall was 
built in 1742, destroyed by 
fire in 1761, and rebuilt 
in 1762. Before 1822 all 
town meetings were held 
in this famous hall. 

The Common, which 
covers 48 acres, contains 
trees over 200 years old. 
Many of the avenues of 
the city contain fine old 
English elms, which are not surpassed by any in the United States. The 
Common was dedicated to the use of the public by the founders of the city. 
The " Public Garden " is an extension of the Common, containing nearly 25 
acres, separated from the Common only by a street. It is a botanical garden, 
containing a small lake, a conservatory, and numerous fine statues. The city 
has over twenty smaller parks. Commonwealth Avenue is a fine boulevard, 
250 feet wide and nearly two miles long; in the centre are double rows of 
trees, and walks through grassplots, shrubbery, flowers, etc. 

The city has, in public places, statues of Charles Sumner, Josiah Quincy, 
Governor Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Edward Everett, Horace Mann, 
Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, Christopher Columbus, George Wash- 
ington, Governor Andrew, and Samuel Adams. Besides these there is in 
Park Square a group representing the emancipation of slaves, and on the 




H HfliWiMliUIIMl 



Ci:S TOM-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



630 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Common another to the memory of the National soldiers who died in the 
War of the Rebellion. 

The waters of Lake Cochituate, distant 20 miles, have since 1848 been 
conveyed by a brick conduit into the grand reservoir of Brookline, and thence 
been carried into the subordinate reservoirs respectively of the different sec- 
tions of the city. The annexation of Charlestown brought with it the waters 
of Mystic Lake. Boston, as the centre — social, political, and commercial — of 
the best educated and most intelligent State in the Union, is pre-eminent 
throughout the Republic in literature and science. Its trade, likewise, is 
marvellous; it is, in fact, more marvellous, in proportion to physical facilities, 
than even that of New York; for while the latter city, with the lakes on the 
one side and the ocean on the other, and with the Hudson as a link between 

them, drains regions of vast 
extent and singular fertility, 
Boston, to say nothing of 
rugged soil and ungenial cli- 
mate, is cut off from the in- 
terior, such as it is, by the 
entire want of inland waters. 
- But what New York has so 
^ largely inherited from nature, 



Boston has in some measure 
created for itself. By eight 
great systems of railway it reaches, besides the coasts to the north and south, 
the St. Lawrence and the lakes, the Hudson and the Mississippi; while 
it virtually connects those channels of communication with Europe and its 
network of iron roads. In several departments of maritime traffic, such as 
the coasting intercourse and the trade with Russia, India, and China, Boston 
possesses exceptional advantages. 

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES. 
Its harbor is open at all seasons, and its deep water front affords accom- 
modation for loading and unloading vessels without delay. It affords anchor 
age for over 500 vessels of the largest class. In the harbor are more than 
fifty beautiful islands. The principal entrance to the harbor is very narrow ; 
it is between Castle and Governor's Islands, and is well defended by Fort 
Independence and Fort Warren. There are stationary elevators under which 




THE HANCOCK. HOUSE, BOSTON. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 631 

steamers can be loaded. Boston has made great progress in competing for 
the export trade, and the opening of the " through business," which first orig- 
inated in Boston, has done much for her shipping interests. Boston claims 
to be the shortest and cheapest line between the great Northwest and Eu- 
rope. In extent of imports Boston ranks next to New York, and third city 
in the United States in the value of foreign commerce — New York being first 
and New Orleans second. The total value of the commerce in Boston in 
one year was $87,055,255. Over 1,000 vessels belong to the port, with an ag- 
gregate tonnage of nearly 400,000. The principal industries are 45 book- 
publishing establishments, over 100 printing houses, 55 cabinet-ware factories 
about 35 book-binderies, 40 establishments for the manufacture of machinery, 
33 hat and cap factories, 30 establishments for the manufacture of watches. 
It is a centre of the boot and shoe trade, the leather trade, and of the trade 
in foreign and domestic dry-goods. The other manufactures of the city are 
many and varied, including— besides ship-building, sugar refining, and leather 
dressing — clothing, jewelry, chemicals, brass and iron castings, cars, carriages, 
pianos, upholstery, glass, organs, melodeons, etc., etc. The business of the 
city is promoted by 61 national banks — more than an}^ other city in the Union 
has — with a capital of more than $57,000,000. Thirty of these have cash 
capitals of $1,000,000 or more each. 

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS— GROWTH OF BOSTON, ETC. 

The first " meeting-house " was erected near the head of State Street, 
1632. John Cotton was one of its pastors. The city contains now over 200 
churches. Free schools, open to all, were established in the United States 
first in Boston 250 years ago, and the excellence of the system of public in- 
struction there has been so great that many other cities have taken its 
schools for patterns. The university at Cambridge properly belongs to the 
Boston school system, for it was founded by the men who settled Boston, 
and was intended for the education of the youth of the city and surrounding 
country. Indeed, " Newe Town," as Cambridge was first called, was intended 
for the capital of the commonwealth. Harvard College was founded in 1638, 
and for two generations was the only college in New England. The public 
Latin School in Boston was founded in 1635, the Institute of Technology in 
1861, Boston College in 1863, Boston University in 1869. There are more 
than 200 public schools in the city. Private schools abound. The chief 
libraries are the Public, with 459,031 volumes, and 115,000 pamphlets, etc., 



632 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

distributing 1,500,000 volumes a year; the Athenaeum, 125,000 volumes, cir- 
culating 75,000 volumes a year; the Historical Society's library, containing 
75,000 books and pamphlets, many of them being among the rarest of publi- 
cations ; the State Library, with 50,000 volumes ; the Social Law Library, with 
16,000 law books; the library of the Historic-Genealogical Society, 75,000 
books and pamphlets; the General Theological Library, with 15,000 volumes. 

The old State House is situated at the head of State Street. It was on 
this spot that the old Town House was built in 1763, it was in front of this 
building that the " Boston Massacre " occurred, at the time of the excitement 
caused by the Stamp Act. The Declaration of Independence was read from 
the balcony of this building. 

On a peninsula to the north of East Boston, rises Bunker's Hill, so famous 
in the war of independence; while the Dorchester Heights, little less famous, 
occupy the centre of South Boston; and, lastly, the peninsula of Old Boston 
seems to have originally taken the name of Tremont, from its three mounts 
or hillocks. 

Boston has many public buildings worthy of notice. Among those that 
are remarkable for architectural beauty or grandeur are the United States 
Post-of^ce, on Post-ofifice Square, Trinity church, the Museum of Fine Arts, 
the Hotel Vendome, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the State House, the 
City Hall, the English High and Latin School on Warren Avenue, and the new 
" Old South Church." The English High and Latin School was begun in 
1877, and the portion to be used for school purposes cost more than $400,000. 
The remainder is used by officers of the school board. The entire edifice is 
one of the largest for educational purposes in America. 

Boston's original owner, John Blackstone, sold out his right and title, in 
1635, for £30. With a site so well chosen and, doubtless, also through the 
industry and enterprise of its Puritan occupiers, the new town increased so 
steadily in wealth and population, that in less than a century and a half it 
became the foremost champion of colonial independence. Since then it has 
overleaped its natural limits, swarming off, as it were, into an island toward 
the northeast, and into the mainland on the southeast, and consists of Old, 
East, and South Boston; Roxbury, annexed in 1868; Dorchester, annexed in 
1870; and Charlestown, Brighton, and West Roxbury, annexed in 1873; 
which are connected by bridges. An immense dam, called the Western 
Avenue, connects the whole with the inner side of the harbor. All the divis- 
ions of the city are of an uneven surface; undulation, in fact, is a character- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



633 



istic of the entire neighborhood — continent, islands, and peninsulas alike. 
The inhabitants are essentially of the old British type, as befits the descend- 
ants of the " Pilgrim Fathers." 

In 1880 the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Boston was celebrated. 
Boston was a town for 192 years. In 1700 the population was only about 
7,000; in 1790, 18,000; in 1830, 61,000; in 1870, 250,000; in 1880, 363,968; in 
1889, 410,000. If we add to this the, population of the City of Cambridge, 
which in 1889 was 70,000, it brings the population up to 480,000. The area 
of the city (1889) was 31 square miles. 




BOSTON PASSENGER STATION OF THE OLD COLONY RAILROAD. 



THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 




AM BRIDGE is three miles northwest of Boston, situated on the 
west of the Charles River, which separates it from Boston, and is 
one of the county seats of Middlesex County, It is practicall)' a 
part of Boston, as Allegheny is of Pittsburgh or Brooklyn is of New York. 
Here, in 1638, within eighteen years after the landing of the Pilgrim 

Fathers, was founded 
Harvard University by 
the Rev. John Harvard, 
who bequeathed it a leg- 
acy of about $4,000, and 
which has gradually been 
endowed to the amount 
of $1,000,000. It is the 
oldest institution of the 
kind in America. In ad- 
dition to the collegiate 
department proper, the 
University includes a 
theological, law, scien- 
tific, and medical school, 
and a department for 
such as wish to prepare 
themselves for business 
avocations without go- 
ing through a classical 
course. Cambridge is rapidly advancing. The population in 1830 was 6,072 ; 
that of 1870 was 39,634; 1880, 52,669; 1889, 70,000. The city consists of 
North, East, Cambridgeport, and Old Cambridge. It covers an area of sH 
square miles. It is beautifully laid out in fine broad avenues with shade 
trees. It was under one of these trees that Washington took command of the 
Revolutionary forces in 1775. The house in which Longfellow the poet lived 
was formerly occupied by Washington. The College buildings occupy four- 
teen acres and are situated in Old Cambridge. They are shaded by fine old 
elm trees. 




lon(;fei,low's residf.nce, Cambridge, 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



635 



Among the conspicuous buildings near the College are the Harvard Law 
School; the Lawrence Scientific School; the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, founded by Louis Agassiz ; the Observatory, and Memorial Hall, 
which is 310 feet by 115, with a tower 200 feet high, erected to the memory of 
Harvard graduates and students who lost their lives in the service of their 
country during the Civil War. This is conceded to be the grandest College 
Hall in the world. It contains three apartments — a memorial vestibule, a 
dining-hall which seats 1,000 persons, and the Sanders theatre for large 
academic assemblages. A fine granite monument, erected by the city in honor 
of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Rebellion, stands near the college. 

Mount Auburn is one of the 
finest cemeteries in the country. 
It is laid out in a picturesque man- 
ner and occupies 125 acres of hill 
and valley. It was dedicated in 
183 1, and is the oldest of the beau- 
tiful burying-places of America. 

Cambridge is not much of a 
business centre, but is, to a great 
extent, a home for the people of 
Boston. Among its industries 
may be mentioned the manufac- 
ture of steam-engines, locomo- 
tives, cabinet-ware, chemicals, bis- ^°^^ "'^^^-' Cambridge. 
cuit, brushes, candles, soap, chairs, carriages, glass, marble, books, etc., etc. 
The University printing-office is located here, and the Riverside Press; the 
former is the oldest printing establishment in the Union. 

Bridges over Charles River connect Cambridge with Boston, Brighton, and 
Brookline. Horse railroads connect with all adjacent towns, and the Boston 
and Lowell and the Fitchburg railroads pass through East Cambridge. 

Cambridge has a large number of fine public schools, thirty-two churches, 
and several newspapers. The place was first settled as Newtown in 1630. At 
that time it was intended by Winthrop and others to make it the principal 
town in the colony. Mr. Hooker was settled as the first minister in 1632. 
In 1638 a vote was passed appropriating money to establish a public school, 
to which was added the large grant, as above, by Rev. John Harvard, of 
Charlestown. The city was incorporated in 1846. It now has a regular City 
Government, vested in a Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council. 





NEW ORLEANS SCENERY. 

8. Entrance to Metaire Cemetery. 9.^est End Hotel 10 Tombs Bletaire Cemetery. 
11. Staircase t3 Grand Opera House. 12. On the Levee. 



CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. 




EW ORLEANS, the metropolis of Louisiana, and a port of entry, 
is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, io8 miles from 
its mouth. It ranks next to New York in the value of its exports 
and foreign commerce. Nearly all the streets running parallel with the 
Mississippi River, from the lower to the upper part of the city, are about 
12 miles long; the streets running at right angles to these descend from 
the river bank to the swamps ; the drainage is by canals which open into 




LAFAYETTE SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS. 

Lake Pontchartrain, which is on a level with the Gulf of Mexico. The city 
being built on ground lower than the high-water level, is protected from in- 
undations by the levee or embankments, which extend on both banks of the 
river for several hundred miles. About half of its 60 square miles of territory 
is closely inhabited, while the rest is nearly all swamp. The city extends 
along the river on an inner and outer curve, giving it the shape of the letter S. 
The older portion, extending around the outer curve, gave it the name of 
the " Crescent City." New Orleans is the great port of transshipment for a 
large portion of the crops of the Southwestern States, and the produce of the 
vast region drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries. It commands 



638 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

io,<XKD miles of steamboat navigation, and is the natural entrepot of one of the 
richest regions of the world. In 1861 the city had arrived at its greatest 
commercial prosperity ; in that year it received and handled 460,000 hogs- 
heads of sugar and 2,255,448 bales of cotton. Its commerce and general 
prosperity were greatly retarded by the War, and since that period by polit- 
ical agitation and severe visitations of yellow fever; yet, notwithstanding 
these drawbacks, its imports average about $12,000,000 and its exports nearly 
$100,000,000. The Custom-house is one of the largest buildings in America. 
In consequence of its natural advantages, geographical location, and the 
recent navigation improvements in the river, the commerce of New Orleans 
is destined to be greatly increased, and the probabilities are that it will event- 
ually be one of the first cities in America. It is generally conceded that New 
Orleans is an unhealthy city to reside in ; its vital statistics, however, show 
plainly that it is not exceptionally so in comparison with other cities in the 
United States and throughout the world. Many sanitary improvements have 
been introduced since the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878. It is seldom that 
the temperature is in the extreme, ranging from 50° to 85°, the general aver- 
age being about 68°. New Orleans bears the impress of three distinct civili- 
zations in her society, her architecture, and her laws. It was settled in 17 18 
bythe French; in 1762 it was transferred to Spain with Louisiana; and in 1800 
retransferred to France, and sold in 1803, by Napoleon I., with a vast terri- 
tory, for $15,000,000, to the United States. At this time the population was 
about 8,000, mostly French and Spanish. It was successfully defended in 
181 5 by General Jackson, afterward President, against the British. The city 
became an important centre of military operations during the War for the 
Union. Louisiana having seceded in i860, a Federal fleet blockaded the city. 
Farragut, with an expedition of gun-boats, forced the defences near the 
entrance to the river on April 24, 1862. The city was forced to surrender, 
and was then occupied by General Benjamin F. Butler, as military governor. 
Among the buildings of fine architectural appearance are the Roman 
Catholic cathedral, on Lafayette Square, facing the levee; the Mint, the Post- 
ofifice, the City Hall, the Custom-house, and State-house. The hotels, 
theatres, and public buildings are on a magnificent scale. There are numerous 
hospitals, infirmaries, and asylums, several colleges, and 145 churches. 
Besides the great river, New Orleans has railways connecting it with all parts 
of the country. The soil is full of water, so that no excavations can be made. 
The largest buildings have no cellars below the surface, and in the cemeteries 




COTTON EXCHANGE, NEW ORLEANS, 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



639 



there are no graves, but the dead are placed in tombs or " ovens," five or six 
tiers above ground. To the stranger the long streets of tombs are somewhat 
depressing. With a view to burning the remains a Cremation society was 
organized in the city a few years ago. The water is supplied from the river 
for household purposes, except drinking, for which rain-water only, kept in 
cisterns, is used. 

There are numerous public parks, several canals, and 16 markets. The 
best streets are wide, 
bordered with trees, and 
are very attractive in ap- 
pearance ; some of them 
paved and some of them 
shelled, all lined with 
princely residences set 
with gardens, where the 
palm and magnolia are 
in their glory, and the 
roses blossom in mid- 
winter. Canal Street, 
which is the great wide 
thoroughfare, has many 
fine stores and elegant 
private residences. .The 
continuation of Canal 
Street is a fine shell road 
to the lake, the shores 
of which contain an in- 
exhaustible quantity of 
white shells. 

The manufactures, which are small in proportion to the commerce, con- 
sist of oil, syrup, soap, cotton-seed oil, sugar refineries, distilleries, and brew- 
eries. There are a large number of insurance companies, banking institutions, 
towboat companies, and custom-house warehouses. 

The city has a Mayor, and seven officers, known as administrators. The 
police are mounted, and under the control of the Governor of the State. 
The public schools, of which there are nearly 100, are also under State con- 
trol, the city providing for their support. Among the other educational in- 




BOAT CLUB HOUSE AT NEW ORLEANS, LA. 



640 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



stitutions are the Mechanical and Agricultural College, the Dental College, 
the Jesuit College, and the University of Louisiana. There are about 40 
Catholic churches, and a large Catholic population, consisting of French, 
Irish, Italians, and Spanish. 

In 1820 the population of New Orleans had increased to 27,000; in i860, 
to 168,823; ^iid consisted of Americans, French, Creoles, Irish, Germans, 
Spaniards, etc. In 1870 it was 191,418; in 1880, 216,090; and in 1889, 250,000. 

Before the mint was established in New Orleans the coins used were 
Spanish, the dollar being the Spanish milled dollar. There were several other 
coins, including the pistareen (20 cts.), and the picayune, the latter, being 
equal to 6y^ cts., was the smallest coin used. After the mint was established, 
and previous to the Civil War, our nickel was the smallest coin in circulation, 
and many used to say that they did not want any " nasty dirty cents." 




THE MAIN BUILDING, WORLD S EXPOSITION. 



To say the least, it is a wonderful city, and has a great future. It has 
some of the finest restaurants in the world. Hospitality is the rule and not 
the exception ; hearts appear to widen, nature expands under the influence 
of the genial southern sun, and a stranger cannot remain a stranger in New 
Orleans long. 

New Orleans has been known as the Paris of America, the home of refine- 
ment, wealth, and luxury, and the abode of pleasure. It is a most cosmopol- 
itan city ; and its ways partake largely of the traditional habits of both 
Spanish and French towns. It is gay, yet sad. Its people are fond of idle- 
ness, yet build up and sustain a great commerce. It is an enigma. The 
streets in the French quarter are narrow. It may be Sunday morning, but 
trade is going on briskly. The names of streets and firms are all those of a 
foreign people. Here and there one encounters a word in Spanish or Italian. 

The great Cosmopolitan French Market, where one may buy almost any- 
thing that can be named, rambles along in several squares of low, densely 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



641 



populated sheds, with a labyrinth of narrow alley-ways. It is quite the thing- 
to resort here early on Sunday morning, and, taking a cup of excellent cofifee 
from one of the many stands, mingle with the populace for an hour, and enter 
into the spirit of their Sunday bargain-making. 

From the French Market it is a pleasant walk along the broad levee, 
thronged at all times with people who have business upon the great marine 
highway which bisects the Union. Here are acres of cotton, of molasses in 
huge hogsheads, and of tobacco or general merchandise. The huge steamers, 
of the curious pattern peculiar to Western rivers, are ranged along the levee 
for miles; their blunt noses run diagonally up against the sloping shore; long 
gang-planks are thrown out and double ranks of sable roustabouts go and 
come like ants with their burdens, singing in time with their work. 

The merchant will admire the beautiful structure of the Cotton Exchange. 




UNITED STATES AM) S lATE EXHIBITS BUILDING, 



The club life of the city is a feature, and the restaurants, saloons, and bill- 
iard parlors, theatres and concert-halls, with their myriad lights, impart a 
Parisian-like effect to the streets in the evening. Canal Street is the great 
thoroughfare and fashionable promenade of the city. W^ith its beautiful 
buildings and picturesque walks, illuminated by the faces and figures of the 
most beautiful women in America, gay with showy equipages and brilliant 
with the displays of the great shops. Canal Street will be found to rival in 
attractions the thoroughfares of many of the cities of this or any other land. 



THE WORLD'S EXPOSITION OF 1883. 

Fortunately for the World's Exposition, its resources, though not lavish, 
were abundant for all the purposes of providing ample space, securing neces- 
sary attractions and promoting the completest success. The appropriation 
by the General Government of $1,300,000, the contribution of the citizens of 



642 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



New Orleans of $500,000, and the appropriation by the City of New Orleans 
and the State of Louisiana each of $100,000, afforded an ample source for the 
purposes mentioned. The management of the Exposition had been benefited 
by the experience gained by others in conducting like undertakings. It did 
not consider it politic nor necessary to give to temporary structures the same 
degree of elaboration and detail that should be given to those that were in- 
tended for permanence. So that, as an instance, the main building of the 
World's Exposition, while affording fifty per cent, more space than the main 
building of the Philadelphia Centennial, and being fully as pleasing in archi- 
tectural design and appearance, affording equal facilities in every respect for 
position, inspection, and display, did not cost one-fourth as much to erect. 
The same can be said of the other structures. 

The carnival pageants, which occurred about the middle of the Exposi- 
tion period, were the most elaborate and brilliant of this world-wide famed 
festival. 




COMKORTS OF MODERN TRAVEL — THE DRAWING-ROOM CAR OF TO-DAY. 



CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

AN FRANCISCO is the most important city on the Pacific Coast 
of North America. It is the capital of San Francisco County, 
California. The city and county, which were consolidated in 
1856, contain an area of 4if square miles. The city is situated at the north 
end of a peninsula 20 miles long, and, at this end, six miles wide, which 





THE BALDWIN HOUSE. 



separates the ocean from the Bay of San Francisco, and comprises, in ad- 
dition to the northern part of the peninsula, several islands, some of which are 
24 miles out in the Pacific. It is about five miles south of the Golden Gate, 
which is three miles wide, and is the outlet, leading west through the range of 
mountains on the coast, and connecting the bay with the Pacific Ocean. 
Table Hill, on the north of this strait, is 2,500 feet high. The city enjoys a 
monopoly of the commerce on the North Pacific Coast in consequence of its 
harbor, which is decidedly the finest on the western coast of North America. 



644 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

The bay extends 50 miles in a direction slightly east of south, and is in some 
parts 20 miles wide. The Guadaloupe River empties itself into the south 
end of the bay. At the north the bay communicates, by a strait very much 
like the Golden Gate, with San Pablo Bay, which is about 15 miles in diameter, 
which receives the waters of the two principal rivers of California, the Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin. The climate is mild and healthy; the temperature 
in January is 49°; in July, 58°; and averages about 56°. The summer is 
exceedingly cool and delightful. About 50 ocean steamers run from this 
port regularly to Japan, Australia, China, Panama, Mexico, Victoria, and to 
domestic ports on the Pacific Ocean, besides many inland steamers which 
ply on the tributaries to the bay. About 5,000 sea-going vessels arrive in 
San Francisco annually. Four railroads, the Central Pacific, the North 
Paciiic Coast, the California Pacific, and the San Francisco and North Pacific, 
terminate on the Bay of San Francisco, being connected with the city by 
steam-ferries, the Southern Pacific being the only railroad which terminates 
in the city. A part of the land upon which the city stands was quite hilly, 
but has been leveled. The soil is sandy and unproductive. The connection 
of the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific Railroad, completed 
in 1870, makes San Francisco an important point as the commercial highway 
from Europe and the eastern United States to Asia. In 1776 a Spanish mil- 
itary post was established on the present site of the city. A mission of San 
Franciscan Friars was commenced in the same year by two Spanish monks for 
converting Indians. This mission flourished, and in 1825 had 1,800 Indians 
under its care, and possessed 76,000 cattle and 97,000 sheep. In 1835, the 
property of the mission having been secularized, a village was laid out and 
called Yerba Buena. The name was changed to San Francisco in 1847; ^t 
this time the population was only 450. 

In 1848 the discovery of gold in California created an immense excite- 
ment, and people flocked there from all parts of the world. The growth of 
San Francisco from that time was marvelous. In three years the population 
had increased from 450 to 25,000, and the city was then incorporated (1850). 
In 1849-51 the city was visited by several large fires which devastated the busi- 
ness portion. Slight earthquakes are frequent, but do little damage. In 1851-56 
the criminal classes were so numerous and lawless, and the municipal govern- 
ment so corrupt, that the citizens, in order to protect themselves, organized vigi- 
lance committees, which summarily dealt with a number of public criminals and 
awed others into subjection. Since that time the city has been more orderly. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



645 



It was here that, in 1877-78, Dennis Kearney created so much excitement, and 
from which trouble was apprehended. San Francisco has probably the finest 
hotels in the world, among which is the Baldwin House, which, it is stated, 
cost $3,500,000 in construction. It is one of the most magnificent buildings 
of the kind in the world. The Palace Hotel is said to be the largest, and for 
architectural beauty is rarely excelled. It cost $3,250,000 in land and con- 
struction. Both these houses are first-class in all their appointments. The 
Cosmopolitan, the Occidental, and the Lick House are also first-class hotels. 
The custom of residing in hotels is very popular in San Francisco, not only 




WAR VESSEL IN THE DRY DOCK, MARE ISLAND NAVY YARD, SAN FRANCISCO. 



for single men, but also for families; and some of the hotels have accommo- 
dations for 1,200 guests. Several of the public buildings are fine specimens 
of architecture. Among these are the new City Hall, which cost $4,000,000: 
the Merchants' Exchange, the Mercantile Library building, the Bank of Cali- 
fornia, the new U. S. Branch Mint. The Custom-house and Post-office is a 
plain, substantial building. In the southern portion of the city, especially in 
Dupont and Stockton streets, are a large number of fine, handsome, brick resi- 
dences. The fashionable promenades, on which are the great retail stores, are 
Montgomery, Market, and Kearney Streets. On California Street can be found 
the principal banks and brokers' and insurance offices. In Front, Sansome, 



646 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and Battery Streets can be found the principal wholesale houses. Many of 
the private residences are built of wood, which in many instances are very 
handsome, and the grounds laid out with flowers and evergreens. The 
streets are wide, and cross each other at right angles; there are no shade 
trees. The business portion, which is closely built up, is paved with Belgian 
blocks and cobble-stones. There are nearly 100 churches in the city, which 
is the residence of an Episcopal bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop. 
The most important church edifices are St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Patrick's 
Church (both Roman Catholic), the latter being the finest church edifice on 
the Pacific Slope; Grace Church and Trinity Church (both Episcopal) are fine 
structures. The First Unitarian Church is considered one of the finest buildings 
in the city. The city has over 100 papers and periodicals; 18 public libraries; 
various charitable institutions and schools; five colleges, three of which are 
literary and two medical ; an academy of sciences ; and a school of design. 

Of the population attracted by the discovery of gold to San Francisco, 
a great number are Irish, German, British, French, and Chinese. The 
Chinese have a church, Roman Catholic, with a Chinese priest educated at 
Rome; and a school. Among the manufactures are flour, woolen goods, 
iron, silk goods, carriages, iron castings, glass, soap, leather, cordage, pianos, 
furniture, billiard tables, wind-mills, willow-ware, sashes, doors, cigars, boots 
and shoes, etc. The Golden Gate Park, west of the city, contains 1,043 acres. 
It is the only public park, and is not yet completed. There are three or four 
public squares in the city, which are planted with trees and shrubs. " China- 
town " is a great curiosity to strangers. It is here that the Chinamen are 
huddled together, and live as though in China. They have Chinese theatres, 
joss-houses, opium-cellars, and gambling-houses. 

The exports are chiefly wheat, barley, wool, quicksilver, hides, furs, flour, 
gunpowder, and copper-ore. The imports include sugar, coal, rice, cofi"ee, 
tea, wines and spirits, iron cotton, silk, and various manufactured goods. 
With the finest harbor on the coast, and a population mainly composed of 
enterprising people from all parts of the world, it is not surprising that the 
city is distinguished by its great accumulation of capital, large financial insti- 
tutions, and great mining operations. On January i, 1880, 889 vessels be- 
longed to the port of entry, of 205,206 tons in aggregate. The exports, con- 
sisting of treasure and merchandise, amount to about $62,000,000 annually. 
Population: i860, 56,000; 1870, 149,000; 1880, 300,000; 1889, 320,000; in- 
cluding 25,000 Chinese. Less than one-half are natives of the United States. 




PULLMAN BUILDING, SOUTHWEST CORNER MICHIGAN AVENUE AND 

ADAMS STREET. 




CITY OF CHICAGO. 

HICAGO is the principal city of Illinois. It is situated on the 
southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Chicago 
River; on this site in 1803 a stockade fort was built, and named 
Fort Dearborn; the place was first settled in 1831; in 1832 it contained 
about a dozen families, besides the officers and soldiers at Fort Dearborn. 
The town was organized by the election of a board of trustees, August 
10, 1833. On September 26th, of the same year, a treaty was made for all 
their lands with the Pottawattomies, 7,000 of the tribe being present, after 
which they were removed west of the Mississippi River. The first charter of 
the city was passed by the Legislature March 4, 1837. 

Chicago is considered the most remarkable city in the world for its rapid 
growth. When in 1831 the first white settlement was made, it seemed a very 
poor site on which to build a great city; it consisted of muddy flats; the 
harbors were constructed to a great extent by human enterprise and inge- 
nuity; the channel was dredged, the flats filled, and artificial structures 
erected to keep the waves of the lake from overflowing the city; in addition 
to this the grade of the principal portion of the city was eventually raised 
from 6 to 10 feet; as the people of Chicago had suff"ered much from various 
kinds of fever and sickness, caused by the low, marshy situation, it was found 
necessary to have a thorough system of sewerage, which could only be had 
by raising the city. Immense hotels, large business structures, and blocks of 
heavy buildings were raised by jack-screws, worked by steam power, to the 
required level; it was one of the most extraordinary and stupendous en- 
gineering experiments ever undertaken in this or any country, but it was 
finally accomplished. The city is now built upon a plain sufficiently elevated 
to prevent inundation, and possesses a splendid harbor equal to the demands 
of its great commerce. The river extends back from the lake nearly three- 
quarters of a mile, at which point two branches intersect it, one from the 
south and the other from the north; the south branch of the river is con- 
nected by the Illinois and Michigan Canal (which was completed in 1848) with 
the Illinois River at La Salle, making a direct water communication with the 
Mississippi, The canal is 96 miles in length, and was originally 12 feet above 
the lake at its highest level; it is now 8j4 feet below the lake; to accomplish 




COUNTY COUET HOUSE AND CITY HALL. 




NEW BOAliD OF TKADE BUILDING. 




POST-OFFICE AND CUSTOM HOUSE, CLARK AND ADAMS STREETS. 




UNION STOCK YARDS, NEAR FORTIETH AND HALSTED STREETS. 



648 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



this the city expended in 1866-70 no less than $3,250,000. The river channel 
was also deepened; so that in place of flowing into the lake, its stream flows 
the other way, receiving a fine supply of water from the lake, which carries 
off the sewage of the city at the rate of a mile an hour, and adds increased 




THli OLD PALMER HOUSE. DESTROYED IN THE GREAT FIRE OK I87I. 



facilities for navigation. Magnificent lines of breakwater protect the harbor 
at the mouth of the river, and form large basins for vessels, one of which 
covers about 300 acres. The extent of the city along the lake side is about 
eight miles, and its area is 40 square miles. The streets cross at right angles, 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 649 

and are about 66 to 80 feet wide. The city is well laid out ; the principal 
avenues running parallel with the lake. 

Numerous bridges, and two stone tunnels under the river-bed, connect the 
north, south, and west divisions. The tunnels cost the city about $1,000,000, 
and are the result of great engineering skill ; the south division contains most 
of the business and principal buildings of the city. 

The adoption of high license in Chicago has increased the revenue ob- 
tained by the city from saloons from $200,000 to $1,500,000 a year, and has 
reduced the number of saloons from 3,777 to 3,432. The license charge is 
$500. 

Chicago has some very remarkable buildings, among which is the Chamber 
of Commerce, a very elaborate structure, beautifully decorated inside; the 
new County Court-house and City Hall, which occupies a whole block, and 
cost $5,000,000; the United States Custom-house and Post-office, which cost 
over $5,000,000, and occupies an entire block of 342 feet by 210 feet. The Ex- 
position building is of iron and glass, and is a vast structure 800 by 200 feet; 
its dome is 160 feet high and 60 feet in diameter. Some of the public schools 
are capable of holding 1,000 children, and every child, without distinction, can 
be educated free, and have the advantages of the High-school, which teaches 
the classics and modern languages; the Catholics have schools of their own, 
and there are numerous private academies. Connected with the University 
of Chicago is a law school, the Dearborn Astronomical Observatory, and a 
library of about 25,000 volumes; this is a Baptist institution, and was estab- 
lished through the efforts of Stephen A. Douglas. There are six medical 
colleges, one of which is open to women ; four theological seminaries, one 
each — Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran, and Presbyterian ; several commer- 
cial colleges and female seminaries. St. Ignatius College is a very successful 
institution. The Public Library contains over 100,000 volumes ; the Academy 
of Sciences has a new museum and library. There are over 300 churches in 
the city, some of which are very fine structures. There are numerous public 
parks, the finest of which are Lincoln, Central, Douglas, and Humboldt; six 
of the principal parks contain a total of 2,000 acres; they are connected by 
fine drives 250 feet wide and 30 miles long; a part of the drive is on the shore 
of the lake, and the surroundings are very picturesque. 

Chicago is probably the greatest railroad centre in the world ; about 500 
trains enter and leave daily. Over 30 railroads make this a common centre. 
The Union Passenger Depot, an imposing structure built of Illinois limestone, 



650 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



is located on Van Buren Street, flanked on the east by Pacific Avenue, and west 
by Sherman Street. It is 600 feet deep by 172 feet wide (covering an entire 
block), and is about 200 feet high from pavement to extremity of towers. 
Three additional stories were added to the building in 1887, making it six and 
a half stories high. The vast commerce of the entire chain of northern lakes, 
with 3,000 miles of coast line, also centres in this great city. Immense quan- 
tities of iron and copper ore are brought from the shores of Lake Superior. 

Vessels pass from 



1 Chicago by way of 
the Welland Canal 
ciround Niagara to 
Montreal, and con- 
nect at that point 
w ith steamers for 
Europe. New York 
is reached by the 
Erie Canal. On the 
banks of the Illinois 




MAIN PASSENGER DEPOT AT CHICAGO, ILL. 

and Michigan Canal, about 20 miles from Chicago, are vast quarries of marble 
called Athens marble, it is considered the finest building material in the 
Union. This canal is of great importance, as it is convenient for the coal- 
fields of Illinois, and gives direct communication with the Mississippi, its 
tributaries, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

In October, 1871, a terrible fire occurred, which raged two days and 
nights, burned 18,000 houses, extending over more than 2,000 acres, embrac- 
ing nearly all the business portion of the city and a large number of private 
residences; 200 persons perished, and nearly 100,000 were rendered homeless. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 651 

The property burned was estimated at $200,000,000; it included the Court- 
house, Custom-house, Post-office, newspaper offices, 10 theatres and halls, 41 
churches, 32 hotels, 3 railroad depots, 5 grain elevators, 8 school-houses, and 
of the banks there was only one left. The insurance recovered was about 
$40,000,000. This stupendous calamity awakened the sympathy of the civil- 
ized world. The city was entirely rebuilt in a style of great magnificence 
within two years. Over $7,000,000 were raised in this country and in Europe 
in aid of the sufferers. 

As a commercial centre Chicago ranks next to New York. It is the most 
extensive lumber market in the world ; its trade in grain and flour is almost 
fabulous; since 1854 it has been the largest grain depot in the world. Pork- 
packing is conducted on a very extensive scale; beef in large quantities is 
killed, packed, and shipped by way of the lakes to Europe. The great cattle 
yards were opened in 1858; they occupy nearly 1,000 acres. There are over 
100 newspapers and periodicals, and it has become a great book-publishing 
centre. Ship-building is conducted to a considerable extent. Among the 
manufactures are watches, leather and leather goods, cotton, agricultural im- 
plements, boots and shoes, iron, flour, high-wines, etc., etc. 

The water supply for the city comes from Lake Michigan, and is con- 
ducted in two brick tunnels, one 7 feet and the other 6 feet in diameter; these 
extend 2 miles under the lake and meet in an immense inclosure, where the 
water descends into them through a grated cylinder; one of these was com- 
pleted in 1866, and the other in 1874. The cost of the tunnels under the lake 
was $1,500,000; the water-works up to the present time cost $10,416,000. 
In addition to this the city has many artesian wells, which yield a large sup- 
ply for the stock-yards and the West Side Park. 

The city has a multitude of benevolent and charitable institutions; in- 
cluding several orphan asylums, dispensaries, homes for the aged, indigent, 
and friendless, etc., etc. The Young Men's Christian Association has been. 
very active for the relief of the poor and destitute, and did good service at 
the time of the great fire; as did also the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, 
which distributed the vast amount of money contributed for the sufferers. 

The population in 1835 was 1,000; 1840, 4,470; 1850, 28,260; i860, 150,- 
000; 1870, 298,977; 1880, 503,304; 1889, 850,000. 



CITY OF DETROIT. 




ETROIT, the chief city of Michigan, the oldest city by far in the 
west of the United States, and older than either Baltimore or 
Philadelphia on the seaboard, was founded by the French of 
Canada in 1670, as an outpost for the prosecution of the fur trade, on the 
right bank of the river of its own name, about 18 miles from Lake Erie and 7 
miles from Lake St. Clair. For more than a century and a half, however, the 
advantages of its position were rather prospective than actual. The settle- 
ment of the adjacent wilderness was so slowly carried into effect that Michi- 
gan, of which Detroit was the capital, continued to be a subordinate territory 
from 1805 to 1837. The site is sufficiently elevated above the river to afford 
excellent facilities for drainage, which have been thoroughly improved. The 
river, which is the dividing line at this point between the United States and 
Canada, is half a mile wide and over 30 feet deep, forming the best harbor on 
the lakes. The city extends 6 or 7 miles along the bank of the river, and 
from 2 to 3 miles back from it. The river front is lined with warehouses, 
mills, foundries, grain elevators, railway stations, shipyards, dry docks, etc., 
the signs of an enterprising and thriving community. Fort Wayne, a mile 
below, commands the channel. The site of the city was visited by the 
French early in the 17th century, but no permanent settlement was made by 
them until 1701. Sixty-two years later, in 1763, at the close of the war 
between England and France, it fell into the possession of the English. Im- 
mediately after this Pontiac, the great Ottawa chief, made a desperate but 
unsuccessful effort to expel the whites from all that region. In 1778 Detroit 
contained only 300 inhabitants, living for the most part in log huts. The 
British, in 1778, erected a fort, which, after the Americans gained possession, 
became Fort Shelby. At the peace of 1783, Detroit became a part of the 
United States, but the Americans did not take possession until thirteen years 
later. The place was wholly destroyed by fire in 1805, and two years after- 
ward the present city was laid out. In the war of 1812 it was surrendered by 
General Hull to the British, but recovered by the Americans after the battle 
of Lake Erie in 1813. It was incorporated as a village in 1815, as a city in 
1824. It was the seat of government of the Territory of Michigan from 1805 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 653 

to 1837, and of the State of Michigan from the latter date till 1847. The 
streets are broad and well paved and lighted ; many of them lined with beau- 
tiful shade trees. The avenues are from 100 to 120 feet wide. Many of the 
business structures are large, solid, and imposing, and there are many elegant 
and costly private residences. The city has had a very rapid growth, the 
population increasing from 770 in 1810, to 116,340 in 1880, and 236,000 in 
1889. The principal park of Detroit is the "Grand Circus," and it is the 
centre from which the principal avenues radiate. It is semicircular, and 
divided by Woodward Avenue into two parts, each adorned with a fountain. 
The " Campus Martins " is a plot of ground 600 feet long and 250 feet wide, 
crossed by two avenues. Facing it is the City Hall, a fine structure of sand- 
stone, 200 feet in length by 90 feet in width, which cost $600,000. In front 
of the City Hall is a monument to the soldiers of Michigan who fell in the 
War of the Rebellion; and facing the Campus Martins on the north is an 
opera house, a large and fine building. The United States Custom-house 
and Post-office, a large building of stone, is on Griswold Street. The 
largest church edifice is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, but there are 
several of other denominations which are fine specimens of architecture. 
The Roman Catholic Convent of the Sacred Heart is a large and hand- 
some structure. The Michigan Central freight depot is 1,250 feet long and 
102 feet wide — a single room, covered by a self-supporting roof of iron; 
and near it stands a grain elevator with cupola, commanding a fine prospect. 
The House of Correction is also a very handsome building, erected at a cost 
of $300,000, with a capacity for 450 inmates. 

There are many lines of steamers with elegant boats running to difTerent 
points on the lakes. Eight great lines of railroad centre here. The large 
foreign commerce of Detroit is almost exclusively with the adjoining British 
possessions. The exports mostly consist of wheat, oats, corn, hogs, cotton, 
bacon, lumber, lard, etc. The trade in lumber is simply immense. A very 
large trade is done in cattle. There are numerous foundries and blast- 
furnaces, copper-smelting works, locomotive and car works, safe factories, 
furniture establishments, iron-bridge works, brick-yards, flour-mills, tanneries, 
breweries, distilleries, and tobacco and cigar factories. 

The city is supplied with water from the Detroit River, by works valued 
at nearly $1,250,000. The public-school system is well organized. The 
Detroit Medical College was established in 1868, and the Homoeopathic Col- 
lege in 1871. There is a fine public library, and 65 churches. 



CITY OF ST. LOUIS. 




T LOUIS is the chief city and commercial metropoHs of Missouri. 
It is a port of entry, and is situated on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi River, i8o miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and about 
1, 200 miles above New Orleans, and 18 miles below the confluence of the 
Missouri. It is connected with East St. Louis, a city in Illinois, by a mag- 
nificent bridge of steel, which cost $10,000,000. The bridge was begun in 
1869 and completed in 1874. It is 2,225 feet long by 54 feet wide. The 




THE COURT-HOUSE. 



central span is the longest in the world, being 520 feet, and 60 feet above the 
water. The bridge was designed by Captain James B. Eads. 

On the present site of the city was established, in 1734, a trading-post 
with the Indians; it was named after Louis XV. of France. In 1764 it was 
the depot of the Louisiana Indian Trading Company. In 1768 it was taken 
by a detachment of Spanish troops. In 1804 it was purchased by the United 
States with the whole country west of the Mississippi, at which time its pop- 
ulation was 1,500, and its yearly fur trade amounted to over $200,000. In 1820 
its population was less than 5,000. It was chartered as a city in 1822. Its 
first newspaper was started in 1808, and its first bank in 1816. Cholera ap- 



656 



GREAT CITIES OP^ THE UNITED STATES; 



peared in 1832 and again in 1849, from which the city suffered much. The 
first railroad commenced its business in 1853, A large portion of the 
town was destroyed by fire in 1849; after this substantial buildings were 
erected from stone quarried from the bank of the river. St. Louis, under a 
special act of the Legislature, is exempt from county government, and exists 
entirely distinct as a municipality. St. Louis County adjoins the city. The 
latter is regularly built, and has fine streets which cross at right angles, and 
extends about 14 miles along the river. As a commercial and industrial centre 
St. Louis ranks among the most important cities of the Union. It is only 
exceeded by New York and Philadelphia in the number and capital employed 
in its manufactures. It is the centre of one of the finest agricultural districts 

iw-.=^_^_^^-«^^-: ^^ ^; in this country, for which it 

.1 not only affords an outlet, 

-^ but is also a centre of sup- 

^^Lilrl:!: ply. The Mississippi, with 

its great tributaries, affords 

™ra«E^^H many thousands of miles of 

i^ " ^rf navigable water, while nearly 

thirty railroads and their nu- 

^isilil /ftj merous connections, place it 



I ■ • • -111 

- ;^ in communication with all 

parts of the country. All 

these railroads, except one, 

centre in the same depot. In 

the older portions of the city near the river, some of the streets are narrow 

and crooked. The principal streets are Fourth Street, Grand Avenue, Olive 

Street, Main Street, and Second Street. The principal retail stores are on 

Fourth Street, which is the grand promenade. The finest residences are on 

Grand Avenue, Lucas Place, Pine, Locust, and Olive Streets. There are two 

fine boulevards for driving in the western part of the city. It contains nearly 

500 miles of paved streets and alleys. The total area of square miles covered 

by the city is 61^. The numerous public parks, which are very beautiful, 

cover 2,500 acres. In addition to these there are many fine public squares. 

The Fair Grounds contain halls of mechanical and industrial exhibits, a 

zoological garden, claimed to be the most complete in the world, and an 

amphitheatre with seats for 40,000 people. The annual fairs are held in 

October. 




THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



657 



St. Louis has two of the finest cemeteries in the country, beautifully laid 
out and adorned with trees and shrubbery. It has a vast amount of manu- 
factures, including very extensive flour-mills, sugar refineries, tobacco, whisky, 
hemp, bale rope and bagging, oils and chemicals, pork, beef, lard, and 
ham. Packing is done on a very extensive scale, and employs an immense 
capital, and is only exceeded by the amount invested in the manufacture of 
iron. The best flour produced in the world is made in St. Louis, and is 
largely shipped to Europe; the production is about 2,500,000 barrels annu- 
ally. The number of hogs packed annually is about 600,000. The cotton 
trade amounts annually 
to about 500,000 bales. 
The machine-shops, lin- 
seed-oil factories, pro- 
vision packing-houses, 
and iron foundries are 
very extensive. The 
annual products of the 
factories are valued at 
nearly $275,000,000. 
The fur trade of Amer- 
ica centres in St. Louis, 
and the traffic in agri- 
cultural produce is sim- 
ply enormous, while in 
the manufacture o f 
flour it stands unrivalled, and competes successfully with the markets of 
Europe; it is also celebrated for its unsurpassable lager. 

Nearly 500 vessels belong to the port, with an aggregate tonnage of nearly 
200,000. There are 30 banks, 35 insurance companies, a chamber of com- 
merce, a merchants* exchange, a mechanics' and manufacturers' exchange, a 
board of trade, a cotton exchange, and a mining exchange. The principal 
pubHc buildings are the City Hall, the new Post-office, and Custom-house, 
which contains the United States Court Rooms, and cost about $5,000,000. 
The Court-house occupies an entire square. The Great Exposition and 
Music Hall, is a building pronounced by all who have seen it to be far supe- 
rior to anything of the kind in this country. Other buildings worthy of note 
are the Masonic Temple, the Columbia Life Insurance building, and the Mer- 




THE NEW POST-OFFICE. 



658 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



cantile Library, with about 65,000 volumes. About 170 churches, mostly of 
fine architectural appearance, adorn the cit}'. Among the more imposing 
structures are the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christ Church (Episcopal), and 




riiAMi;i:K nF commerce. 



the First Presbyterian Church. The city contains some of the finest hotels 
in the country, among which are the Southern, the Lindell, the Laclede, and 
the old Planters'. A fire in 1877 destroyed the Southern Hotel, which was 




■^orniEKN iio'iFi,, 



one of the largest and finest in the city. It has been rebuilt, and now occu- 
pies twice the space it first covered. The charitable institutions are very 
numerous, including hospitals, asylums, and homes. The Institution for the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



659 



Blind, which is controlled by the State, has facilities for 200 pupils, and 
teaches many industries. The Convent of the Good Shepherd is for the 
reformation of fallen women. There are also the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 
St. Luke's Hospital, the St. Louis Hospital, the Emigrants' Home, the 
Widows' and Infants' Asylum, and the Insane Asylum. There are 108 public 
school buildings, occupied by over 55,CX)0 children during the day, and 6,000 
pupils at night. The Washington University includes, in addition to the 
college proper, the Polytechnic Institute, the Marcy Institute for the Educa- 
tion of Women, the School of Fine Arts, the Manual Training School, and the 
Law School. The Concordia Institute (which is German Lutheran) includes 
a theological college. The Catholics have over 100 parochial, private, and 
convent schools, among which are the Academies of Loretto, the Visitation, 
and Sacred Heart, the Ursuline Convent, and St. Louis University. The 
latter is under the control of the Society of Jesus, and has a large and valua- 
ble library and museum. Prominent among the other Catholic institutions is 
the College of the Christian Brothers. There are several theatres and places 
of amusement, and a fine opera house. The assessed value of real and per- 
sonal property was (1889) $220,000,000. Population: in 1820, 4,590; i860, 
151,780; 1870,310,864; 1880,350,522; in 1889 was 450,000. 




CITY OF BALTIMORE. 




ALTIMORE is a magnificent city in Maryland. It is situated 200 
miles from the Atlantic, and is considered one of the three great 
seaports of the East; the bay is large enough and of a sufificient 
depth to accommodate the largest ships, and the channels in the river have 
been dredged to a depth of 24 feet and a width of nearly 400 feet. The city- 
has many advantages, especially in location, as it is situated at the most 
northerly extremity of the Chesapeake Bay, into which numerous rivers flow 

after passing through the fer- 
tile districts of Maryland and 
^ Virginia. The city was founded 
in 1729. In January, 1730, 
a small town was located 
north of Jones' Falls, and 
named Baltimore, in honor of 
Calvert, Lord Baltimore. At 
the same period William Fell, 
ship-builder, settled at Fell's 
Point, and two years later an- 
other town was projected and 
named after David Jones. 
The town was joined to Bal- 
timore in 1745, dropping its 
name. By successive unions 
these little settlements passed into Baltimore, and in 1752 the future city 
had about two dozen houses and 200 inhabitants. In 1767 Baltimore was 
made the county seat. In 1773 the first theatre, newspaper, and stage line 
to New York and Philadelphia were established. The city is divided into 
two nearly equal parts by "Jones' Falls," a rapid stream, which, though 
troublesome from its floods, and expensive from its bridges, supplies immense 
water-power, and an abundance of pure water for domestic use. In 1776 the 
Continental Congress met in Baltimore in quarters thus described by John 
Adams: "The congress sit in the last house at the west end of Market Street, 
on the south side of the street, in a long chamber, with two fire-places, two 




BATTLE MONUMENT, BALTIMORE. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 66i 

large closets and two doors. The house belongs to a Quaker, who built it for a 
tavern." Though Maryland was originally a Roman Catholic colony, there 
came to Baltimore, after the Revolution, a number of enterprising Scotch- 
Irish Protestants, whose energy and means were of great value to the city. 
In 1789 the course of Jones' Falls was changed, and the original bed filled in. 
In 1792 there was an accession to the population of many refugees from San 
Domingo. By 1796 Baltimore was made a city. Baltimore is defended by Fort 
McHenry. It was during an unsuccessful bombardment of this fort by the 
British fleet, in 1814, that Francis Scott Key, an American prisoner on one of 
the English ships, composed the celebrated " Star-Spangled Banner." Dur- 
ing the Civil War, a portion of the 6th Mass. and 7th Penn. regiments were 
mobbed while passing though the city, and in the contest several citizens and 
soldiers were killed. No more troops were sent through Baltimore until the 
city was put under military rule. Baltimore is on undulating ground, and it has 
more than 200 churches, three universities, and a number of colleges. Among 
the commemorative structures which have gained for Baltimore the name of 
the "Monumental City," the most interesting is an elegant obelisk, erected in 
181 5 to the memory of those who had fallen in defending the town against 
the British. The Roman Catholic Cathedral takes the lead among the ecclesi- 
astical edifices of Baltimore. It is a massive building of granite, being 190 
feet long, 177 broad, and 127 high; and besides one of the largest organs in 
the United States, it contains two beautiful paintings, presented by Louis 
XVI. and Charles X. of France. 

Baltimore's water communications are of great importance ; the James 
River affords communication with Richmond, Petersburg, and Lynchburg, 
and the waters of the bay with Norfolk; by canal, with New York and Phil- 
adelphia; by the Potomac River, with Washington; by canal from the latter 
place to Cumberland, the district in which the coHieries of the State are 
located. Along these coasts are numerous thriving towns and many well- 
tilled farms, the latter sending to her docks at times over 100,000 bushels of 
grain a day. The city is much nearer to the interior of the country than 
most of the large cities on the Atlantic Coast. Her position at the head of 
the Chesapeake, enables her to convey freight by water, which is a greater 
distance, much cheaper than by other transportation. Her immediate vicin- 
ity to the coal regions enables steamers to get their supply of this article at 
less than half the price they could get it in New York or Boston. Steamers 
crossing the Atlantic can save nearly $2,000 in this way on a single trip, as 



662 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

they generally use from 800 to 1,000 tons of coal. This probably explains 
why Baltimore is growing in favor as the great outlet of the West as well as 
of the interior, and as a distributing emporium of imports for the same local- 
ities. The vessels belonging to the port number nearly 2,000; tonnage, about 
150,000. About 1,200 foreign ships, 150 foreign ocean steamers, and 400 
American ships, engaged in foreign trade, enter the port annually. There 
are lines to various parts of Europe. The city has 15 national banks, with 
an aggregate capital of nearly $12,000,000. There are also several private 
banks of a substantial character. It is one of the greatest flour markets in 
the world. The trade in oysters is enormous. About 12,000 men are em- 
ployed in packing and handling oysters. One house puts up over 50,000 cans 
of raw oysters daily; and there are nearly 50 large establishments exclusively 
engaged in packing. Another house puts up over 35,000 cans of cooked 
oysters daily. Nearly 100 smaller concerns are engaged in opening oysters. 
After the oysters are all canned each year, the canning of fruits and vegeta- 
bles — which is conducted very extensively — ^is commenced, of which over 
25,000,000 cans are packed annually and sent to all parts of the civilized 
world, even to Hindostan, China, and Japan. In the coffee trade Baltimore 
is only second to New York, the sales amounting to nearly 500,000 bags 
annually; the bulk of this is imported from Brazil. 

Baltimore is one of the great centres of the coal trade; over 50,000 tons 
are exported annually. There are about 20 mills engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton (shirtings, cotton duck, and sheetings), and it has been estimated 
that 80 per cent, of the cotton duck produced on the globe is made in these 
mills. Nearly 100,000 bales of raw cotton are exported annually. The cattle 
trade of Baltimore is conducted on a very extensive scale, as is also its lum- 
ber trade, about 40 large houses being engaged in the latter industry. The 
export trade in lumber is at the present time nearly five million feet annually, 
while about sixty million feet of yellow pine are used annually for making 
packing-boxes. The city is the nearest seaport to the oil regions, and has 
great facilities for refining petroleum. There are many large refineries. The 
export trade in oil is very large, amounting at times to 50,000,000 gallons 
annually. Baltimore is also prominent in exporting tobacco. The largest 
iron rolling mills in the United States are the Abbot Works. The city is 
surrounded by iron-ore beds. One railroad iron mill can turn out over 40,000 
tons of finished rails annually. The industry in copper goods is very exten- 
sive, and is considered equal to any on the coast. A very extensive business 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 663 

is done in marine and stationary steat^-engines, mill-gearing, water-wheels, 
pulleys and shafting, hollow ware, stones, iron work, agricultural imple- 
ments, etc. 

Baltimore has gained a great reputation for its preparation of lard, of 
which it exports great quantities. Large quantities of provisions from the 
interior are exported to foreign ports. The shoe and leather trade is of great 
importance, amounting to over $25,000,000 annually. Much of the leather is 
exported to England and Germany. There is also a large trade in sugar and 
molasses. Other industries are : ship-building, woolen goods, pottery, sugar 
refining, distilling, tanning, saddlery, etc. About 10,000,000 bricks are made 
and sold annually. 

Baltimore possesses many charitable and beneficial institutions, among 
which are the Maryland Institution for the Blind; the Sheppard Asylum, for 
the Insane, endowed with $1,000,000 by Moses Sheppard; the Peabody Institu- 
tion, which received over $1,000,000 from George Peabody; and the Hopkins 
Hospital, endowed with $2,000,000 by Johns Hopkins. The Johns Hopkins 
University is also magnificently endowed, giving opportunity for post-graduate 
study and advanced scientific research. There are about 125 public schools, 
with 100,000 average attendance. The finest building in Baltimore is the new 
City Hall, occupying an entire square of more than half an acre, 355 feet 
long, which cost $2,600,000. The Peabody Institute was incorporated in 
1857. It contains a library of 56,000 volumes, and halls for lectures, etc. 
The Custom-house is a fine edifice, 225 by 141 feet. On the four sides are 
colonnades, each column being a single block of Italian marble. The new 
Pratt Library seems to meet a " long-felt want.'" Thus far about 1,600 books 
a day have been taken out. It comprises 40,000 volumes, distributed from 
one central point and five branches. 

Baltimore is supplied with water from Lake Roland, with a capacity of 
500,000,000 gallons, and by the new system of water wo-rks» the. grandest in 
the world, 200,000,000 gallons per day; quantity used, 27,000,000 per day. 
The city can boast of the noblest forest park in the United States. " Druid 
Hill" is an old forest which was previously the private park of a fine estate. 
It contains over 600 acres, acquired by the city in i860. It adds much to 
the beauty of the city, and has many picturesque walks and drives. The 
population in 1800 was 25,514; in 1830, 80,620; in 1840, 102,513; in 1850, 
169,547; in 1870, 267,354; in 1880, 332,190; in 1889,416,805. 



CITY OF LOUISVILLE. 




OUISVILLE, the chief city of Kentucky, is on the falls of the Ohio 
River, 130 miles below Cincinnati. It is handsomely built. The 
cit}^ is supplied with water from the Ohio, by artesian wells, one 
of which has a depth of 2,086 feet, a three-inch bore, and supplies 330,000 
gallons of water in 24 hours, which rises to a height of 170 feet. The Court- 
house cost $1,000,000. There is a fine custom-house, jail, a marine asylum, 10 
orphan asylums, hospitals, houses of refuge, and 95 churches. Steamers pass 
over the rapids of the Ohio at high water, but at other times pass through a 




A SCENE ON THE KIVER FRONT. 



canal and locks. Population: in 1880, 123,645, and in 1889 200,000. It was 
named Louisville (1780) in honor of Louis XVI. of France, whose troops were 
then assisting the Americans in the War of Independence. 

The falls or rapids of the Ohio have here a descent of 27 feet, affording a 
fine water-power. A number of railroads connect Louisville with the North- 
ern and Southern railroad systems. A bridge crosses the river at the head 
of the falls, having 27 spans, and a total length of over 5,000 feet, and cost 
over $2,000,000. An important industr}^ is the sugar-curing of hams, and 
pork-packing. This cit\' is also one of the largest markets for leaf-tobacco 
in the world; cigars are made in great quantities. The manufacture of 
whisky is also an enormous business. Other important manufactures are 
cement, leather, furniture, iron pipe, etc. 



CITY OF CLEVELAND. 




LEVELAND, next to Cincinnati, is the most commercial city in 
Ohio, and the capital of Cuyahoga County. It is situated on the 
southern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. 
The harbor is one of tlxe best on the coast, and has been rendered still more 
available by extending a pier on either side into deeper water. By means of 
this secure and commodious haven, Cleveland, with the aid of artiiicial works 
in both directions, has navigable communications with the Atlantic Ocean on 
the one hand, 
and with the 
head of Lake 
Superior o n 
the other. It 
is celebrated 
for its ship- 
building, and 
is becoming 
rapidly more 
and more im- 
portant for its 
manufactures. 

Magnificent '' ^™'^^ *^^^^^ ''-"^'^^ ^"^ ™- 

works were erected at a cost of about $800,000, to supply the city with water 
from Lake Erie; this is obtained by means of a tunnel under the lake. The 
city has grown to its present dimensions from a small town, which was settled 
in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, one of the directors of the Connecticut 
Land Company, after whom it was named. It is the chief port of the " Western 
Reserve." It is divided into two parts, connected with each other by bridges 
crossing the Cuyahoga River, which here empties into the lake. One of the 
bridges is 2,000 feet in length, and built of solid masonry, costing $2,500,000. 
The principal public buildings are of stone, and present a fine appear- 
ance. The United States building contains the Custom-house, Post-office, 
and rooms for the Federal Courts. The County Court-house and City Hall 
occupy conspicuous places, and are well adapted to their several uses. The 




666 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

House of Correction cost $170,000. The Cleveland Medical College is an 
imposing structure. The Union Railway Station is a massive structure of 
stone. The high-schools and several of the churches are very handsome 
structures. There is also a public library, and several other libraries. There 
are numerous hospitals, orphan asylums, and other charitable institutions, 
besides two convents, a Young Men's Christian Association, a seminary for 
women and a business college. The Catholic people have 1 1 academies and 
schools. The public schools are numerous and well organized. The State 
Law College has a fine library and many students. The Cleveland Medical 
College was founded in 1843, and the Homoeopathic Medical College in 1849. 

Cleveland has over 160 churches, many large insurance companies, several 
fine markets, and 33 hotels. It is the centre of many great railroads, and the 
Ohio Canal connects Lake Erie at this point with the Ohio River. It was 
this canal, completed in 1834, that first gave a great impetus to the commerce 
of the city. Numerous steamers ply between Cleveland and all other ports 
on the lake. The manufacturing industries of the city are varied and exten- 
sive, and increasing with great rapidity. They embrace iron, coal, refined 
petroleum, nail manufactories, copper smelting, sulphuric acid, wooden ware, 
agricultural implements, sewing-machines, railroad cars, marble, white lead, 
etc. The population was in 1830, 1,000; 1850, 17,034; 1870,93,018; 1880, 
159,404; 1886, 227,000; 1889, 250,000. 

The city is lighted by electric lights, which are elevated to a great height. 
There are many beautiful cemeteries. The finest part of the city is on a 
sandy bluff on the east side of the river, from 60 to 150 feet above the lake. 
The city is laid out mostly in squares, the principal streets being from 80 to 
120 feet wide, and one having a width of 132 feet. Shade trees are so abun- 
dant that the place is properly called the " Forest City." Euclid Avenue, 
lined with elegant private residences, each of which is surrounded with ample 
grounds, is acknowledged to be the handsomest street in the country. 
Superior Street, having a width of 132 feet, is occupied by the banks and the 
principal retail stores. Monumental Park, in the centre of the city, with an 
area of ten acres, as originally laid out, is now crossed by streets at right 
angles, and so divided into four smaller squares, beautifully shaded and care- 
fully kept. In one of these squares is a handsome fountain, in another a pool 
and a cascade, and a statue of Commodore Perry, the hero of the battle of 
Lake Erie, erected in i860 at a cost of $8,000. West of the river is another 
finely shaded park called the." Circle," with a beautiful fountain in the centre. 




CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS. 

NDIANAPOLIS, the capital and largest city of Indiana, is built on 
the west fork of White River, near the centre of the State, lOO 
miles northwest of Cincinnati. It is situated in the vicinity of an 
extensive coal region. Its manufactures and commerce are very important 
and extensive. Thirteen lines of railroad connect the city with all parts of 
the country. It is a regularly built and beautiful city, with a handsome State- 
house, court-house, jail, and State asylums for the blind, deaf and dumb, and 
insane ; has a university, two female colleges, and eight banks. 

Indianapolis became the seat of government in 1820, and in 1824 became 
the capital of the State. The city was incorporated in 1836. The streets are 
broad, and run at right angles. Nine bridges cross the river, three of which 
are for railroads. There are numerous street railroads, including a belt-line 
around the city. Seven parks, one of which contains over 100 acres, add 
much to the beauty of the city. 

Pork-packing is carried on extensively. There are a number of large flour- 
mills, grain elevators, iron rolling-mills, foundries, machine-shops, car works, 
sewing-machine shops, and factories for the manufacture of agricultural im- 
plements, furniture, pianos, organs, carriages, cotton and woolen goods, etc., 
etc. There are nearly 50 incorporated manufacturing institutions, with a 
large aggregate capital. About 90 churches adorn the city ; also a Roman 
Catholic theological seminary, an art school, a city hospital, an academy of 
music, a State library with 25,000 volumes, and a free city library with about 
20,000 volumes. The new State House cost $2,000,000. The public schools 
are mainly supported by the State school fund of $8,000,000. The Court- 
house is a splendid structure. Among the other fine buildings may be men- 
tioned the Exposition Building, the Chamber of Commerce, the Union Depot, 
the Masonic and Odd Fellows' Halls, the United States Arsenal, and numer- 
ous fine, massive blocks of buildings. The best private residences are sur- 
rounded by fine lawns and gardens. This city was the home of the late 
Vice-President Hendricks. 

Indiana has no mountains, and over two-thirds of its surface is level or undu- 
lating. It has but one port, Michigan City, on Lake Michigan, and no direct for- 
eign commerce. Its internal trade is of vast extent, its rivers, canals, and rail- 
roads being numerous and of great importance. The population of Indian- 
apolis in 1840 was 2,692; in 1870, 48,244; in 1880, 76,200; and in 1889 125,000. 




CITY OF CINCINNATI. 

INCINNATI is the chief commercial city of Ohio; it is situated on 
the north or right bank of the Ohio River, 120 miles from Colum- 
bus, the capital of the State; 458 miles below Pittsburgh, where 
the Ohio is formed by the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany 
Rivers, and 500 miles above the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi 
Rivers. It is 340 miles east of St, Louis, 280 miles southeast of Chicago, and 
610 miles from Washington, On the opposite side of the Ohio, in Kentucky, 
are two cities — Covington, which is the most important, has a population of 
28,542; and Newport with a population of 18,412. Cincinnati, which is the 
county seat of Hamilton County, has communications by numerous steam 
ferries besides two bridges, with these cities. The city occupies 27 square 
miles, and extends along the river 10 miles, and is about 3 miles wide. It has 
a fine, substantial appearance, and is noted for the architectural beauty of its 
public buildings. Its fine broad streets and avenues remind one of Phila- 
delphia; they are well paved, and in some instances lined with shade trees. 
The principal part of the city lies between Deer Creek on the east and Mill 
Creek on the west, which are nearly three miles apart where they flow into the 
Ohio. A few settlers from New Jersey first located on this site in 1789. In 
1800 the population only amounted to 750; its development being greatly 
retarded by the Indians, who rendered navigation on the Ohio very dangerous. 
Its ecclesiastical, literary and commercial edifices are as numerous as 
befits the acknowledged Queen of the West. The city occupies chiefly two 
terraces, which are elevated respectively 50 and 108 feet above the level of 
the river. The water of the Ohio has been lifted up into an immense reser- 
voir, at an expense of about $1,800,000. A large suspension bridge, 100 feet 
above low water, connects the city with Covington, Ky. Its entire length is 
2,252 feet; the principal span is 1,057 feet; this was designed by John A. 
Roebling, and cost nearly $2,000,000; it was completed in 1867. Another 
bridge connects the. city with Newport, Ky, 

Cincinnati is the centre of a great network of railroads, and is connected 
with a vast region of territory by the Ohio and Mississippi and their connec- 
tions ; while the Miami Canal connects it with Lake Erie, and a branch con- 
nects the Miami with the Wabash and Erie Canal, which is the longest canal 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 669 

in the Union (374 miles); this canal extends from Toledo to Evansville, Ind., 
on the Ohio River. 

The city was incorporated in 18 14, and since that time has made steady 
progress. Thirteen companies use seven railroads, which enter the city; two 
others have their terminus at Covington, on the other side of the river. 
Nearly 400 passenger and freight trains arrive and leave daily. There are 
four depots near the river in different parts of the city. Nearly twenty lines 



THIRD STREET. 



of street railroads cross the city in all directions. An incline steam-passenger 
railway affords communication with the top of the adjacent hills. Vineyards 
and gardens abound in the suburbs. 

Previous to and during the Civil War the slavery question created intense 
excitement. Social and vast commercial relations of the city with the South 
brought it in sympathy with the Slave States. Several attempts were made 
to establish an anti-slavery paper in the city, but without success, as it was 
always destroyed by a mob, who were r;;stained by prominent citizens; and 



670 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

in 1862, when a Confederate force was expected to attack the city, it was 
found necessary to place it under martial law. Many of the leading families 
furnished men and money for the Southern cause; but the great masses of 
the people, especially the Germans, were patriotic, and identified themselves 
with tho Union cause. 

In the suburbs of the city are many fine, costly residences, surrounded 
with beautiful lawns, laid out with shrubs and trees. The scenery in the 
vicinity of the city is very attractive; there are numerous parks and public 
grounds. Among the public buildings are the United States Government 
building, containing the Custom-house, Post-ofifice, Court-rooms, etc. The 
County Court-house cost nearly $500,000, and with the County Jail occupies 
an entire square. The City Hospital occupies a square, containing nearly four 
acres; the buildings and land are valued at $1,000,000. The Public Library 
cost about $700,000, which was raised by taxation. Pike's Opera House is a 
very imposing edifice, 134 by 170 feet. The Masonic Temple is 195 by lOO 
feet, and 4 stories high. Mozart's Hall has seating accommodations for 3,000 
people. Longview Asylum for the Insane, situated outside of the city, is 612 
feet long; the property is valued at over $1,000,000. There are also St. 
Xavier's College, which is governed by the Jesuits; Lane Theological Semi- 
nary (Presbyterian), organized in 1829, with an endowment of $200,000. The 
Catholics support over 100 parochial schools. There are in all 6 medical 
colleges, 5 literary colleges, one college of dentistry, several commercial col- 
leges, a university, and a law school. In 1842 the Wesleyan College for 
women was founded. There are nearly 200 churches; the finest of which is 
St. Peter's Cathedral (Catholic); it is 180 by 90 feet, with a fine stone spire 
224 feet high. The Tyler-Davidson Fountain is a fine work of art; it cost 
$200,000, and was presented to the city in 1871. 

Wine is made in the neighborhood to a great extent. The city itself also 
is largely engaged in a variety of important manufactures, hundreds of steam- 
engines being employed in the different establishments. The manufactories 
include iron-foundries, rolling-mills, lard, oil, and stearine factories; and 
countless works connected with flour, clothing, furniture, paper, printing, 
tobacco, soap, candles, hats, etc. The total value of manufactured goods in 
one year amounted to nearly $170,000,000. The Board of Trade has nearly 
1,000 members. The Merchants' Exchange and Chamber of Commerce has 
about 1,200 members. Six National banks have a capital of nearly $5,000,000, 
and 17 other banks nearly $3,000,000. An annual Industrial Exhibition has 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 671 

been held in Cincinnati in the fall of each year since 1871 ; the buildings 
occupy 3>^ acres of ground. 

A canal completed in 1872 around the falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, en- 
ables the largest steamboats on the Mississippi to reach Cincinnati. The 
imports in one year amounted to $223,237,157, and exports $186,209,646. By 
act of Congress in 1870, foreign merchandise may arrive in Cincinnati without 
appraisement or payment of duties at any port where it may f^rst arrive. 




FOURTH STREET. 

At one time Cincinnati was the great centre in the United States for the 
pork trade, but since 1863 Chicago has held first rank. At the present time 
Cincinnati has about 60 establishments for the slaughtering of swine and the 
packing of pork; the yards for the reception of live hogs occupy about 60 
acres. In one year 793,863 hogs, 142,815 cattle, and 274,027 sheep were re- 

ceived. 

The celebrated lager-beer of Cincinnati has gained a reputation, not only 
in the United States, but abroad. The malt liquors manufactured in one 



672 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

year amounted to nearly 6,000,000 barrels, which consumed about 1,500,000 
bushels of malt, 1,250,000 pounds of hops, 700,000 pounds of rice, over 6,000,- 
000 bushels of coal, over 3,500,000 bushels of coke, and used up 60,000 tons 
of ice. Whisky is made on a very extensive scale; the returns of rectified 
spirits for one year amount to nearly 13,000,000 gallons. 

The tobacco and cigar trade is of great extent and value. In one year 
the sales of tobacco amounted to over 40,000 hogsheads; and the number of 
cigars made in Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport was over 100,000,000. 
Nearly 2,000,000 cigarettes were made in the same year; and the produc- 
tion of fine-cut (chewing) and plug tobacco was nearly 5,000,000 pounds; 
while the smoking tobacco amounted to over 2,000,000 pounds. 

Fine candles are made in Cincinnati, and are largely disposed of in foreign 
countries; the shipments for one year were nearly 250,000 boxes. The manu- 
facture of soap is very extensive; the total shipments in one year amounted 
to over 366,000 boxes. It was here that soap made from cotton-seed oil was 
first manufactured. The manufacture of starch has gained for the city a 
great reputation; the shipments for one year amounted to nearly 5,000,000 
boxes; it is sold not only in the United States, but in nearly all parts of the 
world, including Mexico and South America. Furniture forms an important 
part of the manufactures. The manufacture of boots and shoes is constantly 
increasing, and the jobbing trade in this line is very extensive; the shipments 
in one year amounted to about 100,000 cases. 

Cincinnati is one of the great grain warehouses for the South ; the receipts 
for one year amounted to about 12,000,000 bushels. Boat-building, including 
steamboats and ferry-boats, gives employment to a large number of workmen. 

The population in 1820 was 9,602 ; in 1840,46,338; in 1850, 115,438; in 
i860, 161,000; in 1870, 216,289; in 1880, 255,708; in 1889, 330,000. 



I 




CITY OF MILWAUKEE. 






ILWAUKEE is the most important city and port of entry of Wis- 
consin. It is situated on the western shore of Lake Michigan, at 
the mouth of the Milwaukee River, which enters the lake from the 
north, and flows through the city. The Menomonee River joins the Milwau- 
kee near its mouth. The bay is 6 miles long by 3 miles wide. The city is 
84 miles north by west of Chicago, and 87 miles east of Madison, which is the 
capital of the State. The harbor is one of the best on the lakes, and has 
been much improved by the Government. The city is very handsome, and 
is built of yellow or 
cream-colored 
bricks made in the 
vicinity, and from 
which it has derived 
the name of the 
" Cream City of the 
Lakes." The streets 
are regular, the cen- 
tre and most level 
parts of the city be- 
ing devoted to busi- 
ness. The residen- 
ces crown a high 
bluff, and give the 
city a very picturesque appearance when viewed from the lake. Its first 
white settler was a Frenchman, whose name was Juneau, who located there 
in 1818, and engaged in the fur trade, and finally became Mayor of the city, 
which was incorporated in 1846. The city has a fine sewerage system, and is 
furnished by the lake with water. 

It is connected with all parts of the country by railroads. In 1870, Mil- 
waukee claimed the rank of fourth city in the Union in marine commerce. 
This position it has since lost by the rapid and extraordinary development of 
other cities. Copper and iron mines within 50 miles of the city have done 
much towards making her a great manufacturing centre. 




MILWAUKEE IN 1860. 



674 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Among the fine public buildings are the Post-office and Custom-house, 
which is built with marble, and in which are the United States Courts. The 
County Court-house was erected at a cost of more than $400,000. The re- 
ceipts and shipments by rail and water are immense and of great value. The 
most important items of merchandise are wheat and flour. The immense 
agricultural products of the three great States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Min- 
nesota are shipped from its port. Pork-packing is conducted on a very 
extensive scale, and the city is celebrated for its lager-beer, which finds a 
market in nearly all parts of the Union. About $4,000,000 is invested in this 
branch of industry. 

There are vast iron and rolling mills, which employ nearly 3,000 men, and 
have a capital of nearly $5,000,000. There are six immense elevators, with a 
total capacity of nearly 6,000,000 bushels, one of which is claimed to be the 
largest in the Union, having a capacity of 1,500,000 bushels. One of the 
largest flour-mills has a daily capacity of 1,000 barrels. The leather factories 
are very extensive, the total capital being nearly $2,000,000. Among the 
goods manufactured are the following: agricultural implements, machinery, 
pig-iron, iron castings, steam-boilers, car wheels, woolen cloth, carriages, 
wagons, barrels, furniture, sashes and blinds, boots and shoes, tobacco and 
cigars, white lead, paper, soap and candles, iron castings, leather, malt, high- 
wines, brooms, etc. 

It has a large number of educational institutions, comprising academies, 
public and private schools, and an Industrial School, several orphan asylums 
and hospitals, a College for Women, a monastery and Franciscan College, a 
public art gallery, a public library, and a German library and public museum. 
There are 75 churches, 2 cathedrals (i Episcopal and i Catholic), about 20 
banks, several insurance companies and theatres. The Government asylum 
for invalid soldiers is situated two or three miles from the city. 

The population, which largely consists of Germans and other nationalities, 
was, in i860, 45,000; in 1870, 71,000; in 1880, 115,570; and in 1889, 210,000. 



CITY OF PITTSBURGH. 




^*''J%Wl^,,] 




ITTSBURGH isthe second 

city in population and 

importance in Pennsyl- 
vania, a port of entry, and the 
county seat of Allegheny County. 
It is situated at the junction of the 
Monongahela and Alleghany Rivers, 
where they form the Ohio, which at 
this point is a quarter of a mile wide. 
The city is 356 miles from Phila- 
delphia, 245 miles from Harris- 
burgh, which is the capital of the hurseshok clrvk and Pittsburgh, penn. 
State, and 227 miles from Washington. The distance from New Orleans 
by the river is 2,040 miles. Some of the richest deposits of coal and iron 
in America are to be found in the vicinity. The city has nearly 200 iron 
establishments, about 75 iron foundries, 50 iron and steel works, and over 600 



676 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



furnaces. There are vast machine-shops; the manufacture of steam boilers, 
engines, etc., is very extensive. There are about 56 glass manufacturing 
establishments, the products of which are about $12,000,000 annually. The 
trade in crude and refined oil is enormous; nearly 3,000,000 barrels of crude 
oil are received annually, and about 2,500,000 barrels of refined oil shipped. 
Large quantities of coke are purchased, averaging more than 1,000,000 tons 
a year. The iron manufactures amount annually to about $50,000,000; the 
total amount of pig metal consumed is about 7,000,000 tons annually, being 
nearly one-quarter of the total produced in the Union. There are large 
copper-smelting works, 22 rolling-mills, numerous cotton-mills and white lead 

factories. The best qualities of English 
steel are surpassed by several large steel 
works, seven of which produce about 35,- 
000 tons annually. The products of sev- 
eral copper manufacturing establishments 
amount to $4,000,000 annually. Vast 
quantities of coal are produced in nearly 
200 collieries in the neighborhood of the 
city. 

Pittsburgh is the great manufacturing 
city of America. The immense foundries 
and factories fill the air with smoke, and 
hence it has derived the names of " the 
Smoky City," and "the Iron City." It 
has often been compared to Birmingham, 
i>i I I England. The first glass manufactured 

in Pittsburgh was in 1796. The first attempt at making steel was in 1828, 
and for several years only the lowest grade was produced. The manufac- 
ture of cast steel for edge-tools was commenced in i860. The first rolling- 
mill was built in 1812, and the first iron foundry in 1804; from the latter 
cannon were cast and supplied for the fleet on Lake Erie and for the defence 
of New Orleans. 

Pittsburgh occupies the site of the old French Fort Duquesne. In 1754 a 
portion of its present territory was occupied by the English, and a stockade 
fort was built at the confluence of the rivers. After many struggles with the 
French and Indians, in which the British General Braddock was defeated, it 
was finally taken by General Forbes in 1758, and a permanent foothold estab- 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



677 



lished. The place became a permanent trading-post in 1759. A new fort 
was eventually erected, and named Fort Pitt, in honor of William Pitt, then 
Prime Minister of England, the name changing finally to Pittsburgh. In 
1774 the place was surveyed and laid out by descendants of William Penn. 
It was incorporated as a city in 1816. At that time its limits were confined 
to a peninsula between the rivers; it now extends over the adjoining hills, 
and seven or eight miles up both rivers. In 1845 it was nearly destroyed by 
fire. Its appearance is that of a solid and substantial city. The eastern part 
is devoted to fine residences. Most of the streets are paved. Besides its 
vast manufacturing interests, Pittsburgh has a great trafiic over the three 
rivers, which give it an out- 
let to the Mississippi River,, 
its tributaries, and the Gulf 
coast, while canals connect it 
with Philadelphia, and, by 
way of Cleveland, with the ^fr 
lakes. It is a port of delivery 
in the New Orleans district. 

Among the principal rail- 
roads are the Pennsylvania, 
the Alleghany Valley, and the 
Pittsburgh, Washington, and 
Baltimore, which connect 
Pittsburgh with nearly every 
part of Pennsylvania and the 
East. The Pittsburgh, Fort 
Wayne, and Chicago Railroad and connecting lines give communication to 
the West and Northwest, while the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Rail- 
road connects the South and Southwest. 

The public buildings include a fine Court-house, the Western State Peni- 
tentiary, the United States Arsenal, etc. There are 50 banks and a large 
number of insurance companies; 75 schools, including a high-school. Among 
the colleges are the Western University of Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh 
Female College (Methodist). There are over 40 newspapers, of which 10 
are dailies; and 120 churches. Among the ecclesiastical buildings is a fine 
large Roman Catholic Cathedral. 

Seven bridges span the Alleghany River, and not only connect Pittsburgh 




THE COURT-HOUSE. 



678 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



with Alleghany City, but are practically continuous streets traversed by horse- 
cars. Five bridges span the Monongahela, and give an outlet to the suburbs of 
Pittsburgh in that direction. Large steamboats run on the Ohio from Pitts- 
burgh to Cincinnati and many other points, and great facilities are afforded 
for the reception of mineral oil, iron, coal, lumber, etc., by the Monongahela 
and Alleghany Rivers. Over 200 large steamers belong to the port, and 600 
or 700 barges, with a total tonnage of nearly 200,000. 

The figures showing the production of pig-iron indicate that the Southern 
States are forging to the front, although Pennsylvania still holds an easy lead, 
having produced in 1885, 2,445,496 tons of the entire 4,529,869 tons produced 
in this country. Ohio comes next in the list of iron-producing States with 
553,963 tons; Illinois third with 327,977 tons; aud Alabama fourth with 227,- 
438 tons. -The next highest producing States are Virginia, Tennessee, New 
York, and Michigan, in the order named. While recognizing that the South 
is making rapid advances, Pennsylvania, with its abundant coal and its newly 
utilized store of natural gas, is sure, however, to be the great pig-iron centre 
for an indefinite period. The fuel and ore and the market are so conveniently 
near each other in the Keystone State that no probable competitors are 
seriously to be feared. 

Pittsburgh has rapidly increased in population and manufactures. The 
majority of the population is of foreign birth; mostly Irish, German, and 
English. The population in 1788 was 480; in 1800, 1,560; in 1840, 21,000; in 
i860, 79,000; in 1870, 121,799; in 1880, 156,389 (the annexation of adjoining 
boroughs caused much of this increase); in 1889, 230,000. The City of Alle- 
ghany, with its population of 110,000 in 1889, is on the other side of the river, 
and as it is in fact a portion of Pittsburgh, except in its municipal govern- 
ment, it should be added to these figures, making the total population of 
Pittsburgh in 1889, 340,000. 



I 




CITY OF ST. PAUL. 




T, PAUL i.s the capital of Minnesota. It is a thriving commercial 
city and port of entry, situated on both banks of the Mississippi 
River, 9 miles east of Minneapolis, 400 miles northwest of Chicago, 
2,080 miles from New Orleans, and 9 miles from the Falls of St. Anthony. 
Excellent springs of water abound in the hills near the city. It is, the head 
of navigation for the large steamboats of the Lower Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries, and is 800 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. The City of St. Paul, stand- 
ing at the navigable head of what the Indians fitly called, in their musical and 



A VIEW OF ST. PAUL, 




expressive tongue, the " Great River," has been fortunate in many things. 
Above them all, it is supremely fortunate in situation. A visitor needs only 
to go to the summit of either of the four principal blufTs upon which the city 
lies, and beyond which it is spreading itself so rapidly, to see the secret of 
that spell which its scenery and distant outlook communicate. Established 
m the midst of a territory dominated by prairies, it looks down upon a vast 
and beautiful landscape in a way that suggests the supremacy and lordliness 
of Rome. Its vistas are various from these lofty coigns of vantage, and each 
is a separate and individual picture. In 1846 the white people living on this 



68o GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

site consisted of ten persons. In 1841 a chapel was dedicated here to St. 
Paul by a Jesuit missionary, and from this it derived its name. The princi- 
pal railroads are the Northern Pacific; St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba; 
Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington, and Northern; 
Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha; St. Paul and Duluth; St. Paul 
and Northern Pacific; Wisconsin Central; Minneapolis and St. Louis; Chi- 
cago and Northwestern; and Minnesota and Northwestern. 

The Custom-house and Post-office is a fine granite structure, which cost 
$600,000. The State Capitol was erected at a cost of $374,000. St. Paul has 
a fine court-house, several hotels and theatres, public libraries, with nearly 
50,000 volumes, a number of daily and weekly newpapers, several of which 
are in the Swedish and German languages. It has a State Historical Society, 
an Academy of Natural Sciences, a State Reform School, various fine public 
schools, orphan asylums. Catholic parochial schools, a commercial and busi- 
ness college, a Home for the Friendless, and Magdalen reformatories, about 
50 churches, and a fine cathedral. The city has very efficient fire and police 
departments, street railways, a Mayor and Council. It is connected with 
West St. Paul by two bridges across the Mississippi River. The boundaries 
of the city include West St. Paul since 1874. There are quarries in the 
vicinity from which limestone is taken for building purposes. Its water sup- 
ply is derived from Lake Phalen, which is about three miles from the city. 
The public park, which is very beautiful, is on the shore of Lake Como, and 
contains nearly 300 acres. It has several grain elevators, numerous banks 
and insurance companies. The shipments of wheat amount to about 2,000,000 . 
bushels annually, and flour 250,000 barrels. The manufactures consist of 
agricultural implements, machinery, furniture, ale and beer, carriages, boots 
and shoes, lumber, sash and blinds, doors, and blank books. 

Six of the National banks have a capital of $6,350,000. It is the centre 
of a large growing trade in flour, lumber, furs, machinery, etc., and has a very 
extensive wholesale trade. The growth of the city, like its twin sister, Min- 
neapolis, has been very rapid. The banking capital of St. Paul exceeds that 
of all the rest of the State put together. 

As a place of residence St. Paul is delightfully situated, and on a clear, 
bright day in spring, the view from the bridges which span the river is sur- 
passingly beautiful. Up the river as far as the eye can reach, are green 
banks, with hills and plateaus crowned with fine residences and comfortable 
homes. The atmosphere of St. Paul is dry and pure, and remarkably invig- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



68 1 



orating, especially for those in poor health, or suffering from some pulmonary- 
complaint. Though the thermometer shows a greater degree of cold in 
winter than is experienced in the New England or Atlantic States, yet it is 
not nearly as perceptible as in other sections where the " raw," damp days of 
winter penetrate through the thickest clothing. The average mean tempera- 
ture for the nine years, including 1883, in the city, was 19° Fahrenheit for the 
winter months; for the summer months, 69° 80'; and for the spring and fall 
months, 40° 30' and 45° 70' respectively. 

Population: in i860, 10,000; in 187Q, 20,000; in 1880,41,000; and in 1889, 
200,000, 




CONVENIE^•CES OF MODERN TRAVEL— A PALACE-CAR SMOKER OF TO-DAY. 



CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS. 




INNEAPOLIS is a city in Southeastern Minnesota, on the Missis- 
sippi River, situated at the Falls of St. Anthony, nine miles west 
;^l| of St. Paul. The surrounding country is noted for its picturesque 
beauty. The city is built on a fine broad plateau, seemingly specially de- 
signed by nature for a metropolis. The river makes a fall or descent of 50 
feet within a mile, has a perpendicular descent of 18 feet, and has, 135,000 
horse-power at low-water mark. It is crossed by a fine suspension bridge 
built in 1876, and three' other bridges. There are four fine lakes in the 
vicinity. Immense manufacturing establishments are conducted by means 
of water-power from the ^ 
river. The value of the lum- 
ber sawed in one year 
amounted to $3,000,000, and 
the flour made in one year 
amounted to nearly $8,000,- 
000. The wholesale grocery 
business amounts to nearly 
$6,000,000 a year. An im- 
mense amount of grain is 
milled. Among the other 
important manufactures are 
iron, machinery, water- 




A GLIMPSE OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



wheels, engines and boilers, agricultural implements, cotton and woolen 
goods, furniture, barrels, boots and shoes, paper, linseed oil, beer, sashes, 
doors, and blinds. Pork-packing is conducted on a very extensive scale; 
and there are numerous saw-mills. The wholesale trade is very important, 
and is constantly increasing. Minneapolis is regularly laid out with streets 
and avenues from 60 to 100 feet wide. The streets cross at right angles, 
and are shaded with fine trees. The city is ornamented by a series of beau- 
tiful parks, boulevards, and parkways, laid out and improved at an enor- 
mous expense. It is well sewered, and has a fine fire department and police 
force. Minneapolis is the great railroad centre of the Northwest. All the 



684 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

roads of the Northwest, in fact, touch MinneapoHs. It has a Hne of steamers 
to St. Cloud. 

Among the pubHc buildings are a Court-house, a City Hall erected in 1873, 



«'a§^S5^A4^'i 



»,^§ 




an Academy 
e r ah o u s e. 
The Athe- 
of I 5 ,000 
lis is the seat 
Minnesota 
organized in 
library of 
the Augs- 
Seminary, 
Scandinavians of 



of Music, and an Op- 
There are 70 churches, 
naeum has a library 
volumes. Minneapo- 
of the University of 
(open to both sexes), 
1868, and having a 
18,000 volumes; and 
burg Theological 
established by the 
the Northwest, with a 
umes; also Hamline 



library of 1,800 vol- 

University (Method- ''^'*^?>^^''^^^^^ J^^^^^^ ist). It has numerous 
newspapers. The Falls ■^.J'^'' "^^ ^'fjf^% -^^- ' of Minnehaha are 
three miles distant, falls ok minnehaha and cApr^ms- Considerable interest 
attaches to this cas- appointment, Minneapolis. cade, it being the scene 

of a legendary romance wrought into the story of Longfellow's poem of 
" Hiawatha." The Minnehaha River flows over a limestone cliff, making a 
sudden descent of 60 feet, and the story runs that Minnehaha, an Indian 
maiden crossed in love, here took the fatal leap. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 685 

Minnehaha, in Dakota language, signifies " laughing water." 
The twin cities are at once rivals and neighbors, and may at some future 
period be consolidated into one metropolis. The census of Minnesota was 
taken in 1885 ; according to it St. Paul had grown from a population of 3 in 
1838, to 111,397 in 1885 ; and Minneapolis from 45 in 1845, to 129,200 in 1885 ; 
while in 1889 the population of Minneapolis was 247,000 

During the three years 1883, 1884, and 1885, there was expended in new 
buildings in these two cities $52,300,000, in addition to a large sum in public 
improvements ; and it may be safely aflfirmed that so great a sum thus ex- 
pended in London, Paris, or New York, in so short a time, would attract the 
admiration of the world. Yet the palatial hotels, massive business blocks, 
huge flouring-mills and elegant residences built with this money, stand on the 
wooded bluffs of the Mississippi, and the world cannot keep up with the facts. 
The paid-up capital and surplus of the National and State banks of these two 
cities together, were $2,225,000 in excess of those of New Orleans in 1885. 
Minneapolis alone handled 10,000,000 more bushels of wheat that year than 
Chicago. The Pillsbury A mill manufactured in one week that fall 40,050 
barrels of flour, on two separate days turning out 7,000 barrels ; while the 
grist of the Pillsbury B is 2,000 barrels daily. During one ordinary crop-year 
those two mills made 1,730,000 barrels of flour, while the Washburn mills 
made 1,318,939 barrels; and there are, besides these mammoth mills, twenty- 
eight others in these cities, with a total daily capacity of 36,500 barrels. The 
amount of other manufactures in Minneapolis that year exceeded $26,000,000. 
Indeed, this is the natural home for manufactures of all kinds, there being no 
other locality in the West with its advantages. The climate is mild and pleas- 
ant, and to those who desire to get rich, we would say, " Go West, young 
man," but by all means go to one of the twin cities, as they have had an un- 
paralleled growth, and the indications are will continue to grow as rapidly as 
heretofore. 




CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 




ROVIDENCE, one of the two capitals (Providence and Newport) of 
Rhode Island, and the principal port of entry and county-seat of 
Providence County, is situated at the head of navigation on the 
Providence River, which is at the head of Narragansett Bay, i6o miles from 
New York, 44 from Boston, and 33 from the ocean. The harbor is spacious, 
and has depth for the largest ships. The place was settled by a colony of 

refugees from Massachu- 
setts under Roger Williams 
in 1636, who established 
there the oldest Baptist 
church in America in 1638, 
It was incorporated as a 
town in 1649. In 1776 the 
population was only 4,355, 
notwithstanding it had 
been settled 140 years. It 
was incorporated as a city 
in 1832. It is now the 
second city in New Eng- 
land in population, wealth, 
and manufacturing inter- 
ests, having an area of 19 
square miles on both sides 
of the river, which above 
the bridges expands into a 
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. covc a milc in circuit, on 

the banks of which is a handsome park, shaded with elms. It contains many 
beautiful residences, surrounded with fine lawns and gardens. Its commerce 
is very extensive, and the city abounds in manufactures and wealth. 

Among the manufactures which are produced on an extensive scale are 
cotton and woolen goods, tools, fire-arms, sewing-machines, iron-ware, gold and 
silver ware, jewelry, chemicals, dyestuffs, toilet and laundry soaps, and alarm 
tills. There are also several bleachine and calendering establishments. The 




GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 689 

iron manufactures include steam-engines and boilers, butt-hinges, screws, 
locomotives, iron castings, etc. The manufacture of jewelry, however, is con- 
sidered the most extensive industry in Providence, there being nearly 200 
factories of this kind. The Household Sewing-Machine Company, purchasers 
of the property of the Providence Tool Company, employed in 1886 nearly 
2,000 men in manufacturing sewing-machines. Fine tools are manufactured 
by the Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company. Small wares and notions 
are made by the Fletcher Manufacturing Company. Solid silverware is man- 
ufactured by the Gorham Company on an extensive scale. There is also the 
Providence Steam Engine Company, the Allen Fire Supply Company, the 
Barstow Stove Company, the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, the Corliss 
Steam-Engine Works, and Spicer & Peckham Stove Works. There are 6 cot- 
ton and woolen mills' it is also the headquarters of 100 cotton factories and 
60 woolen mills. 

The total value of the manufactures is about $65,000,000 annually; total 
imports about $150,000. The exports, which are unimportant, are quoted at 
only $23,000. This is probably accounted for from the fact that most of the 
vessels are engaged in the coast trade. The number of vessels belonging to 
the port is 126, of 32,000 tons, while nearly 1,000 engaged in the coast trade 
enter the port every year. 

There are several lines of steamboats, some of which connect with New 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, arid Charleston. The passenger 
steamboats run between Providence and the City of New York by the Provi- 
dence and Stonington Steamship Company are probably the largest, most 
elegant and best equipped of their kind in the world. Railroads radiate in 
all directions. There were in 1889 about 55 banks, 25 insurance companies, 
80 churches, 4 daily papers, and 80 public schools. Among the principal in- 
stitutions are Brown University, an Athenaeum with a library of about 50,- 
000 volumes, a College of the Society of Friends, a Roman Catholic Institute, 
Franklin Lyceum, hospitals and asylums. The city is governed by a Mayor, 
with one Alderman and four Councilmen from each Ward. Its population 
in 1875 was 100,675; in 1880, 104,857; and in 1889, 125,000. 



690 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

CITY OF MANCHESTER. 

ANCH ESTER is the most populous city in New Hampshire. It is 
situated on the Merrimac River, at the Falls of Amoskeag, 59 miles 
north of Boston, and 18 miles south of Concord, the capital of the 
State. Manchester was originally settled in 1722 by Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
rians, and was at first called Derryfield, and incorporated under this name in 
175 1. The name was changed in 1810 to Manchester, and the city was incor- 
porated in 1846. Its manufactures of woolen and cotton goods are of vast 
proportions. The great mills grind on day after day, and during the evening 
and at noon thousands of hard-working. people can be seen at the post-ofifice 
and on the streets. The falls of 54 feet afford water-power through canals, 
which is the foundation of the great manufactures, which consist of cotton 
and woolen goods, machinery, paper, steam-engines, locomotives, hardware, 
carriages, boots and shoes, soap, tools, starch, etc. The total capital invested 
in manufactures has been estimated at $12,000,000 to $15,000,000. Among 
the great corporations may be mentioned the Amoskeag Manufacturing 
Company, the Stark Mills, the Manchester Mills, and the Langdon Mills. 
The principal public buildings are the Court-house, State Reform School, 
Catholic Convent, Library, etc. The city contains 9 banks, about 20 churches, 
and 50 schools. Its streets are well shaded with elms. It is the terminus of 
several railroads. Population in i860, 20,000; 1870,23,536; 1880, 32,000, and 
in 1889, 42,000. The other cities of New Hampshire are Concord, the capi- 
tal (population, 17,000), Nashua (14,000), Dover (i 1,000), Portsmouth (11,000), 
and Keene (7,000). 



CITY OF WORCESTER. 

ORCESTER is the semi-county-seat of Worcester County, Massachu- 
setts. It is situated on the Boston & Albany Railroad, 44 miles 
from Boston, in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills in a fine agri- 
cultural district. The building sites in and around Worcester are delightful, 
and many of the residences are handsome. The streets are broad and well 
shaded. The city is famous for its political and philanthropical conventions. 
The town was incorporated in 1722, and the cit}' in 1848. It was from the 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 691 

steps of the old South Church (still on the Common) that the Declaration of 
Independence was first read in Massachusetts. Among the public buildings 
are the County Court-house, the Union Depot (a massive structure), and the 
high-school building. The principal institutions are the City Hospital, the 
Orphans' Home, the Homes for Aged Men and Women, the American Anti- 
quarian Society with a library of over 50,000 volumes and a valuable cabinet, 
the State Lunatic Asylum, the State Normal School, the College of the Holy 
Cross, which is the principal Catholic college in New England; the Military 
Academy, and the Free Institute of Industrial Science. The high, grammar, 
intermediate, and primary schools are considered the model schools of New 
England. 

The principal manufactures consist of boots and shoes (of which there are 
over 30 factories), iron, wire, machinery, boilers, corsets, cotton goods, woolen 
goods, carpets, pistols, paper, locks, hardware, pianos, etc. The city is the 
centre of several railroads. There are numerous banks, insurance companies, 
and newspapers, three of the latter being French. Main and Front Streets 
are the principal business streets. The business blocks have a fine appear- 
ance, and impress a stranger with the jnagnitude and importance of the busi- 
ness which centres in Worcester. Population, 1880, 58,295 1886, 67,000; 
1889, 82,000. 



CITY OF PORTLAND. 



ORTLAND is the leading commercial city and a seaport of Maine, 
beautifully situated on an arm of the southwest side of Casco Bay. 
It occupies a peninsula three miles long by nearly a mile wide. Its 
Indian name was Machigonne. It is 105 miles northeast of Boston, 60 miles 
southwest of Augusta, and 293 miles from Montreal. It includes several small 
islands in the bay, and was originally a part of Falmouth. It is connected with 
Montreal and Detroit by the Grand Trunk Railway; and is the terminus of 
six other railways. Grain is shipped from the Pacific coast to Portland without 
change of cars. Its trade with Europe, South America, the West Indies, and 
coast towns is very important. Its harbor is the best on the Atlantic coast, 
having 40 feet of water at low tide ; it is protected by the islands from storms, 
and has a good entrance. It is the winter station of the Canadian steamers. 
It is defended by two forts and the fortifications on Hog Island, which pro- 



m:w!9 




GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 693 

tect four entrances. The exports average $25,000,000, and imports |;22,ooo,- 
000. It has one dry-dock. Ship-building is conducted on an extensive scale. 
Among the other industries may be mentioned the manufacture of iron, car- 
riages, furniture, leather, petroleum, varnishes, boots and shoes, jewelry, etc. 
The sales of merchandise amount annually to about $50,000,000* the manu- 
factures amount to about $10,000,000. 

The city has fine, broad, shaded streets and handsome public edifices, 
among which may be mentioned a fire-proof and granite building for the 




CITY HALL AND COURT-HOUSE. 



United States Courts and Custom-house, costing $490,000; the City Hall of 
olive-colored free-stone, the Mechanics* Hall of granite, the Post-ofifice of 
white marble, etc. The city contains over 30 churches, and is the seat of an 
Episcopal Bishop and of a Catholic Bishop. It has numerous charitable in- 
stitutions, and about 70 societies for charitable objects. The city contains 
a Law Library and Public Library. 

The place was first settled in 1632 by an English colony, and was called 
Casco, but in 1668 it was changed to Falmouth. In 1786 a portion of the 
place, containing about 2,000 people, was called Portland. The piincipal occu- 
pation of the early settlers consisted of fishing and trading in furs, which they 



694 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

purchased from the Indians. In 1675 the place contained but forty families. 
The town was incorporated in 1718. In 1755 the population had reached 
nearly 3,000 souls. In 1800 Maine was separated from Massachusetts and 
admitted into the Union as a State, and from that time until 1832 Portland 
was the capital ; in the latter year the capital was removed to Augusta. 
Portland was three times burned in the wars with the French and Indians. 
In 1866, on the 4th of July, a fire-cracker in a boat-builder's shop was the 
cause of a fire which destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property. Population 
in 1870, 31,413; in 1880, 34,000; and in 1889, 40,000. 



m8) 



CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 

EW HAVEN is the largest city in Connecticut and a port of entry. 
It is situated at the head of a bay, four miles from Long Island 
Sound, on a plain between the Quinipiack and West Rivers. East 
Rock and West Rock are on either side, and are of volcanic formation, about 
400 feet high. The city is 76 miles from New York and 36 from Hartford. 
The harbor is shallow, but has been much improved, and is provided with a 
breakwater. The city is known as " Elm City," from the fine old elm trees, 
many of which were planted over 100 years ago, which shade and adorn its 
streets, parks, and squares. 

The Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, with a small colony of 
Puritans, founded New Haven in 1638, and with other adjoining towns it 
formed an independent colony until 1662, when it was included in the same 
charter with Connecticut. New Haven and Hartford were joint capitals 
from this time until 1874, when Hartford became the sole capital. 

The public square or " Green " is located in the centre of the city, and is 
surrounded by a double row of fine old elms. Temple Street, which passes 
through the " Green," is bordered by some of the finest elms in the city. On 
the " Green " are three churches, one of which is the oldest in New Haven. 
Behind one of these churches are the tombs of the " regicides,"' W'halley, 
Dixwell, and Goffe; and upon the side or slope of West Rock is a cave com- 
posed of boulders, in which the "regicides" concealed themselves, and on 
which is the inscription: "Opposition to tyrants is obedience to God." The 
central part of Chapel, Church, Orange, and State Streets is devoted to busi- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 695 

ness. There are many fine streets, bordered with ancient ehns, on which are 
handsome residences, surrounded with fine lawns and gardens. 

Among the finest edifices may be mentioned the City Hall, County Court- 
house, Post-office and Custom-house, the Yale College buildings, the Insur- 
ance building, the Hillhouse High-School, the Hospital, Trinity Church, St. 
Mary's Roman Catholic Church, and the Calvary Baptist Church. A large, 
new, and beautiful park has been built on East Rock, with several miles of 
drives. The scenery from the sides and top of this rock is very picturesque. 
The drives wind around the rock in serpentine form. On the top of the rock 
is a restaurant, from which point a beautiful view of the city can be had. 
The new Soldiers' Monument is to be erected on the top of East Rock, 
where it can be seen from the vessels coming up the harbor. The Farnham 
Drive and the English Drive are so named in honor of the late Mr. Farnham 
and Governor English, who donated the money for their construction. 
Churches, cemeteries, and fine drives abound in and about the City of Elms. 
Savin Rock, on the west shore, four miles from New Haven, has become very 
popular as a summer resort. It contains many fine residences, and is in 
some respects a miniature Coney Island. 

New Haven is a manufacturing city of great importance. Its manufac- 
tures of fire-arms, clocks, pianos and organs, carriages, india-rubber goods, 
corsets, iron goods, and machinery are very extensive. Other manufactured 
goods consist of cutlery, fish-hooks, paper boxes, brass goods, musical instru- 
ments, boots and shoes. It is the centre of a considerable wholesale and 
retail trade. The carriage business is one of the largest industries in the city. 
It is probably the first city in the Union for fine carriages. The Candee 
Rubber Factory is claimed to be the second largest in the world, while the 
Winchester Rifle Company finds a market not only in the United States, but 
in many parts of the globe. The WHieeler Iron Works and Sargent's factories 
are among the most important in the State. Nearly all the coal and much of 
the freight of New England passes through the city. 

New Haven in years past has had a large intercourse with the W^est 
Indies, but in later years much of it is conducted from New York. Its com- 
merce with Europe has increased rapidly, its foreign exports chiefly consist- 
ing of fire-arms, cartridges, shot, carriages, pianos, organs, machinery, etc. 
In one year 80 vessels of about 17,000 tons entered and 34 vessels of 9,000 
tons cleared the port in the foreign trade. The direct foreign exports 
amounted to nearly $3,500,000, and the direct foreign imports to nearly $1,- 



696 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES 

000,000. Much of the business being done through New York, these figures 
do not represent the entire exports and imports. About 800 vessels are 
engaged in the coast trade, which is very extensive; about 200 vessels belong 
to the district. There are 12 National, State, and savings banks, i trust 
company, 2 insurance companies; 5 lines of railroad connect it with all parts 
of the country, and 2 daily lines of steamboats with New York. It is the seat 
of Yale College, which was founded in 1700; first established at Saybrook, 
and removed to New Haven in 1716. It is named in honor of Elihu Yale, 
who was born in New Haven in 1648, and when ten years old was taken to 
England by his father, and never returned ; was afterwards Governor of the 
East India Company, and Fellow of the Royal Society. His gifts to Yale 
were about i^500 in money and many books. The college has over 100 in- 
structors and nearly 1,200 students. Of its four faculties the medical was 
organized in 1812, the thological in 1822, the legal in 1824 and the philosoph- 
ical in 1847. Its government consists of the Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor of the State, 6 fellows, its President, and 10 ministers. There is a 
geological and mineralogical cabinet of 30,000 specimens, and the college has 
the historical pictures and portraits of Trumbull. The buildings of the 
academical department occupy one of the squares in which the city was first 
laid out. It is almost in the centre of the city, above the "Green" or park; 
it has about 650 students. Examinations are held in Chicago, Cincinnati, 
and New Haven each summer for admission to this department ; the course 
is four years. The college library has about 100,000 volumes ; the libraries 
of the professional departments number about 20,000 volumes. The Peabody 
Museum of Natural History in connection with Yale College was erected 
from a fund of $150,000 donated by George Peabody, of England, and its 
accumulations, at a cost of $175,000. The collections are open to the public. 

The population of New Haven in 1870 was 50,840; in 1880,62,882; and in 
1889, 84,000. 



CITY OF HARTFORD. 




ARTFORD is the capital and one of the principal commercial cities 
of Connecticut, and is situated in the centre of the State, on the 
west bank and 50 miles from the mouth of the Connecticut River, 
at the head of navigation, ^6 miles from New Haven and 1 1 1 miles from New 
York. It is a port of dt:Iivery connected with the District of Middletown. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 697 

The new Capitol is of white marble, and was erected at a cost of $2,500,000, 
and opened in 1878. It is one of the finest structures of its kind in America. 
It is 295 feet long, 189 feet deep, and 257 feet high from the ground to the top 
of the crowning figure. It is located in the park on Capitol Hill, and com- 
mands a splendid view. The city is beautifully situated on rolling ground or 
small hills, and covers about 10 square miles. A small river, known as Park 
River, runs through the park; and near the centre of the town a fine bridge 
spans the Connecticut River, and connects East Hartford with Hartford. The 
park covers 45 acres, and is named after the late Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. 
It contains a memorial arch, erected by the town of Hartford, " In honor of 
those who served and in memory of those who fell in the War for the 
Union ; " a fine statue by Ward of General Israel Putnam, and a statue of Dr. 
Horace Wells, the discoverer of anaesthesia. Trinity College formerly occupied 
the site now occupied by the Capitol. Its new site is on Rocky Hill, ap- 
proached by some of the finest avenues of the city. The buildings are of 
brown stone, and form three great quadrangles; the front is about 1,300 feet 
long; the grounds consist of 80 acres. This city is the home of Samuel L. 
Clemens (Mark Twain), Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was the home of 
the late Mrs. Sigourney, the poetess. Some of the private residences in 
Hartford are very beautiful, and are set in lawns and gardens, many of them 
adorned with statuary, groves, and greenhouses. 

The city is regularly laid out. The principal retail trade is on Main and 
Asylum Streets, which cross each other at right angles at State House Square 
in the centre of the city. It is here that the old State House stands, now 
occupied as the City Hall. It was built in 1795. It was in this old State 
House that the famous Hartford Convention met in 181 5. The new Post- 
office is an elegant structure, and is located just back of the old State House. 

Hartford was settled in 1635 by English colonists who had first settled in 
Massachusetts. In 1636 was established the General Court of the Colony; in 
the following year occurred the war with the Pequot Indians; the first church 
was founded in 1638 ; a Constitution for the government of the Colony was 
framed in 1639; a House of Correction was established in 1640; the first 
tavern was authorized in 1644; capital offences were reduced (by a new code 
of laws) from 160 under the English laws to 15 in 1650. In 1654 the Dutch 
of New Amsterdam, who had possession for a time, were ejected. 

Governor Andross tried to seize the Colonial Charter in 1687, but failed in 
the attempt, as it Avas carried off and hid in the famous Charter Oak tree. 



698 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

Connecticut was very patriotic in the Revolution, and contributed largely in 
men and money to the late Civil War. The city of Hartford was incor- 
porated in 1784. It became the sole capital in 1874, New Haven and Hart- 
ford having been semi-capitals previous to this date. 

Hartford has an extensive trade with nearly all parts of the country. It 
is one of the principal seats of the life and fire insurance business, and several 
of the finest buildings in Hartford have been constructed by insurance com- 
panies. Book publishing has been conducted on a very extensive scale for a 
city of its size. Among the great manufactories may be mentioned Colt's 
Arms Factory (capital, $1,000,000), the Weed Sewing-Machine Factory, the 
Pratt & Whitney Machine Factory, the Washburn Car- Wheel Factory, the 
Plimpton Envelope Company, several large iron works and foundries, mar- 
ble works, and Cheney's Silk Mills. The various manufactures amount to 
about $7,000,000 annually. In proportion to the number of inhabitants, Hart- 
ford is claimed to be the richest city in America. 

The Deaf and Dumb Institute was founded in 1817 by Dr. Gallaudet. 
The Retreat for the Insane is a fine building in which nearly 5,000 patients 
have been treated. Among the other institutions are the Wadsworth Athen- 
aeum, in which the Connecticut Historical Society is located; the Hartford 
Hospital, the State Bible Society, the State Arsenal, the Widows' Home, and 
the City Hospital. About forty churches adorn the city. The Church of 
the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) was built by Mrs. Colt as a memorial to her 
husband. It is a very beautiful structure, with fine memorial windows. The 
Cedar Hill cemetery is very picturesque, and has many fine monuments. 
Hartford has a fine system of public schools, and contains the oldest gra.m- 
mar school in the State, founded in 1655. The city has a Free Library, 
a School of Design, and about 20 banks. Railroads connect the city with all 
parts of New England, and numerous lines of steamboats and sailing craft 
carry on an extensive commerce. Among its exports are tobacco and silks. 
Hartford is famous as one of the oldest towns in the country where were 
enacted the "Blue Laws," Population in 1870, 37,i8o; in 1880, 45,000; and 
in 1889, 50.000. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 699 



CITY OF SYRACUSE. 




YRACUSE is an important city of Central New York and county 
seat of Onondaga County. It is situated in the Onondaga Valley, 
at the head of Onondaga Lake, on the Erie Canal, at the junction 
of the New York Central and Oswego Railroads. It is 148 miles from Albany 
and 150 miles from Buffalo. The Oswego Canal runs north from the city. 
It is the centre of a large trade on account of its central location. It is 
sometimes called the " City of Conventions." The manufacture of salt is 
one of its principal industries. The salt springs were first discovered by the 
Jesuits in 1654, and were taken possession of by the State in 1797, at which 
time special laws were passed governing the manufacture. About twenty 
companies are now engaged in this industry; the works are situated on the 
shores of the lake, and are the largest in America. 

The other important industries are iron furnaces, numerous large machine- 
shops, Bessemer steel works, rolling-mills, boiler works, fruit canning, silver- 
ware, breweries, carriage-shops, malleable iron works, musical instruments 
(organs), tinware, sheet-iron, door, sash and blind factories, agricultural im- 
plements, etc. There are over 100 large manufacturing establishments; the 
annual product is about $20,000,000. It is a handsome city; contains a Court- 
house, State Arsenal, State Lunatfc Asylum, 56 churches, 1 1 banks, and 
numerous schools and libraries. Population in 1880 55,563; in 1889, 83,540. 



CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. 



PRINGFIELD, Mass., is an important commercial centre. It is situ- 
ated in the Connecticut Valley, on the east bank of the Connecticut 
River, 138 miles from New York, 102 from Albany, and 98 from 
Boston. It is the county seat of Hampden County, and the centre of a large 
number of railroads that connect it with all parts of the country and have done 
much towards the growth of the city. The principal industries are the United 
States Armory, employing about 800 men ; the Smith & Wesson Company (man- 
ufacturers of revolvers), the Wason Car Company (manufacturers of railroad 
cars), and the Morgan Envelope Company. Other manufactures are cigars, 
jewelry, buttons, cloth, edge tools, pumps, gas machines, fire-engines, india- 



700 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

rubber goods, and paper. Some emigrants from Roxbury settled in Spring- 
field in 1635. The place was at first called Agawam, and finally changed to 
Springfield m 1640. The city was incorporated in 1852. The main street in 
Springfield has an attractive business appearance; it is long and broad, and 
has many fine business blocks. The streets are generally shaded. The ar- 
senal is situated on the hill m a fine park of over 70 acres. During the 
Civil War the armory was run night and day, and about $12,000,000 were 
expended in the production of arms. Four bridges span the Connecticut 
River at this point. The suburbs of the city are very picturesque. 

The public buildings consist of the Court-house (a fine granite building); 
the City Hall; the Public Library, containing about 50^000 volumes, which 
cost over $100,000; a Museum of Natural History is also located in this build- 
ing. About 30 fine churches adorn the city. There are numerous banks,, fire 
and life insurance companies. It is here that the Springfield Republican is 
published, a paper that is well known in all parts of the country; there arc 
numerous other papers, both daily and weekly. There is a good system of 
public schools, and the fire and police departments are very efficient. This 
city is the home of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, the publication of 
which has done much to increase the reputation of Springfield. Popu- 
lation, 1870, 26,703; 1880, 33,340; 1889, 42,000. 



CITY OF LYNN. 

YNN, a city of Massachusetts, on the east bank of the Saugus River, 
extends 3 miles along the Atlantic shore, 9 miles northeast of Bos- 
ton. It has a small harbor lying west of the peninsula of Nahant. 
It is connected with Boston by the B., R. B. & L. and B. & M. Railroads, and 
by a horse railroad. Nearly the whole population is engaged in the manufacr 
ture of boots and shoes and works connected therewith. The shipments of 
boots and shoes annually are about 12,000,000 pairs, worth about $20,000,000. 
There are over 200 establishments engaged in this industry, with an estimated 
capital of .$12,000,000. The leather industry employs nearly $1,000,000 capi- 
tal; tanning and finishing about 1,000 skins per day. These industries employ 
nearly 12,000 hands. Among the principal architectural attractions of the 
city is the St. Stephen's Church edifice, presented to the parish by the 
late E. R. Mudge, of Swampscott, as a memorial to his son, Colonel Charles 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 701 

E. Mudge, killed at Gettysburg, The material of which the church is 
built was taken from the Mudge estate at Swampscott. The place was 
settled in 1629, and incorporated in 1850. Originally it comprised the town 
of Swampscott and the watering-place of Nahant, which is two miles dis- 
tant. " We have more men than uniforms; what shall we do? " was the 
response to the call of the State for troops in 1861. It was in Lynn that 
the first American fire-engine was made, and the remains of the original iron- 
works are still exhibited. The coasting trade is considerable. High Rock, 
in the centre of the city, is 180 feet high, and is the end of a range of hills that 
form its north background. It has a Soldiers' Monument which cost over 
$30,000, erected in 1872; three beautiful cemeteries, extensive water-works, 
a well-organized Fire Department, a fine system of public schools, a Free 
Public Library, with 30,000 volumes ; about 30 churches, a City Hall which 
cost over $300,000, two fire insurance companies, and banks with about $1,500,- 
000 capital. The handsome common, the public squares, and above all, the 
beach, where numerous fine residences have been built, add much to the 
attractions of Lynn. Salem, noted for witchcraft, is only five miles distant. 
Population of Lynn, 1870,28,000; 1880, 38,284; 1889, 51,000. 



CITY OF TROY. 

ROY is a city of New York, and the capital of Rensselaer County. It 
is situated on the east bank of the Hudson River at its confluence 
with the Mohawk, at the head of steamboat navigation and tide- 
water, 151 miles north of New York City and 6 miles north of Albany. Troy 
was settled by the Dutch in 1700, and was incorporated as a village in 1794. 
Four times it has been nearly destroyed by fire; in 1862 the loss amounted to 
$3,000,000. Two small streams, having a series of falls, furnish water-power 
to mills and factories, besides that given by a dam across the Hudson. At 
Troy is the principal outlet of the canals connecting the Hudson with Lakes 
Champlain, Ontario, and Erie; and it has railways diverging in all directions, 
connecting it with New York, Boston, etc. The Union Depot, in the centre 
of the city, is one of the largest in America. 

The iron furnaces and manufactories are the largest east of the Alle- 
ghanies, being furnished with the magnetic ores of Lake Champlain and the 
hematitic ores of Western Massachusetts. The coal is brought from Pennsyl- 



702 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

vania and Maryland. The chief iron-works are those for bar-iron, raihvay- 
spikes, nails, locomotives, stoves, hot-air furnaces, hollow-ware, machinery, 
agricultural implements, etc. Other important manufactures are those of 
railway cars, coaches, cotton and woolen goods, breweries, flour, boots and 
shoes, and shirts and collars — the latter employing upward of 10,000 persons, 
with extensive machinery. The first Bessemer steel works in the United 
States were located at Troy. Its manufacture of stoves exceeds that of any 
other city in the Union ; while the products of its furnaces, rolling-mills, and 
foundries are enormous. There is also the largest manufactory of mathemat- 
ical instruments in the country. The articles which reach tide-water by the 
canals centering at Troy, including lumber, are valued at §17,000,000 annu- 
ally. A fine iron bridge, which cost $250,000, spans the river, connecting 
Troy and West Troy ; the latter is practically a part of Troy, as Alleghany 
City is of Pittsburgh. 

'The city contains 55 churches, fine public schools, the Rensselaer Poly- 
technic Institution, a Roman Catholic seminary, asylums, academies, etc. The 
Watervliet Arsenal, with workshops located in handsome grounds, is in West 
Troy. Population, 1870, 46,421 ; 1880,56,747; 1889,66,000. 




CITY OF ALBANY. 

LBANY is the capital of New York ; it is situated on the west bank 
of the Hudson River, 145 miles north of New York City. It is the 
oldest town in the Union, with the exception of Jamestown, Va., 
and St. Augustine, Fla. It was settled by the Dutch, and used as a trading- 
post with the Indians as early as 1614: it as known as Beaver Wyck, and 
afterwards as Williamstadt. Fort Orange was erected in 1623, and the place 
was known by that name until it came into the possession of the British in 
1664, when it was named Albany, in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, 
afterward James II. It was incorporated as a city in 1686, and in 1797 
became the capital of the State. 

The new Capitol at Albany is a magnificent structure. It is built of 
granite, and was erected at great cost ; it is, in fact, one of the finest, largest, 
and most expensive buildings of the kind in the Union. It is 390 feet long 
by 290 wide, and covers more than three acres. It contains the public institu- 
tions, among which are the State Library, containing 150,000 volumes, and a 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



703 



great many interesting Revolutionary relics; and the Geological Hall, con- 
taining very extensive and varied collections in geology and natural history. 
The ^tate Hall is used for certain departments of the government. The 
State Normal School, established in 1844, has been very successful. The 
Albany Academy has a building of rare architectural beauty. The Union 
University, in which the most important branches of practical science are 
taught in all their departments, was incorporated in 1852. The Medical Col- 
lege, founded in 1839, ^^^^ o^^^ of the best museums in America, and is well 
furnished with ample means of instruction. The Law School, established in 
185 1, has educated 
a large number of 
students. The 
Dudley Observa- 
tory, established 
in 1852, is well or- 
ganized and equip- 
ped for its purpo- 
ses. The Medical 
and Law Schools 
were at first sepa- 
rate, institutions, 
but no w, with 
Union College, 
constitute Union 
University. 

Albany has a fine system of public schools, with a high-school, which is 
very efficient. There are two public hospitals and a penitentiary. It is a 
great centre of railways, and is one of the largest timber markets in the 
world ; millions of cubic feet pass through this market annually. Stove man- 
ufacture is an important branch of its industries. The city is situated in the 
midst of a fertile country, and is a great emporium for the. transit trade of 
the North and West with the cities on the coast, and being situated at the 
point where the Champlain and Erie Canals join the Hudson, it has great 
advantages for commerce. It contains some of the finest public edifices in 
the Union, which for rare architectural beauty are seldom surpassed. Viewed 
from some points on the river, Albany has a fine, picturesque, and striking 
appearance. Three large bridges span the Hudson River. The water supply 




ALBANY, N. Y. 



704 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

is from an artificial lake a short distance from the city, and in part from the 
Hudson. There is a beautiful public park on the west side of the city, in 
which some of the scenery is very picturesque. There are over 60 chftrches 
of various denominations. The population in 1880 was 90,903, and in 1889,. 

100,000. 



CITY OF LOWELL. 

OWELL is an important manufacturing city of Massachusetts, situ- 
ated on the Merrimac River, 25 miles from Boston. It is the centre 
of numerous railroads, and has been called the Manchester of Amer- 
ica, by reason of its vast manufacturing industries. The Merrimac River, near 
the mouth of the Concord River, has a fall of 33 feet at this point, which sup- 
plies canals with water power. These canals are controlled by a company,, 
which erected extensive factories for twelve large corporations, who consume 
about 10,000,000 pounds of wool and 50,000,000 pounds of cotton annually, and 
have an invested capital of $16,000,000 and employ 16,000 operatives, of whom 
over 11,000 are females. The employes for years came from the agricultural 
districts of the surrounding States, and lived in large boarding-houses, built 
and owned by the corporations, and kept under strict discipline. Foreign im- 
migration has added largely to the number of operatives in later years. The 
twelve corporations produce annually 140,000,000 yards of cotton, 3,500,000 
yards of woolen cloth, 2,500,000 yards of carpets, 135,000 shawls, nearly 
10,000,000 dozen hosiery (dye and print), and 67,000,000 yards cotton 
cloth. It has eighty large mills. The capital of each corporation varies 
from $1,250,000 to $2,500,000. The carpets manufactured include ingrain, 
Brussels, and Melton, and equal in design, quality, and finish any manufac- 
tured in Europe. Among the other industries are the Lowell machine- 
shops, employing 1,400 men and a capital of $600,000; the Kitson Mach- 
inery Factory, the American Bolt Company, the Swaine Turbine Wheel 
Company, and the Lowell Bleachery, employing 500 hands and over $250,000 
capital. Otiicr manufactures are hosiery, edge tools, tiles, screws, fixed am- 
munition and cartridges, paper, hair felt, elastic goods, car.-'iages, furniture, 
pumps, hydraulic presses, bobbins, chemicals, etc. 

The City Library contains 17,000 volumes; the Mechanics' Library, 13,- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 70s 

000 volumes. The city was chartered in 1836. It originally consisted of the 
town of Chelmsford ; subsequently parts of Dracot and Tewksbury were 
added. It is well paved, drained, and lighted by gas. It has a Court-house 
and 7 national banks, with an aggregate capital of $2,350,000. There are 6 
savings banks, two hospitals, two insurance companies, Roman Catholic Or- 
phan Asylum, an old Ladies' Home, Young Women's Home, a good Fire De- 
partment, with an electric fire-alarm, and a well-organized police force. The 
city has handsome public squares. In the centre of the city is a monument 
erected to the memory of Ladd and Whitney, members of the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers, who were killed on April 19, 1861, by a mob in Balti- 
more. The water-works were finished in 1873, and cost $1,500,000. The city 
was named in honor of Francis Cabot Lowell, of Boston. Belvidere is the 
fashionable quarter of the city, and is in the eastern section. The population 
in 1861 was 36,827; 1870, 40,928; 1880, 59,845; 1889, 80,000. 




CITY OF SCRANTON. 

CRANTON is a city in Pennsylvania. It is situated in a valley on 
the Lackawanna River. It was founded by a family of the name of 
Scranton in i840,and incorporated as a city in 1866. It is 145 miles 
from New York and 167 miles from Philadelphia. It is in the midst of the coal 
region. Its shipments, upward of 50,000 tons daily, are enormous, and it has a 
large trade in mining supplies. It has vast iron and steel works, extensive ma- 
chine-shops, breweries, gunpowder works, and stove works. It fixes the Ameri- 
can rate on steel rails. Other industries are silk fabrics,, brass goods, leather, 
hollow-ware, etc. It has numerous handsome and substantial public buildings, 
12 banks, over 30 fine churches, gas-works, water-works, a good fire depart- 
ment, numerous charitable institutions, public schools, academies, a Board of 
Trade, a Scientific and Historical Society, and a fine collection of Indian relics. 
The city is well laid out, and has a fine business appearance. Its wholesale 
trade is very extensive. It is on the Delaware, Lac'kawanna & Western Rail- 
road, and is the terminus of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburgh, Delaware & 
Hudson, the Erie, and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroads. Scranton is a 
growing city and a great hive of industry. Population, 1880,45,850; 1889^ 
90,000. 



CITY OF BUFFALO. 




UFFALO for many years has been called the "Queen City of the 
Lakes," and well merits that proud appellation. It is a port of 
entry, and the capital of Erie County, New York; situated at 
the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, at the head of Niagara River, and the 
mouth of Buffalo River, in latitude 42 degrees 53 minutes north, longitude 
78 degrees 55 minutes west ; about 293 miles northwest of New York City, 
and is the western terminus of the Erie Canal. It has one of the finest har- 
bors on the lakes, formed by the Buffalo River, a small stream which is navi- 




\ \IK\\ IN l!L'FKALl) TARK. 



gable for about three miles from its mouth. The entrance is protected by a 
breakwater 1,500 feet long, upon the south side of the river. In 1869 the 
United States Government began the construction of an outside harbor, by 
building a breakwater, 4,000 feet long, fronting the entrance to Buffalo River, 
at a distance of about one-half mile from the shore. In addition to the har- 
bor, there are a large number of slips, docks, and basins, for the accommoda- 
tion of shipping and canal-boats. The city was founded in 1804, and named 
New Amsterdam. It became a military post in 1 8 13, and was destroyed by 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 707 

the British in the same year. The place was rebuilt after the war, and took its 
present name from the river, on whose banks stood the principal village of 
the Seneca Indians, and where lived the famous chiefs. Red Jacket and 
Farmers Brother. 

It grew rapidly after the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal, and soon 
became a transfer station for all the commerce of the lakes. It was incor- 
porated as a city in 1832, with a population of about 10,000. In later years 
it has become one of the most important railroad centres in the country. It 
is the terminus of the New York Central; New York, Lake Erie, and West- 
ern; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern; Michigan Central; New York, 
West Shore, and Buffalo ; Lehigh Valley ; Delaware, Lackawanna, and West- 
ern ; Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia ; New York, Chicago, and St. Louis ; 
Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburg, and two branches of the Grand Trunk rail- 
roads. The railroad yard facilities are the most extensive in the world, there 
being about 660 miles of track inside of the city. The vast quantities of grain 
moving east to the Atlantic coast form an important part of the commerce of 
Buffalo, and no other city in the Union has better facilities for handling or 
storing it, there being about 40 elevators wuth a capacity for handling nearly 
4,000,000 bushels per day. The large stock-yards in the eastern suburbs of 
the city are used not only as a transfer station, but as a market for local dis- 
tribution. The city has an immense trade in- coal, which arrives from Penn- 
sylvania, and is shipped east by rail and canal and west by lake. Its anthra- 
cite coal docks are the most extensive in the world. There is quite an ex- 
tensive trade in lumber from Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Lower Canada. 
There are over thirty large establishments for the manufacture of iron, be- 
sides two yards fitted for iron ship-building, which have produced some of 
the finest vessels on the lakes, and many iron revenue vessels for the Gov- 
ernment. Buffalo takes the lead in the quality of hemlock sole leather pro- 
duced in the United States. Its flour-mills are also quite extensive, having 
a capacity of 3,850 bbls. per day. 

The city is regularly built, being eight miles long, north and south, and 
about five miles wide, containing 42 square miles. It has long been cele- 
brated for the elegance of its private dwellings, which can be found in 
nearly every part of the city, especially on the avenues lying Avest of Main 
Street. The broad, straight avenues lined by noble trees add greatly to the 
beauty of the city. The climate, though cold in winter, is considered pleasant 
and very healthful ; there are good water and sewage systems. Many of the 



7o8 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

streets are paved with smooth asphalt. The city is divided into thirteen 
wards, and its principal officers are the Mayor and Common Council, com- 
posed of two Aldermen from each ward, the Comptroller, City Treasurer, City 
Engineer, Street Commissioner, three Assessors, and Corporation Counsel. 

The assessed value of its taxable property is $i i4,0(X),ooo. Its principal 
public buildings are: The City and County Hall, completed in 1876, at a cost 
of $1,445,000. It is built of granite, is three stories high, not including the 
finished basement, and furnishes quarters for all the city and county officers, 
as well as the courts. It is situated on the square bounded by Franklin, 
Church, Delaware, and Eagle Streets. The County Jail is on the opposite side 
of Delaware Street, and is connected by a tunnel under the street. There are 
also the State Insane Asylum, completed at a cost of over $2,000,000; the Erie 
County Almshouse; Erie County Penitentiary, and many public hospitals,, 
asylums, and charitable institutions. Among its fine edifices are, the Custom- 
house ; the German Insurance Building; the Hayen Building; the White 
Building; the Board of Trade Building; the Marine Bank Building; the 
Young Men's Association Building; the Erie County, Western, and Buffalo 
Savings Banks Buildings; the Fine-Art Academy; the Fitch Creche; the 
State Arsenal; and the Seventy-fourth Regiment Armory; besides many 
elegant hotels and railroad depots. 

Among the institutions in which special interest is taken are the Young 
Men's Association, now called the "Buffalo Library"; the Society of Natural 
Sciences; the Grosvenor Library; the Buffalo Historical Society; the Acad- 
emy of Fine-Arts; the Decorative Arts Society; the Liedertafel Singing 
Society; the Buffalo Orphan Asylum ; the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion ; and the Law Library. 

There are over 100 churches and places of public worship; ten daily 
newspapers and ten weeklies, beside several monthly periodicals; over 
fifty public schools; a State normal school; one high-school; two medical 
colleges; St. Joseph's College, conducted by the Christian Brothers; and 
Canisus College; beside numerous private schools, colleges, and acade- 
mies. Music Hall, the property of the German Young Men's Association, 
was destroyed by fire March, 1885, but was subsequently rebuilt more 
substantially than before. The Young Men's Association, now the Buf- 
falo Library Association, have also erected a new and elegant fire-proof 
building for the accommodation of their valuable circulating library of 
nearly 50,000 volumes, and for the joint occupation also of the Buffalo His- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 709 

torical Society, the Society of Natural Sciences, and the Academy of Fine- 
Arts, The park system, extending around the business part of the city in the 
shape of a horse-shoe, contains over 600 acres, and is connected by boule- 
vards comprising over 12 miles of delightful drives. Forest Lawn Cemetery 
is beautifully situated, and laid out in the northern part of the city It con- 
tains 75 acres. 

The population in 1810 was 1,500; in 1830,8,653; in 1850,42,000; in 1870, 
117,700; in 1880, 155,134; and in 1889, 242,000. 



CITY OF TRENTON. 




RENTON is the capital of New Jersey and an important manufac- 
turing city. It is situated on the Delaware River at its confluence 
with Assanpink Creek, at the head of steamboat navigation, 28 
miles from Philadelphia and 57 miles from New York by the Pennsylvania 
Railroad. It is a well-built and handsome city, and commands a fine view of 
the river. It contains the State Capitol, State Lunatic Asylum for 600 
patients. State Normal School, Deaf and Dumb Asylum, State Penitentiary, 
State Library of 25,000 volumes, 36 churches, several daily newspapers, and 
extensive railway connections. The city is famous for its extensive manu- 
factures of terra-cotta and crockery, which exceed all the rest of the United 
States put together. Cooper & Hewitt's large iron-works and Roebling's 
famous cable bridge works are located here. Other manufactures are steam- 
engines, machinery, wire, wire-cordage, cotton, woolen, and rubber. In the 
war of the Revolution, Trenton was the scene (December 25, 1776) of a night 
attack by Washington upon the British troops — chiefly Hessians — whom he 
surprised by crossing the Delaware when the floating ice was supposed to 
have rendered it impassable. Population, 1870, 22,870; 1880, 30,000; 1889 
60,000. 



CITY OF WILMINGTON. 

ILMINGTON is a city and port of North Carolina, on the Cape 
Fear River, just below the junction of the northeast and north- 
west branches, about seven miles from the sea. It has a fine 
harbor, railway connections, and internal navigation. The exports are ex- 




7IO GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tensive, and consist of cotton, shingles, tar, resin, turpentine, lumber, rice, 
etc. It is sufficiently far south to enjoy a balmy climate, and is, withal, 
not only an enterprising and growing city, but a shady, attractive place, 
sufficiently near the sea to gain the advantage of its health-giving saline 
atmosphere. It has fine drives and watering-places. Wilmington is a rail- 
road centre of importance, and a port of heavy shipments of Carolinian 
staples. Depth of water at main bar, i8^ feet. 

During the Civil War it was one of the principal ports of the Confederacy, 
and was celebrated as a port for blockade-runners. It finally surrendered 
to General Terry in 1865. Population, 1870, 13,446; in 1880, 17,300; and 
in 1889, 23,000. 



CITY OF HARRISBURG. 




ARRISBURG is the capital of Pennsylvania and the county seat of 
Dauphin County, situated on the Susquehanna River, and sur- 
rounded by a productive region and magnificent scenery. It is 
106 miles from Philadelphia. The river is here a mile wide, and is crossed 
by three railroad bridges, one of which is nearly 4,700 feet in length. It has 
a handsome State House, 180 by 80 feet, surmounted by a dome. It has a 
handsome public square. Its industries consist of iron foundries, machine- 
shops, coach, car, and steam-engine factories, tanneries, breweries, saw-mills, 
cotton-mills, etc. It is the seat of a Catholic bishopric. The Cumberland 
Valley, the Pennsylvania, the Northern Central, the Philadelphia & Reading, 
the Schuylkill & Susquehanna, and the Southern Pennyslvania railroads 
radiate from this centre. 

The city has a United States Court-house and Post-office building. Court- 
house, jail. State Arsenal, State Lunatic Asylum, 35 churches, several acade- 
mies, 10 newspaper-offices, markets, and excellent schools. It was settled 
in 1733 by John Harris, an Englishman, under a grant from the Penns, the 
original European settlers of Pennsylvania. In 1785 a town was laid out, 
and named Harrisburg, after John Harris, Jr., the founder. An attempt was 
made by Chief-Justice McKean to change the name to Louisburg, in honor of 
the Dauphin of France, but was successfully resisted by Harris. It was 
selected as the seat of the State capital in 181 2. The city is well paved, and 
has gas, electric light, and water. Population, 1870. 23,104; 1880, 30,400; 
and 1889, 40,000. 




KANSAS CITY. 

ANSAS CITY is the county seat of Jackson County, situated in 
the State of Missouri, at the confluence of the Missouri and 
Kansas (or Kaw) Rivers. The boundary hne between the States 
of Kansas and Missouri runs through the western section of the city. A 
large part of the city is built on a plateau, covering numerous bluffs, which 
are boldly rugged and picturesque. The principal bluff almost overhangs 
the narrow strip of land called the bottom that runs parallel with the river. 
The plateau is intersected by numerous ravines, which form great hills and 
pretty vales all across the entire city. Thus it happens that almost every 
street in Kansas City, save only those in " the bottom," is a constant series 
of " ups and downs," hills and valleys. This lends a picturesqueness to 
the view when taken from any point of observation that is exceedingly inter- 
esting and enjoyable. Situated in the midst of a territory rich in natural 
resources to an almost unlimited extent, and with almost unequalled climatic 
advantages, Kansas City engages in commerce of infinite variety. Crop 
failures are less damaging for the reason that all do not fail in the same 
season, and the ever-expanding live-stock industry furnishes a great source 
of revenue. 

Kansas City has become the central point in the United States for the 
packing and canning interest. With six great packing-houses, Kansas City is 
producing pork products and canned meats that are shipped in immense 
quantities to all parts of the United States, and the trade abroad has become 
a regular and special factor in the business. The Western States and Terri- 
tories are regular patrons of the packing-houses in this city, the trade extend- 
ing even to the Pacific coast. A conservative estimate of the packing output 
of the city in value is $35,000,000 annually. 

In bank clearings Kansas City ranks as the eleventh city in the Union. 
The business buildings of the city are extensive and very substantial ; the 
private residences are numerous and elegant; and the value of real estate 
has advanced rapidly, in many instances more than doubling in a year. 
Fremont alluded to the site of the city in 1843 ^^ Chouteau's Landing. The 
growth of the city began from 1850 to i860. After the Civil War it became 
one of the great railroad centres and an important point for supplying emi- 



712 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

grants on their western journey, and the principal market for the sale of 
cattle, buffalo skins, and hides. It is now the centre of a vast railway system. 
Most of these railroads cross the Missouri River on an iron bridge 1,387 feet 
long, and supported by stone piers. The Kansas River is spanned by two 
other fine bridges. 

Kansas City is almost in the geographical centre of the country, as she is 
in the centre of the rich agricultural region. The line of industrial and pop- 
ulous growth approaches near this point v.'ith each year of progress, and it is 
easy to discover why Kansas City extends its trade limits with such remarka- 
ble rapidity. 

The city has one of the best paying cable lines in the United States, and 
several others are in course of construction. There are numerous grain 
elevators, having storage capacity for a vast quantity of grain ; immense 
stock-yards, and a cattle stock exchange. Bituminous coal, taken from the 
surrounding counties, is distributed from this point over a vast region of ter- 
ritory. Population, 1870, 32,260; 1880, 55,813, 1889, 200,000. 




CITY OF EVANSVILLE. • 

VANSVILLE is an enterprising city and port of entry of Indiana. 
It is situated in Vanderburgh County, on the right bank of the 
Ohio, midway between Louisville and Cairo, 150 miles from In- 
dianapolis. It is very advantageously adapted for trade, being connected by 
several railroads with the great railroad system of the United States. From 
Evansville downward the navigatian of the river is seldom interrupted either 
by drought or by ice; and here terminates the Wabash & Erie Canal, the 
longest work of the kind in America. Thus, the place connects the Lower 
Ohio at once with the inland lakes and with the Gulf of Mexico. Coal and 
iron ore abound in the vicinity. It is a manufacturing centre of importance, 
and the trade in agricultural products is very extensive. The city has a fine 
Custom-house and Post-office, Court-house, Marine Hospital, numerous public 
halls, schools, churches, etc. It has grown rapidly, and is in a flourishing 
condition. Population, 1870, 21,830; 1880, 35,000; 1889, 50,000. 



CITY OF DAVENPORT. 




AVENPORT is a city in Iowa, opposite Rock Island, 111. It is situ- 
ated on the right (or west) bank of the Mississippi River, below 
the Upper Rapids, 183 miles west of Chicago. It is on the Great 
Western route from Chicago, and is the centre of numerous railroads. A 
large iron bridge, which cost $1,000,000, spans the river at this point, and 
connects the city with Rock Island ; it has railroad, carriage, and pedestrian 
accommodations. The scenery in this vicinity is unsurpassed on the North 
Mississippi, and the city, which is on a commanding bluff, affords a fine view 
of the river. 

The manufactures consist of cotton and woollen goods, agricultural imple- 




A VIEW OF DAVENPORT IN ITS EARLY DAYS. 

ments, flour, carriages, furniture, lumber, etc. It is situated in the midst of a 
fine agricultural district, and has a large trade with the surrounding country. 
It has a fine court-house, City Hall, gas-works, water-works, over 30 churches, 
schools, banks. Opera-house, a Catholic academy, seminary, hospital, and an 
Episcopal college. Coal is abundant in the vicinity, and an extensive trade 
is conducted by rail and water. Numerous fine buildings, erected by the 
United States Government, including the United States arsenal and military 
headquarters, are situated on Rock Island. Population, 1870, 20,038; 1880, 
25,000; 1889, 30,000. 



CITY OF OMAHA. 






MAHA is the principal city of the State of Nebraska. It is situated 
on the west bank of the Missouri River, opposite Council Bluffs, 20 
miles from the mouth of the Nebraska River, and 490 miles west 
by rail from Chicago. The name of the city is derived from one of the Indian 
tribes of Dakota. The city is built on a plateau about lOO feet above the 
river, and 1,000 feet above the sea. The place was laid out in 1854, and in- 
corporated in 1859. The capital of the Territory was first located at this 
point, but was afterwards removed to Lincoln. Omaha is the terminus of the 

Union Pacif- 
ic, the Omaha 
- & Northwest- 
f ern,the Oma- 
r" ha & South- 
western, and 
numerous 
other rail- 
roads. It is 
here that the 
Union Pacific 
and Central 
Pacific con- 
nect. The 
town was ori- 
ginally plan- 
ned on a scale that provided for the growth of a large city. Before the 
Union Pacific was constructed it was the great point at which emigrants 
arrived and fitted out for their overland trips to the " Far West." Its growth 
has been rapid. A bridge spans the Missouri, and connects the city with 
Council Bluffs. It has extensive railroad shops, iron-works for the manu- 
facture of railroad iron, machine-shops, and smelting works for separating 
and refining all kinds of ore, which comes to Omaha from the various min- 
ing regions. The city has about 30 churches, several dail}' and weekly papers, 
is lighted with gas and electricit}', has numerous street railroads, schools. 




OMAHA AS IT WAS IN 1S7O. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



715 



hotels, residences and business blocks, a United States Post-office and Cus- 
tom-house, in which are the United States Court Chambers for the District 
of Nebraska; a large State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Its whole- 
sale trade is extensive, and rapidly increasing. Population, i860, I, goo; 1870, 
16,083; 1880, 30,518; in 1885, 61,800; and 1889, 110,000. Lincoln has a 
population of 20,000. 



CITY OF COLUMBUS. 




OLUMBUS is a flourishing city, and the capital of Ohio. It is- 
situated in Franklin County, on the Scioto River, which is a tribu- 
tary of the Ohio. It is about 100 miles northeast of Cincinnati, 
in the midst of an extensive plain. Its streets are wide and handsome, and 
shaded with elms. The squares and beautiful parks add much to its appear- 
ance. The city became the State capital in 18 16; to this and the other nu- 
merous State institu- ____—-- 
tions the city for a ^- 
long time owed its im- =i-j 
portance. But in late 
years its manufactures 4^r=^p 
have increased rapid- 
ly. They consist of 
carriages, agricultural - 
implements, furniture, 

files, harness, brushes, p^^rJ^^^S^^ ''i^ 
printing establish- 
ments, extensive flour- I 
mills and engineering 
works, rolling-mills, 
blast furnaces, tools, saws, watches, leather, window-glass, malleable iron, 
boots and shoes. In 1887 there were $190,000,000 invested as capital in the 
city, of which $35,000,000 were in railroads, $20,000,000 in the coal business, 
$20,000,000 in the iron industry, $18,000,000, in corporation manufacturing,, 
and $8,000,000 in individual manufacturing. 





OHIO STATE CAPITOL. 



7i6 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES'. 

The principal public buildings are the State Capitol (cost $1,441,675), 
the City Hall, the Penitentiary ($800,000), the new Government Building 
($500,000), the numerous asylums for the blind ($600,000), deaf and dumb 
{$800,000), insane ($2,000,000), and idiotic, the Court-house, Opera-house, 
Alms-house, United States Arsenal ($400,000), high-school building, the Odd 
Fellows' Hall, Post-office, and the Ohio State University (property value, 
$1,200,000). Other attractions are the beautiful gardens of the Horticultural 
Society, numerous hotels, fine suburbs, horse-railroads, and Green Lawn 
Cemetery. It is the centre of fourteen lines of railroad, and its population 
and trade are rapidly increasing. Population, in 1870, 31,000; in 1880, 52,000; 
in 1889, 95,000. 



CITY OF TOLEDO. 

OLEDO is the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio. It is situated 
on both sides of the Maumee River, near the western extremity of 
Lake Erie, 92 miles west of Cleveland, and 53 miles southwest of 
Detroit. It was first settled in 1832, and incorporated in 1836. It has a fine 
harbor, and is well built. Its streets are broad and regularly laid out. It has 
very extensive railroads, which centre in one great union depot, and is the 
terminus of the Miami & Erie and Wabash & Erie Canals, together 700 miles 
in length. The local and transit trade is immense. It has 45 churches, a 
convent, three asylum.s, several lines of horse railroad, a water system which 
cost $1,000,000, a fire department and police system which are first-class, 
numerous fine hotels, banks, schools, a Free Public Library, numerous news- 
papers, and a Produce Exchange. Its commerce in one year was, in exports, 
$1,836,782; imports, $283,329. It has 10 grain elevators, which can store 
4,017,000 bushels. In one year the deliveries of grain amounted to 39,304,891 
bushels. The manufactures of the city are very extensive, and comprise 
carriages, wagons, iron, lumber, sash and blinds, railroad cars, moldings, 
steam-engines, boilers, pumps, bricks, etc. The wholesale trade is very im- 
portant, and the city is the centre of a large retail trade with the surround- 
ing country. Population, 1870, 30,731; 1880, 50,000; 1889, 110,000. 



CITY OF MEMPHIS. 



EMPHIS is a fine commercial city in Tennessee, and between St. 
Louis and New Orleans the largest one on the Mississippi. It is 
^1 the capital of Shelby County, is 420 miles below St. Louis, and 
8(X) miles above New Orleans, is handsomely built on the fourth Chickasaw 
bluff, 70 feet above the highest floods, and is the outlet of a large cotton region. 
In 1880 the city had 138 manufacturing establishments, using a capital of 
$2,313,975' employing 2,268 hands, paying in wages $845,672, and yielding 
products valued at $4,413,422. By 1886 these establishments had increased 
to 300, and embraced several foundries, boiler and machinery shops, 1 1 saw 
and planing mills, and 10 cotton-seed oil mills, the latter having a capital of 
$1,000,000. During the season of 1885-6 the shipments of cotton aggregated 
430,127 bales, and between Sept. i, 1888, and Feb. 22, 1889, the receipts 
amounted to 464,255 bales. At the latter date the city had obtained the dis- 
tinction of being the largest interior cotton market in the United States. 
Ten railroads and forty steamboats contributed to her growing importance 
as a business centre in 1889. 

Memphis has fine public buildings, hotels, and theatres, 59 churches (of 
which 31 are for colored people), 3 colleges, 100 schools, 5 daily and 10 other 
newspapers, 10 banks, and several insurance companies; railways connect 
it with New Orleans, Charleston, Louisville, Little Rock, and all parts of 
the country. There is a Cotton Exchange, a Custom-house, a Chamber of 
Commerce, and a Board of Health. The latter have taken stringent meas- 
ures to prevent a recurrence of the yellow fever, which desolated it in the 
summers of 1878 and 1879. ^^ ^^^ Civil War the city fell into the hands 
of the Federal forces in 1862, and was the base of military operations for 
the capture of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. 

Owing to a variety of unfortunate circumstances which it is needless to 
recount here, the city defaulted in the payment both of the principal and in- 
terest of her debt on Jan. i, 1873. For six years her business men struggled 
under the burden and disfavor of the increasing indebtedness, and seeing no 
prospect of relief under the existing form of government they secured the 
passage by the legislature of a bill repealing the city charter and creating 
"The Taxing District of Shelby County " instead, in January, 1879. -^ re- 



7i8 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



ceiver was appointed the following montli b\^ one of the Federal courts under 
the provisions of the repealing act. He took charge of all city property, and 
was authorized to collect the sum of $3,000,000 of unpaid taxes, by garnish- 
ment or otherwise. While he was engaged in this collection, the State Supreme 
Court, on an appeal, decided that the repealing act was constitutional; and 
the United States Supreme Courtdccidcd that the action of the Federal court 
in appointing a receiver was erroneous. In 1881 the debt of the city, princi- 
pal and interest, amounted to $6,600,000. In rendering the decision cited, the 
late Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, affirmed that 
the " taxing district " was liable for the debts of its predecessor, on the ground 
that one corporation had succeeded another, and that payment could come 
only through the levy of taxes on the existing corporation by the legislature, 
which had sovereign jurisdiction in the matter. The new government pro- 
vided by the repealing act consists of a council of three commissioners and a 
board of public works of five, elected for terms of four years each, and serv- 
ing without compensation. Under this form of government the old debt has 
been settled and funded, one of the best sewage and drainage systems in the 
world established, taxation materially reduced, various local improvements 
inaugurated, and the city restored to her former prestige and importance. 

The city is very picturesque when \iewed from the river. The large 
warehouses along the bluff present a fine appearance. There is a fine park 
in the centre of the city. The streets are regular and broad. There are 
numerous handsome residences, with fine lawns and gardens. The river is 
deep enough to float the largest ships. The trade of Memphis is about $75,- 
000,000 per annum. About 70 vessels of all kinds belong to the port. It 
is a progressive city, and is now looked on as the coming commercial centre 
of the Southwest. Population in 1870,40,226; 1880, 33,592; 1885, 45,000; 
1889, 75,000. 



CITY OF PETERSBURG. 




ETERSBURG is a port of entry of Virginia, on the south bank 
of the Appomattox River, 12 miles above its junction with James 
River, at City Point. It is 23 miles south of Richmond. Five rail- 
w^ays contribute to make it the third city in the State in respect of popula- 
tion. Petersburg is well built. It contains churches of the Presbyterians,. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WUNDERFUL GROWTH. 719 

Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, and Catholics. There are here several 
cotton and woollen factories, forges, and numerous mills, to which the falls in 
the river furnish extensive power. In the campaign of 1864, Lieutenant- 
General Grant, commander of the Federal army, failing to take Richmond, 
"besieged Petersburg, and was repulsed in several attacks by General Robert 
E. Lee, with heavy loss. Ample evidences of the operations in the vicinity 
are still to be seen. A leading point visited by tourists is the battle-field 
teyond Blandford church, where upon the brow of the hill, overlooking tlie 
ravine which separated the opposing forces, is the confused yellow mass 
l-cnown as the " Crater " or mine, which was tunnelled by Union sappers and 
miners, and blown up in order to effect a breach in the Confederate line of 
defences. Many relics may be found around this portion of the field still. 
One turns with relief from a contemplation of this scene to the beautiful old 
ruin of Blandford church, a mossy relic long before the struggle between the 
North and South. Its hallowed churchyard contains the tombs of the brav- 
est and best among the early people of colonial Virginia. 

Petersburg is the junction point with the Norfolk & Western Railroad 
leading to Suffolk and Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. A side trip m_ay be 
made by this route to Fortress Monroe, which, together with Newport News, 
has grown into a great winter and spring coast resort. In journeying swiftly 
southward through the great pine forests of North Carolina the tourist 
begins to realize the balmy influence and delightful somnolence that betokens 
his approach to the land of spring. It is a temptation not to be resisted to 
open the window and lean contentedly back in a delicious dolcc far nieiitc, 
noting with listless interest the odd and amusing phases of life and types of 
Southern character to be seen at the railroad stations. Population in 1870, 
18,950; in 1880, 21,000; and in 1889, 25,000. 



CITY OF DENVER. 

ENVER, the principal commercial city and capital of Colorado, is 
situated on the South Platte River, 15 miles east of the Rocky 
Mountains. Six railroads connect it with various parts of the con- 
tinent. It is 5,203 feet above sea level, occupying several levels ascending 
gradually toward the mountains. It commands a grand view of peaks cov- 




720 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ered with perpetual snow. Its commercial and manufacturing interests are 
making great strides, and its population is rapidly increasing. The climate is 
remarkable for its salubrity, and in winter the weather is generally mild. 
Between July and October there is scarcely any rain, and owing to the ex- 
treme rarity of the atmosphere Long's Peak (14,056 feet high), over 70 miles 
distant, Gray's Peak, (14,251), further south and opposite the city on the west, 
and Pike's Peak (14,216), 76 miles distant, can be clearly discerned from the 
city. In 1858 the place was uninhabited. Now there are numerous fine pub- 
lic buildings, various manufactories, numerous smelting and refining works, a 
United States Mint, and many solid business structures. Its growth is re- 




CITY OK DK.NVER. 



markable. It has six national and five other banks, and ranked next to 
Brooklyn (1889) as a city of churches, with sixty-seven. The Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad has its eastern terminus here, and the Denver & South 
Park and Pacific Railroad connect it with Leadville, a city settled about 
1880, and having a population of 27,000 in 1889. Leadville is situated over 
10,000 feet above the sea, and is surrounded with rich silver mines, the product 
of which in one year w^as estimated at $10,000,000. The entire State is pre- 
eminently a mineral district, and to this owes its wonderful growth. In 
some parts of Colorado there are occasional storms of wind and hail ; 
otherwise, " an air more delicious to breathe cannot anywhere be found." The 
population of Denver in i870was 4,759; in 1880,35,000; and in 1889, 100,000. 



CITY OF CHARLESTON. 




HARLESTON is the largest city and commercial emporium of 
South Carolina, and is one of the most important cities of the 
South. Columbia, which is situated on the Congaree River, 
130 miles from Charleston, is the capital of the State, and has a population 
of 12,000. Charleston, which is a fine city and seaport, is situated between 
the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which here form a spacious harbor, extend- 
ing 7 miles to the Atlantic. The city occupies about 5^ square miles, and 
has a water 
front of about 
10 miles. The 
commerce con- 
sists mostly of 
exports. The 
foreign com- 
merce com- 
prises exports 
to the value 
of about $23,- 
000,000 annu- 
ally, and im- 
ports to the 
amount of 

$150,000; of the exports about $18,000,000 are in cotton. There is also a 
large commerce with the ports of the United States. The manufactures as 
compared with the commerce are unimportant. They consist principally 
of fertilizers from phosphates obtained in the vicinity. The wholesale trade 
in dry-goods, boots and shoes, hats, caps, clothing, etc., is extensive. There 
are 12 banks, and 3 railroads terminate here. There is also a canal which 
connects with the Santee River. 

An atmosphere of interest, such as attaches to no other city of the South 
will always seem perceptible to the stranger in Charleston. This is due to 
the important events that, forming the overture of a long and terrible war, 




CHARLESTON. 




VIEWS IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF CHARLESTON, S. 0. 

1. Institute HxU, isni. ti. Characteristic Street Scene. 3. City Hall. 4. East Battery Promenaaa 

0. Eitrance to Fort Sumter -repristeriiig names. 6. Interii r of Fort Sumter 

7. Fisliermau's Basiu. 8. Fort Sumter. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 723 

had their scene of action here. The scars of those days are still visible in 
many portions of the city, and to a still greater extent down the harbor, 
where the shapeless heap of stone and brick still gathers the mold of Time, 
where the gallant band that held Fort Sumter passed through their " baptism 
of fire." A week may be well spent by a stranger amid the attractions of 
this charming and hospitable city. 

The battery, where many of the finest homes of the city front on the har- 
bor, is a shady, well-kept place. St. Michael's spire, always open to visitors, 
gives a superb view of the city and harbor, with the surf breaking beyond 
historic Morris Island. The Mount Pleasant & Sullivan's Island Ferry 
Company run frequent boats to Sullivan's Island, where Fort Moultrie stands. 
A small boat will take the curious stranger over to Fort Sumter. Just 
beside the gateway of Fort Moultrie, enclosed by a small iron railing, is the 
grave of Oceola the Seminole, who once figured so prominently in national 
history — an implacable, proud, thoroughbred Indian, who died a prisoner 
within these walls. Magnolia Cemetery is well worthy of a visit, with its 
graves of Gadsden, Rutledge, Pinckney, and Calhoun. The Magnolia Gar- 
dens, upon the Ashley River, about 20 miles from the city, form one of the 
most lovely spots in the South. It is reached either by the daily excursion 
steamers or by train. 

A pleasant side trip may be made from Yemassee, the junction of the 
Augusta & Port Royal Railroad, while en route between Charleston and 
Savannah to Port Royal and the ancient city of Beaufort ; the former has 
developed a large shipping trade within a few years, and the latter enjoys 
the advantage of a good hotel. Population of Charleston in 1889, 60,000. 



CITY OF SAN ANTONIO. 

AN ANTONIO is a city of Texas, no miles southwest of Austin. 
It is one of the oldest Spanish towns in America. No city in the 
Union is so peculiarly interesting as San Antonio. There are 
seven Catholic churches, in which services are held in the English, Spanish, 
French, German, and Polish languages. Mexicans jostle against Indians, and 
John Chinaman washes the linen of the commercial traveller. Visitors can 
eat at night on the plaza the strangely-made dishes prepared by the natives 
of Mexico. Strangers, while making purchases of curiosities in the shops. 







MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 




PICTURESQUE FEATURES OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 



726 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



wonder at the massive thickness of the walls, and hear, with surprise, that 200 
years ago or more the Spanish troops found shelter there from the attacks of 

the Indians. It is a strange 
country, within five days' 
rail from New York, and 
when travellers pause there 
a little for rest, while en route 
to California and Mexico, 
they will find that it is un- 
necessary to visit Europe in 
quest of quaint old vestiges 
of a past generation. 

It is the seat of Bexar 
County, Texas, and is situa- 
ted on the San Pedro and 
San Antonio Rivers. The 
principal business streets are 
Commerceand Market, which 
run parallel from the princi- 
pal square. The business por- 







GARDEN STREET, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 

tion has been mostly rebuilt 
since i860. About one-third 
of the population are Germans, 
and one-third Mexicans. It 
comprises three divisions, the 
city proper between the 
rivers ; Alamo, which is east 
of the San Antonio River; 
and Chihuahua, which is west 
of the San Pedro River. Al- 
amo is mostly occupied by 
Germans, while the Mexican 
quarter is in Chihuahua. In 

the city proper there are ^'"~S ji.--^ -f 

manynne business buildmgs. 
In the Mexican quarter the ''''=''' ^"^ '^^ '''^^'^^ ''^'''^^'' ^^^^ '^^ antonio. 

houses are mostly built of stone and wood, and are only one story high. 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



727 



There is a public park on the banks of the San Pedro. The city contains 
an arsenal, a Roman Catholic Cathedral, college, and convent, a Court-house, 
and banks. It is a centre of trade for the outlying country, the principal pro- 
ductions of which are wool, cotton, 
hides, and cattle. It has very im- 
portant and growing manufact- 
ures, and considerable water-power. 
The manufacturing industries in- 
clude extensive flour-mills, brew- 
eries, ice factories, etc. Invalids 
find the climate of San Antonio 
very desirable, as it is mild and 
genial. 

The city is now well provided 
with railroad connections. It is on 
the line of the International and 
Great Northern R, R., which is a ^i-kra h.h'se. san antomo. 

part of the vast network of roads know^i as the Missouri Pacific Railway 
system, a fact which lends much significance to the future possibilities of the 
city. San Antonio is also touched by the Galveston, Harrisburg and San 
Antonio Railway and the San Antonio and Avansas Pass Railway. Railroad 

travel is rapidly introducing a 




-: ^i^ 
^^^ ^J^ 




new civilization into the midst 
of the life of the quaint old 
city, and the mingling of its in- 
congruous elements often fur- 
nishes scenes interesting and 
picturesque. 

The place was settled by 
the Spaniards in 1714. In the 
Texan Revolution of 1836 it 
was the scene of the massacre 
MEXICAN jacal. NEAR SAN ANTONIO. ^f ^^^ Alamo, whcn a garrlson 

of 150 men, led by Colonel Travis, and including David Crockett, were sur- 
rounded by several thousand Mexicans, and, after a heroic resistance, killed 
to the last man. Population in 1889, 50,000, 



CITY OF JACKSONVILLE. 



ACKSONVILLE, Florida, is situated on the St. John's River. It 
is a flourishing city and the metropolis of the State. It is much 
resorted to by Northern invalids on account of the salubrity of its 
climate. In Jacksonville everybody seems on the move. Its street-corners 
are built up with hotels, and shops, and ticket-offices. It is a mart, and the 
sick man must needs partake of the excitement if he stops here. Perhaps he 
needs diverting; if so, let him stay. If rest is sought, he will do better to go 
up the river to some of the smaller points. Jacksonville has a score of 
hotels and a legion of boarding-houses. One-half of the population waits 
upon the other half. Bay Street, extending for a mile or more along the 
river, is built up closely, some of the structures being large and costly. 
The hotels are chiefly of wood, and those erected 1880-89 have all the ele- 
gance and conveniencies of the most noted metropolitan caravanseries. The 
population of the city in 1880 was 18,000; in 1889 35,444. It is a growing 
city, and great excitement prevails in the winter, when the place is full of in- 
valids, not only from the North, but from various parts of the globe. 

In August and September of 1888 the city and vicinity were visited by 
the yellow fever scourge; many persons were stricken down with it, and a 
large number died. Much suffering and privation were endured. The city 
was quarantined by the National Government in order to prevent the disease 
from spreading to other parts of the country. The inhabitants become 
frightfully alarmed and many left the city Camps were established to re- 
ceive the fugitives, where they were compelled to remain a certain length of 
time for purposes of fumigation before being allowed to proceed to other 
parts; much heroism and self-sacrifice were displayed by the people who re- 
mained in the city. All parts of the country generously responded with 
financial aid. Trained nurses and doctors from every part of the Union freely 
offered their services, which were cordially accepted. The most strenuous 
efforts were made to prevent the disease from spreading, but only the cold 
weather brought the needed relief. It is believed that the result of this terri- 
ble experience will be to cause the local authorities to put Jacksonville on a 
better health footing than it has ever before possessed, as the most thorough 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



729 



means known to science have been employed to prevent a repetition of this 
terrible epidemic. 

Tallahassee is the capital of the State, and has a population of 4,000; St. 
Augustine, 3,000. Key West is built on an island of the same name, and has a 
population of about 10,000. Pensacola has a population of about 7,000, which 
is about the same population as Fernandina contains. The productions of 
Florida consist of lumber, cotton, rice, cocoanuts, tobacco, sugar-cane, arrow- 




BAY STREET, JACKSONVILLE. 

root, hemp, flax, coffee, oranges, lemons, bananas, limes, olives, grapes, and 
pineapples, which grow in great quantities and are of very fine flavor. 
Among the other products may be mentioned Indian corn, beans, sweet 
potatoes, peas, Irish potatoes, barley, buckwheat, hops, etc. 

Many of the people of the State have grown wealthy on the cultivation 
and export of oranges and other fruits. The manufacture of what is known 
as " Key West cigars " is an important industr)-, and has done much for the 



730 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

people of Key West. Game and fisli are to be found in i^reat quantities in 
all parts of the State. In the forests, rivers, and swamps deer, wild turke)-s, 
partridges, geese, ducks, and other game abound in great quantities. On all 
the coasts can be found green turtle, oysters, sheepshead, red fish, and mullet; 
and in all of the inland waters can be found fresh-water fish in great variety. 
Sponges of a fine quality can be found in great quantities along the reefs, and 
are a considerable part of the trade. The pasturage of the savannahs is un- 
excelled, cattle requiring very little attention, and are seldom housed in the 
winter. Key West was nearly destroyed by fire in the spring of 1886. 




CITY OF WILMINGTON. 

ILMINGTON is the principal commercial centre in Delaware; it is a 
port of entry and the largest city in the State. It is situated at the 
junction of Christiana and Brandywine Creeks, 28 miles from Phila- 
delphia on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroad, and is the 
terminus of the Wilmington and Reading, and the Wilmington and Western 
railroads. The buildings are mostly of brick, and the streets meet at right 
angles. Among the public buildings are the City Hall, Post-ofifice, Custom- 
house, the Library and Institute, the Opera-house, and a large hospital. The 
city was first settled in 1730 and incorporated in 1832. It has about 50 
churches, numerous public schools, academies, banks, newspapers, a good fire 
department, police system, gas works, and street railroads. 

The manufactures consist of iron steamships, railroad cars, locomotives, 
carriages, paper, powder, agricultural implements, machinery, cotton and 
woollen goods, flour, boots and shoes, leather, and bricks, which are produced 
in great quantities. The annual products of the various factories have been 
estimated at $30,000,000. 

Wilmington is a very handsome city, and has many picturesque water 
views. Its commerce with local cities is extensive. Its foreign exports and 
imports are mostly conducted through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Population, in 1870, 31,000; in 1880,42,500; in 1889, 57,000. 



CITY OF MOBILE. 








OBILE is the only seaport and the largest city of Alabama. It is situ- 
ated on a beautiful plain, on the west side of Mobile River, at its en- 
trance to Mobile Bay, which opens into the Gulf of Mexico. It is 141 
miles from New Orleans, and 180 miles from Montgomery, the capital of the 
State. The city, which is elevated 16 feet above the highest tides, rises gradually 
from the river, and is laid out with fine, broad, shaded streets. It was originally 
settled in 1702 by the French, and for years it was the most important place 
in the Louisiana district. It was visited by famines and by epidemics. At this 
period the 
set 1 1 ement 
was located 
about eight 
miles south 
of its present 
site. In 1706 
the w omen 
of the place, 
being dissat- 
isfied with In- 
dian corn as 
the principal 

article of food, revolted. This was known as the " Petticoat Insurrection." 
The place was nearly destroyed in 171 1 by a hurricane and flood; the peo- 
ple then decided to move with their effects to a more desirable location, 
and selected the present site of the city. In 1763, at the Treaty of Paris, 
the city was ceded to Great Britain. After remaining in the possession 
of the British about 20 years it was ceded to Spain. In the War of 18 12 it 
was surrendered to General Wilkinson. It was incorporated as a city in 1819, 
and during the Civil War was in the possession of the Confederates. Admiral 
Farragut with his fleet sailed up Mobile Bay in August, 1864, and the re 
nowned engagement with the forts and the enemy's fleet took place on the 
5th; the latter was destroyed or captured, and the forts surrendered. The 




A SCKNE IN M(_)1)II.K. 



732 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

remaining fortifications were carried by assault, and early in the following 
year the city surrendered. 

Mobile is lighted by gas and electricity, has numerous lines of street rail- 
roads, and several railroads connect it with all parts of the country. It has a 
fine Custom-house and Post-office, City Hall and market-house, theatre, Odd 
Fellows' hall, cathedral, 30 churches, four orphan asylums, several hospitals, a 
medical college, St. Joseph's College (a Jesuit institution), a Convent of the 
Visitation, and academy for young ladies. Mobile has several ship-yards, foun- 
dries, and cotton-presses. The chief business is the export of cotton, timber, 
and naval stores. 

Mobile Bay is a handsome sheet of water, about 30 miles in length and 
about 12 miles wide; vessels drawing more than 16^ or 17 feet of water can- 
not reach the city except at high tide; but improvernents were nearly com- 
pleted in 1889 to insure a depth of 22 feet and a width of 200 feet. Its cotton 
trade is only exceeded in the South by New Orleans, its exports of cotton for 
one year amounting to nearly $6,000,000, while its total exports were nearly 
$7,000,000; the imports are over $500,000 annually. There is a line of steam- 
ers between Mobile and Liverpool, and numerous vessels and steamboats 
engage in the river and coast trade. Its traffic in naval stores and lumber 
is extensive. The city extends along the river five or six miles, and runs 
back about a mile and a half. Population, 1889, 40,000. 



CITY OF NASHVILLE. 



ASHVILLE, the capital of Tennessee, is situated on the Cum- 
berland River, 235 miles from its mouth, with steamboat navigation 
of over 400 miles above the city. It was made the State capital in 
1826. The State House is a very handsome building, built of Tennessee stone, 
quarried within 300 yards of the building. It is located on an abrupt emi- 
nence in the centre of the city. It is II2 by 239 feet, and is 206 feet to the 
top of tower. The corner-stone was laid July 4, 1845, and first occupied by 
the Legislature, October 3, 1853. The total cost was $1,500,000. The archi- 
tect and the chairman of the building committee were by act of Legislature 
honored with burial in vaults constructed within the walls of the northeast 
and southeast corners. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 733 

Nashville is a handsome city, built on a series of hills affording ample 
drainage, and is noted for its enterprise, almost unparalleled growth since the 
war, and the culture and hospitality of its citizens. It is divided by the Cum- 
berland River, which is spanned at this point by a new iron truss bridge, 639 
feet long, 55 feet 7 inches wide, and double roadway. It has a very advanta- 
geous and well-arranged system of railroad facilities, and is the largest com- 
mercial city in the State. The amount of capital invested on January i, 1884, 
in the four leading cities in the State was $10,865,000, of which Nashville had 
$4,995,500, being nearly double either the others. There were 2,670 business 
firms and companies, of which 708 were engaged in manufacturing. The 
wholesale trade of the city gave employment to about 700 commercial trav- 
ellers. There were 120 incorporated companies and 10 street-car lines. 
There were em.ployed within the limits of the post-office carrier delivery — 
not including railroad shops — about 5,300 mechanics and skilled workmen. 
There are 3 cotton factories— one of which employs over 800 hands — and a 
woollen factory. This is the first hardwood lumber market in the United 
States, and the fifth general lumber market, having 25 saw and planing mills, 
and 33 firms engaged in the lumber business. It is the fifth boot and 
shoe market in the United States; the largest candy and cracker manu- 
facturing city in the South, and does an enormous wholesale dry-goods, gro- 
cery, and drug business. In stoves and hollow-ware, Nashville's manufact- 
ures have a good trade as far west as California and north to Chicago, and 
have recently secured profitable Government contracts in competition with 
the best Northern and Eastern houses. Its flouring mills have a daily capac- 
ity of about 1,800 barrels. It has a fine electric fire alarm and about 200 
Brush lights. The local telephone exchange has 2,100 miles of wire in the 
city, supplying 1,300 telephones within the city limits, besides giving connec- 
tion with 132 towns in Middle Tennessee. There is a fine electric time sys- 
tem, furnishing standard time from a central clock, with a service of 375 
clocks, and is rapidly increasing. The banking capital in national banks is 
$3,100,000, besides several private banks. The individual deposits in the 
national banks average over $4,000,000. The latest taxable valuation of 
property gives $570 to each inhabitant. The iron interests of the South are 
largely controlled here, one concern alone representing $10,000,000 capital 
employed in making coke and iron in Tennessee and Northern Alabama. 

An eminent geologist and mineralogist has said, that " if a circle were 
drawn around Nashville with a radius of 120 miles, and paths made to each 



734 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

degree of the circle, iioof them would pass over inexhaustible and easily 
available deposits of iron." 

Among the prominent public buildings are the Court-house, 3 universities, 
hospital. Custom house and Post-ofifice, county jail, market-house, 2 theatres, 
a Masonic Temple, an Opera-house, State penitentiary. Free academy, 
Protestant and Catholic orphan asylums; 64 churches, of 12 denominations, 
47 white and 17 colored; 47 daily, weekly, and monthly publications. The 
educational facilities are unsurpassed in the South. The Fisk University for 
colored teachers w^as founded in 1867, the Central Tennessee College for col- 
ored students in 1866, and the Vanderbilt University, named after the late 
Commodore Vanderbilt, in 1875. The Nashville Medical College and numer- 
ous other institutions, including a State and Public Library, the Roger 
Williams University, academies, seminaries, private schools, and business 
colleges, adorn the city. It has an extensive public-school system, with 10 
large buildings accommodating 6,000 white children, and 4 buildings accom- 
modating 2,000 colored children. The value of public school buildings is 
$230,000. Near the city are the State Lunatic Asylum, and the " Hermitage," 
once the residence of President Jackson. Nashville was occupied by the Fed- 
eral troops in 1862, and here the Federal General Thomas gained a victory 
over the Confederate General Hood in December, 1864. 

The city is noted for its handsome private residences. A very extensive 
system of water-works supplies the city with pure water from the river. The 
place was first settled in 1779; incorporated as a city in 1806. Population 
in 1870, 25,865; 1880, 43,000; 1889, 85,000. 



CITY OF SAVANNAH. 

AVANNAH is a fine city and port of entry of Georgia. It is situ- 
ated on the right bank of the Savannah River, 18 miles from its 
mouth, and 90 miles from Charleston. It is greater than Mobile 
or Charleston as a port of commerce, and it is the largest port for shipment 
of naval stores in the United States. The principal trade of the State cen- 
tres at this point, and consists mainly of cotton, rice, and lumber. Great 
facilities are afforded by the Savannah River for internal commerce. A 
canal, 16 miles long, connects this river with the Ogeechee River. Nearly 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



735 



i,000 vessels enter and clear the port annually, with an aggregate tonnage of 
nearly 1,250,000. 

Savannah is the bcaii-idcal of an old-time Southern town. The visitor will 
fall in love with the shady vistas of the streets, and remember with pleasure 
the parks set with monuments that alternate the squares. Bonaventure 
Cemetery is at once the saddest, yet most charming spot one will encounter 
in a year of travel. The great live-oaks stretch their witch-like arms and join 
hands across the avenues, while from every branch and twig, like drapings of 
woe, depends the long and swaying Spanish gray moss. The Savannah hotels 
are large and well kept. The visitor will find a great deal at the rooms of 
the Georgia 
Historical So 
ciety to interest ^s= ; 
him. The scenes 
amongtheware- 1! 
houses and clus- 
ters of shipping i^^^^,^ 
are extremely PT^Sryf-p 1| I . : | j^ ,. 
animated. ^= 1? 

Savannah is s^i^^ - 4^\\v !J-> 
the terminal S 
station of sev- 
eral railroads. 
The climate is 
very pleasant 

in winter, and is not considered unhealthy at any season. The city has a 
fine harbor, and the river is navigable as far as Augusta. It is built on a 
sandy plain, 40 feet above the river, with broad streets shaded by beautiful 
trees. Its chief edifices are the Custom-house, City Exchange, Court-house, 
State Arsenal, theatre, St. Andrews' hall, Oglethorpe hall, market, three hos- 
pitals, asylums, and Masonic Hall, where in 1861 the ordinance of secession 
was passed. The exports are about $50,500,000, consisting of cotton, rice, 
lumber, etc. The cotton exported annually amounts to 850,000 bales; im- 
ports, $1,000,000. Vessels of upward of 22 feet draught discharge and load 
three miles below the harbor. 

Savannah is surrounded by marsho- -"-' islands and on the river side is 
defended by Forts Pulaski and J-"-' vv;is founded in 1733 by the 




A VIEW OF SAVANNAH IN FORMER DAYS. 



•jie GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

English General Oglethorpe. In 1776, a British fleet, attempting to take the 
town, was repulsed after a severe action; but it was taken in 1778, and held 
in 1786 against the combined French and American forces. In the late war, 
after many unsuccessful attacks by sea, it was taken by General Sherman in 
February, 1865. As a cotton port it is subordinate to New Orleans only. The 
manufactures are not important, and consist of the products of foundries, 
planing and flouring mills, and a large cotton-mill. 

In the park is a Confederate monument; and in Johnson Square an obelisk 
to the memory of General Greene and Count Pulaski. The Pulaski monu- 
ment in Monterey Square is 55 feet high, of marble, surmounted by a statue 
of Liberty, and is considered one of the finest works of the kind in the Union. 
The city has 35 churches, a Public Library, Historical Society, several banks, 
and an excellent school system. It has had two great fires, one in 1796 (loss, 
$1,000,000), the other in 1820 (loss over $4,000,000). Its police and fire de- 
partments are very efificient ; the latter is now a paid department, reinforced 
by " call men." 

In Georgia the tops of the hills are mostly covered with forests of pine, 
oak, palmetto, ash, hickory, cypress, black-walnut, cedar, and mulberry. The 
agricultural products of the State are cotton, wheat and other grain, maize, 
tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, rice, etc. Cotton is one of the great articles of 
commerce, as is also tobacco, indigo, canes, timber, maize, and deer-skins. 
The population of Savannah in 1880 was 33,000, and in 1889, 52,827 — 29,136 
white, 23,691 colored. 




CITY OF ATLANTA. 

TLANTA is a port of entry, a fine city, and the capital of Georgia. 
It is called the "Gate City." It is destined to be a city of great 
importance, as it is the terminus of all the railroads of the State. 
There is little of the conventional South about Atlanta. The energy, per- 
sistence, and phenomenal growth of this city have won for it the sobriquet of 
the " Chicago of the South." Its streets are laid out, or perhaps we should say 
wander, with a freedom from relation to the cardinal points of the compass, 
which shou-ld make Boston envious; but they are bright, wide, and shady 




CITY OF ATLANTA. 

I. f once de Leon Spring. 2. U. S. Custom House and Post Office. 3. In the Commercial Quarter. 
i. Union T)epot. 5 Peaohtree Street. 



738 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

streets. There is not a prettier avenue anywhere in the land than Peach-tree 
Street, which bears the same relation to Atlanta that Euclid Avenue does to 
Cleveland. The surrounding country, besides being rich in grain and cotton, 
contains gold, iron, and other valuable minerals. 

The large negro population and the heavy traffic in cotton are almost the 
only features which proclaim Atlanta as a Southern centre. As the city has 
been chiefly rebuilt since the war, the prevalent styles of architecture are 
modern and pleasing. The United States Custom-house and Post-office is a 
handsome structure in the heart of the city. Upon Washington and other 
leading streets there are many large and costly churches of several denomina- 
tions. 

Atlanta was destroyed by General Sherman, November, 1864. After the 
war Atlanta speedily, recovered from her almost complete ruin, and within two 
years had as great a population as when the war began. It became the 
capital of the State in 1868. Among the public institutions are the Ogle- 
thorpe University, the Clark Theological School (colored Methodist), the North 
Georgia Female College, the Atlanta Medical College, the Atlanta University 
for colored students, the State Library, Young Men's Library, and the State 
Technical School. 

From the high ground occupied by the McPherson barracks, in the north- 
western portion of the city, a very fine outlook upon the city's environment 
may be had. Not far away is Kennesaw Mountain, the scene of much san- 
guinary fighting, and away to the north are the pale outlines of the Tennessee 
mountains, famed through the names of Lookout, Mission Ridge, Chicka- 
mauga, and Chattanooga. Within the limits of the city and in its immediate 
vicinage are many huge yellow mounds, portions of the cordon of defences 
which extended around the city, upon which the grass has never grown. 
Atlanta is built on an elevated plateau, 1,100 feet above tide-water, and is 
singularly dry, cool, and healthy. 

Atlanta, unlike her sedate sister cities of the South, owes her rapid growth 
and commercial importance to her favorable position and her great spirit of 
enterprise. Her railroads have direct lines to all sections of the country. 
In the last ten years it has grown rapidly, and given great impetus to the new 
industries of the South. It has vast cotton-mills, and immense iron rolling- 
mills; these give employment to a large number of persons. Population, 
1889, 75,000. 




CITY OF ROCHESTER. 

OCHESTER is a commercial city and port of entry, situated on both 
sides of the Genesee River, 7 miles south of its entrance into Lake 
Ontario. It is the capital of Monroe County. It is 230 miles from 
Albany. It is located on an elevated site, which covers about 17 square miles. 

Its streets are shaded, and generally from 50 to 100 feet wide. It is the 
terminus of the Rochester & Pittsburg and numerous other railroads. It is 
crossed by the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad. Owing to its 
advantageous situation it has grown very rapidly; by means of the Genesee 
it has easy access to the lakes, while its railroads and canalsgive it communi- 
cation with the fertile country by which it is surrounded; besides, it has an 
immense advantage in water-power. The numerous falls of the Genesee 
River within its boundaries amount to 268 feet in perpendicular height. The 
upper falls of the Genesee, a cataract of 96 feet, are in the centre of the city; 
a mile or two below are two other falls, one 84 feet and the other 25. The 
river runs through a deep gorge 210 feet high. As a result of this immense 
water-power it has become one of the principal markets of the flour trade, 
and has some of the largest flour-mills in the Union, besides numerous other 
extensive manufacturing establishments. 

Rochester was settled in 18 10, and incorporated as a village in 1817. It 
was first laid out by Nathaniel Rochester, an American pioneer. It was in- 
corporated as a city in 1834. The city is very handsome and well built. The 
canal crosses the river on a fine aqueduct containing seven arches. Main 
Street is the principal thoroughfare and promenade. It is in the centre of 
the city, and crosses the river, which is spanned by a substantial bridge. 

Among the principal buildings may be mentioned the County Court house ; 
the City Hall, with a tower 175 feet high; the high- school building, the Powers 
block, and the Warren Astronomical Observatory, the finest private observa- 
tory in the world. The University of Rochester occupies large buildings in 
the eastern part of the city. It was founded by the Baptists in 1850, and the 
grounds, consisting of 23 acres, are beautifully laid out. There are about 70 
churches, a fine public-school system employing over 200 teachers, nearly 50 
public and private schools, a theological seminary, an athenaeum, hospitals, 
and reformatory. The nursery trade of Rochester has assumed vast pro- 
portions, and is not surpassed by that of any other place in the world. 



740 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Mount Hope Cemetery is beautifully laid out, and is an ornament to the 
city. The population of Rochester was, in 1820, 1,502; in 1840, 20,191; in 
1860,48,243; in 1870,62,386; in 1880, 89,363; and in 1889, 125,000. 




CITY OF UTICA. 

TICA is a city of New York and county seat of Oneida County. 
It is situated at the junction of the Erie and Chenango canals on 
the Mohawk River. It is 95 miles west-northwest of Albany. 
The city, regularly and handsomely built, rises from the south bank of the 
river on a gradual elevation, the ground generally being level. Among its 
buildings are a City Hall, United States Court-house and Postof^ce, opera- 
house, public halls, 34 churches, large hotels, banks, cotton-mills, woollen-mills, 
a State Lunatic asylum. Catholic and Protestant orphan asylums, academies, 
and schools. There are 1 1 newspapers and periodicals, of which 2 are Welsh 
and I German. In 18 13 it had a population of 1,700. It was incorporated as 
a city in 1832. At the period of the Revolution Utica was a frontier trading- 
post, and the site of Fort Schuyler, built to guard the settlements against 
the French and Indians. 

It is connected with various parts of the country by the New York Cen- 
tral, the Utica & Black River, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
railroads. Its principal business street is very handsome, and contains fine 
substantial blocks of buildings. It impresses a stranger with being a live, 
active place. It covers an area of four square miles; has numerous public 
parks, a public library, and a mechanics' association ; is the centre of a 
rich dairy and farming district ; and is the largest cheese market in America. 
Its manufactures consist of clothing, steam-engines, boots and shoes, pianos, 
agricultural implements, cotton and woollen goods, carriages, carpets, etc. 
Population, 1880, 34,000; 1889, 50,000. 



CITY OF GALVESTON. 




ALVESTON is the most important commercial city and seaport in 
Texas. It is situated in a county of the same name on Galveston 
^J Island, at the opening of Galveston Bay into the Gulf of Mexico. 
Its harbor is the finest in the State; it has 14 feet of water over the bar at 




GALVESTON. 



742 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

low tide. The bay extends north to the mouth of Trinity River, a distance 
of 35 miles, and is 12 to 18 miles wide, and is a very handsome sheet of water. 
The island of Galveston is 28 miles in length, and from two to three miles 
wide. Its average elevation above the sea level is only 5 feet. The streets of 
the city are straight, spacious, and elegant; and its principal buildings — the 
Roman Catholic University of St. Mary's, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, 
and the Episcopal Church — are large, imposing edifices of brick in the 
Gothic style. Galveston has 18 churches, two libraries, a convent of Ursu- 
line nuns, a medical college, an orphan asylum, hospitals, over 10 miles of 
street railway, and a number of schools of various kinds. It has railroads 
connecting it with all parts of the country, and is connected by steamship 
lines with Liverpool, New Orleans, New York, and the coast towns of Texas 
as far as Mexico, and by sailing vessels with countries in Europe, Mexico, 
the West Indies, and South America. The principal trade is the shipping 
of cotton (over 40 acres of ground are devoted to cotton presses and ware- 
houses), hides, grain, pork, and beef. The foreign exports in one yeav 
amounted to nearly $18,000,000, and the imports to about $1,000,000. The 
city has good wharves, several ship-building yards, foundries, machine-shops, 
gas-works, railroad shops, daily and weekly newspapers, savings and national 
banks, etc. The island of Galveston was, from 181 7 to 1821, the haunt of 
the pirate Lafitte, who was dislodged in the latter }'ear. Population in 1870, 
13,818; 1880,26,000; 1889,47,500. 



CITY OF DAYTON. 




AYTON is one of the most prosperous and wealthy cities of Ohio. 
It is situated at the junction of the Miami and Mad Rivers. It is 
connected with Cincinnati, on the Ohio, by the Miami Canal — the 
distance being 52 miles. In the variety and extent of its manufactures Day- 
ton stands foremost among Western towns in proportion to its size. Fine 
water-power is supplied by the river. The population has very rapidly in- 
creased. In 1850 it amounted to 10,976, having almost quadrupled within the 
preceding 20 years; in 1853 it had risen to 16,562, showing an addition of 
more than 50 per cent, in three years; in i860 it amounted to 20,482 ; 1870 to 
30,473; in 1880 to 38,000;- and in 1889 to 46,800. It owes its prosperity chiefly 
to the great number of railroads centring here, among which are the Atlantic 
& Great Western; the Cincinnati, Hannibal & Dayton; the Cleveland, Col- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 743 

umbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis; the Dayton & Union; the Pittsburgh, 
Cincinnati & St. Louis and several others. It has a fine Court-house, a Pub- 
lic Library, several newspapers, 53 churches, the National Home for Disabled 
Soldiers and Sailors, situated in fine grounds, and other institutions. Many 
of the private residences are very handsome, and have elegant grounds. 
The streets are broad and well paved, and include 36 macadamized roads 
with a total length of over 600 miles, radiating from the centre to the suburbs. 
The city is in the midst of a rich agricultural district, in which limestone 
quarries abound; had 7 national banks and one savings bank with an aggre- 
gate capital of $2,930,000, and 8 insurance companies with a capital of $1,200- 
000, in 1889; and its educational interests were promoted by a high school, 15 
public schools, Cooper Seminary for Young Ladies (Presbyterian), St. Mary's 
Institute for Boys (Roman Catholic), and a preparatory school for boys. 




CITY OF WHEELING. 

HEELING is the largest city of West Virginia, a county seat, a 
port of entry, and the capital of the State. It is situated on 
the left bank of the Ohio River, at the entrance of Wheeling 
Creek, 60 miles by rail and 92 by river, below Pittsburg. It is the largest 
commercial city between Cincinnati and Pittsburg on the Ohio River. It 
extends 5 or 6 miles along the river on both sides of the creek. The city is 
built at the foot of the hills which rise to the Alleghanies, and is the termi- 
nus of the Baltimore and Ohio, and of the river division of the Cleveland 
and Pittsburg, and numerous other railroads. The great national road here 
crosses the Ohio, over which is a wire suspension bridge, 1,010 feet long. 

Its manufacturing establishments are very extensive, and consist of iron 
foundries, glass works, blast-furnaces, forges, machine shops, paper-mills, cigar 
factories, flour-mills, ship yards, etc. About 500 vessels belong to the port. 
Large quantities of bituminous coal are mined in the hills in the vicinity. 

The public buildings consist of the Custom-house, Post-office, and United 
States Court Chambers, which are combined in one; the State-house, the 
Opera-house, and Odd Fellows' Hall. There are 8 public schools, two semi- 
naries, 22 churches, a public library, a college for women, and several chari- 
table institutions. It is the centre of an important trade. The place was 
first settled in 1772, and incorporated as a city in 1806. Population in 1870, 
20,000; in 1880, 31,000; in 1889, 37,000. 



CITY OF READING. 




EADING is a city of Southeast Pennsylvania, on the left bank of 
the Schuylkill River, 58 miles northwest from Philadelphia, 55 miles 
northeast of Harrisburg; it is at the junction of the Union and 
Schuylkill Canals. Three fine bridges span the river. It was originally set 
off by Thomas and Rich Penn in 1748, and incorporated in 1847. The 
streets cross at right angles, and the city is handsomely laid out. The busi- 
ness portion contains fine buildings, erected with great regularity. It is the 
centre of a very productive farming district, and has a considerable wholesale 
and retail trade. It has a handsome Court-house, an Academy of Music, a 
jail, several hotels, banks, well-organized police and fire departments, nu- 
merous fire insurance companies, a public library, a Catholic academy, 
numerous public and private schools, a Catholic hospital, and several chari- 
table institutions. It is pleasantly situated on an ascending plain, and is 
supplied with streams of pure water from a mountain behind it. Penn's Mount 
is on the east and Neversink Mountain on the south. 

It publishes 12 newspapers. Its industries are rolling-mills, blast-furnaces, 
machine-shops, saw-mills, foundries, shoe factories, brevv'eries, tanneries, rail- 
road shops, manufactories of cigars, cottons, woollens, flour, nails, bricks, 
paper, etc. 

It has an extensive trade in coal. Population in 1 870, 34,000; in 1880, 
43,300; in 1889, 51,000. 



SALT LAKE CITY. 




ALT LAKE CITY is the capital of Salt Lake County and of Utah 
Territory. It is situated at the foot of the Wahsatch Mountains, in 
an immense valley, 4,350 feet above the sea level, on the east bank 
of the River Jordan, between Lake Utah, which is a beautiful body of fresh 
water, and Great Salt Lake, the latter being 12 miles distant. The city is con- 
nected with Ogden, the junction of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific 
Railroads, by the Utah Central Railroad, the distance being 36 miles. It is 
supposed that the valley in which Salt Lake City is situated was in prehistoric 



746 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

times a sea, which oy convulsions of nature has been changed from its original 
level. The soil still holds in solution the salt of the sea. The streets are 128 
feet wide and shaded with trees, and cross at right angles, forming 260 squares 
of 10 acres each. Two streams of pure water from the neighboring mountains, 
some of them 10,000 feet high, flow through each street. The city is divided 
into 21 wards, each of which has a public square or common. No drones 
are permitted in the city, as the Mormons are very industrious. They never 
seem to tire of work or making converts to their faith, and bring large num- 
bers of converts from all parts of Europe. 

The " City of the Saints " was founded in 1847 by the Mormons, after a 
long and weary pilgrimage through forests and a wilderness that was far more 
extensive than that traversed by the descendants of Abraham after escaping 
from the bondage of Egypt. The dwelling-houses are chiefly built of adobes, 
or sun-dried bricks. Since the National Government has taken polygamy in 
hand polygamous wives are less numerous. The houses were generally built 
one story high, and were small; but latterly many elegant residences have 
been erected. Each little dwelling is surrounded by its garden and orchard. 
The plates from which was written the Book of Mormon were " discovered " in 
1827 by Joseph Smith, who founded the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- 
Day Saints" in Manchester, N. Y. The church was afterwards removed to 
Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and finally to Utah. The church system of gov- 
ernment is admirable, as it considers the interests of all, and were it not for the 
practice of polygamy, there could be little objection raised to the Mormons, 
who are only carrying out the doctrines of the Old Testament. The adminis- 
tration of the Edmunds law, passed by Congress in 1882, and which was fol- 
lowed in 1886 by a still more stringent measure (which dissolved and wound 
up the corporation of the Mormon Church, disposing of its property), put 
hundreds of Mormons in prison for terms varying from six months to three 
years, and made the practice of polygamy almost impossible, but it has seem- 
ingly neither destroyed nor shaken the Mormons' faith in the divinity of the 
principle of plural marriages. In 1889 President Cleveland pardoned several 
of the Mormon leaders then under sentence for polygamous practices. 

The principal business streets are Main, South Temple, and First South 
streets, upon which there are several fine business blocks. Over one-fifth of 
the population are Gentiles and apostate Mormons, and since the laws of the 
United States against polygamy have been so rigorously enforced the latter 
are increasing. The city, which is not very imposing in appearance, is lighted 



74S GREAT C1TIP:S OF THP: UNITED STATES. 

with gas, and has numerous lines of horse railroads. The great Mormon 
Tabernacle, which is located on Temple Block, cost $150,000, and seats 13,000 
people. There are Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Con- 
gregational churches, a Public Library, Museum, City Hall, University, banks, 
hotels, halls, theatres, graded schools, newspapers, and periodicals. The city 
revenue amounts to about $175,000 annually; its debt, contracted to dig a 
•canal for irrigation, etc., amounts to $225,000; its resources are more than 

$1,500,000; licenses 
for liquor selling cost 
$1,200 per annum 
for each dram-shop. 
Several railroads, 
placing Salt Lake 
'^^^^H City in communica- 
tion with all princi- 
pal points, tend to 
increase its commer- 
cial importance. The 
Utah Southern, the 
Utah Western, and 
the Utah Central; 
centre in Salt Lake 
City, and the Union 
and Central Pacific, 
the Denver and Rio 
Grande railroads, 
connect with the city the two former having junctions at Ogdensburg and 
the latter by way of Provo City. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad has 
opened up a very picturesque section of the country. 

Salt Lake City is a growing centre of trade for the mining and agricultural 
districts. It is 650 miles from San Francisco, and 1,100 west of the Missis- 
sippi. The "Warm Springs, which issue from a limestone rock at the foot 
of the mountains, are about one mile distant from the city, and are consid- 
ered very beneficial to bathers. The Hot Springs are about a mile from this 
point. Population in i860, 8,236; 1870, 12,854; 1 880, 22,000; and in 1889, 
30,000. 




MAIN SlkKliT, SALT LAKIC miV. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 




ICHMOND is the capital of Virginia and a port of entry. It is sit- 
uated on the north bank of the James River, at the head of tide- 
water, about 150 miles from its mouth. It is 100 miles south of 
Washington, and jjicturesquely situated on the Richmond hills on the lower 
falls of the river. A trip from Washington to Richmond leads through the 
storied district of Virginia; first along the broad Potomac, crossing numerous 
tide-water creeks and affording many pleasant outlooks, then to historic Fred- 
ericksburg, where the tide of war surged so fiercely, and on through the 
rolling, well-tilled country, passing frequent villages, at one of which, Milford, 
a stop is made for meals, and then through Ashland, with its venerable col- 
lege buildings, beyond 
which it is a short run to 
Richmond. 

The opportunity to 
visit and familiarize one- 
self with the many inter- 
esting historic points in 
the famous capital of the 
late Confederacy is one 
which is eagerly seized by 
nearly all intelligent pleas- 
ure travelers going South 
for the first time, and thus it happens that there is a very general interchange 
of passengers at this point. One day devoted to the city of Richmond for rest 
and relaxation will sufifice to give an intelligent idea of this centre of the 
great struggle. A half day of pleasant driving through the broad and shady 
streets of the city to Hollywood Cemetery, one of the most beautiful places 
of sepulture in the land, would be a source of much pleasure and entertain- 
ment. A monument of great interest is that which marks the rrave of 
President James Monroe. Here also lie the remains of General J. E. R. 
Stuart, who commanded Lee's cavalry during the civil war; while hundreds 
of Confederate dead rest within the cemetery. A drive to Libby Prison, and 
the score of lesser points famous in connection with the w^ar, will prove a 
pleasant and instructive lesson of travel. 




STATE CAPITOL. 



750 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

The city is regularly laid out and built, and surrounded with beautiful 
scenery. The fine Capitol Square, located in the heart of the city, contains 8 
acres. Within the bounds are found the prominent and shapely structure of the 
State House, and the famous Washington Monument, as well as the statue of 
Stonewall Jackson. Among the manufacturing establishments, which give 
employment to nearly 6,000 hands, are large iron-works, machine-shops, 
foundries, sugar refineries, flour-mills, carriage-shops, tanneries, tobacco and 
cigar factories. The Tredegar iron-works, covering 15 acres, were employed 
for the manufacture of cannon during the existence of the Confederacy, and 
are now among the most important iron-works in the country. The flour- 
mills are among the largest in the world. There are 10 insurance companies, 
4 national banks, and 6 state and saving banks. Richmond was founded in 
1742, and became the capital of the State in 1779. In 181 1 the burning of a 
theatre destroyed the lives of 70 persons, including the Governor of the State. 
It was here that the convention to ratify the Federal constitution met in 1788, 
and it has since been the scene of many great political gatherings. On 
the 17th of April, 1861, the State of Virginia seceded from the Union, and 
in July following the Confederate Congress met in Richmond, and made it 
the capital of the Confederacy. General Joseph E. Johnston at this time had 
60,000 Confederates under his command in Virginia, and from this time till 
the close of the war Richmond continued to be one of the principal points of 
attack by the Federal army under Generals McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, 
Hooker, Meade, and Grant. It was defended by General Lee with a large army 
and formidable lines of fortifications, till the seizure of the lines of supply 
by Generals Grant and Sheridan compelled its evacuation after a series of 
sanguinary battles, April 3, 1865. During the evacuation of April 3, 1865, 
over 1,000 houses in the business portion of the city were destroyed; the loss 
of this and other property destroyed amounted to over $8,000,000. Imme- 
diately after the close of the war rebuilding was begun, and proceeded rapidly. 
Spring Hill and Manchester are connected with Richmond by five bridges 
across the James River. Manchester is a busy place, and cantains two large 
cotton-mills. Two fine public parks are respectively at the east and west 
ends of the city. The celebrated Libby Prison and Castle Thunder (military 
prisons) are now used as tobacco warehouses. St. John's Episcopal Church 
is celebrated as the place of meeting of the Virginia Convention which de- 
cided the attitude of the Colony in 1775, and in which Patrick Henry made 
his celebrated speech, ending — "I know not what course others may take; 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 751 

but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! " This church was also, in 1788, 
the place of meeting of the convention which ratified the Federal constitution. 

The business section has solid and handsome structures. The private 
residences are mostly surrounded by fine lawns and gardens. The river has 
much picturesque scenery. The State Library contains about 50,000 vol- 
umes and many fine historical portraits. The Custom-house and Post-ofifice 
occupy a fine granite structure. Near the Medical College can be seen the 
Brockenbrough House, which was occupied during the war by Jefferson Davis 
as his official headquarters. 

Numerous lines of railroad intersect at Richmond. Regular lines of 
steamers connect the city with Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Since the recent improvements in the river, vessels drawing 19 feet 
of water can load and unload at the docks. A canal round the falls gives a 
river navigable 200 miles, and a canal and several railways enhance its com- 
mercial importance. Population in 1889, 85,000. 




CITY OF KEOKUK. 

EOKUK is situated in Lee County, Iowa, on the west bank of the 
Mississippi River near the mouth of the Des Moines River, and at 
the foot of the lower rapids. From its advantageous position as 
a port of delivery it has received the name of the " The Gate City." It is built 
on a bluff of limestone that rises to a height of 150 feet; the buildings are 
chiefly of brick, and those, of a public character embrace a medical college, 
law school, six large public school houses, built of brick at a cost of $125,- 
000, a United States court, a public library, gas works, and extensive water 
works. For a city of its age and population it made a remarkable showing 
in the last census year (1880). Its freight and passenger traffic was handled 
by seven lines of railroad ; its banking business showed a large increase over 
that of the preceding year; its jobbing business approximated $20,000,000 in 
extent; its retail trade gained from forty to fifty per cent, in a year; and its 
manufacturing interests received a decided boom. Among the latter it 
counted 3 pork-packing establishments, 2 railroad machine shops, i railroad 
car shop, 4 wagon factories, 3 foundries, 2 stone quarries, 3 breweries, 13 cigar 
factories, 3 marble works, 2 lime kilns, 3 brick yards, 2 planing-mills, and a 
saw-mill, fruit-canning establishment, woolen hose, chain pump, furniture, 




liilll M''\ 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 753. 

soap, flour-sack, shirt, and broom factories, and the usual variety of manu- 
factories of articles required for domestic use. Fifty-three business houses 
and residences were erected at a cost of over $300,000, besides an opera house 
that cost $45,000 and a public library that cost $20,000; and various public 
improvements were made that represented an additional outlay of ,^38,000. 
In the same year 852 conveyances of real estate were made, the aggregate 
consideration for which was $492,881. 

The city is best known in commercial circles, not only in the West but 
along all the great arteries of trade and transportation of the country, as a 
port of delivery and transshipment. A brief study on the map of its loca- 
tion and railroad and water connections will at once establish its importance. 
For many years the great obstruction to freight traffic which the lower rapids, 
caused, was recognized as a matter of general importance. Not only the 
growth of the city, but the business necessities of a vast section of territory 
were held in check thereby. Great as was the desirability of overcoming this 
obstacle, the cost of any permanent improvement of this part of the river 
was estimated at a figure far beyond the ability of the city or State or both 
combined to pay. The demands of commerce, however, were loud, continu- 
ous, and imperative, and as the improvement was destined to yield much 
more than a local benefit, the general government very wisely took the matter 
in hand, and constructed a canal around the rapids, deep enough to accom- 
modate steamboats, 9 miles in length, and with an average of 300 feet in 
width, and provided it with the necessary locks and basins. This improve- 
ment, carried out under the direction of the United States engineer corps, 
cost the government $8,000,000, and beside yielding an incalculable benefit to 
the whole commercial interests of the West, gave Keokuk an admirable water- 
power for manufacturing purposes. The population of the city has grown as 
follows: 1850, 2,478; i860, 8,136; 1870, 12,766; 1880, 12,117; i885> I3'i5i; 
1889, 15,000. 



CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

T. AUGUSTINE the first place within the limits of the United 
States settled by white men, is a city, seaport, and capital of St. 
John's County, Florida. It is situated on a bay of the Atlantic two 
miles from the ocean, is 30 miles south of the mouth of St. John's River, 80 
miles south of St. Mary's, 170 miles east by south of Tallahassee, 310 miles 




754 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



south of Charleston, and in latitude 29° 45' north and longitude 81° 40' west. 
It has an attractive and spacious harbor, and ample railroad, steamboat, and 
steamship connections with northern and local points of importance. The sit- 
uation is pleasant, and has the advantages of refreshing breezes and the deli- 
cious fragrance of orange groves. The city was built on a peninsula and in 
oblong form, with four principal and narrow streets. The houses as a rule 
were two stories in height, the first story being constructed of a conglomerate 
of fine shells and sand called coqiiina, and abounding in large quantities on 
Anastasia Island at the entrance of the harbor. This material is easily 
quarried and manipulated, and possesses the property of hardening on exposure 




THE OLD GATE, ST. AUGUSTINE, EL(JRU)A. 

to the air. The second stories were of wood and projected over the first in a 
strikingly quaint fashion. The chief feature of the town till within a few years 
was a large public square which fronted the harbor, and was surrounded in 
true Spanish style by the various public buildings and the venerable Roman 
Catholic cathedral. 

Since the close of the civil war it has become a very popular winter resort 
and stopping-place for northern people owning orange groves in Florida; 
and the knowledge of its extreme age, the tenacity of its permanent residents 
for everything ancient, and its remains of earl}' Spanish works of defense, 
have made it exceedingly attractive to experienced tourists. The United 
State government has built a substantial sea-wall along its harbor side, which 
forms one of the most delightful promenades to be found anywhere. Modern 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 755 

domiciles have sprung up here and there, and there have been a few attempts 
to provide it with some of the improvements and accommodations of the 
day; but in all essentials it is still only the oldest remains of the Spanish 
power in America, and such its citizens are content to have it known and 
continue. Its permanent population was less in 1880 than it was in 1821, 
even with the addition of the Indian prisoners removed to the old fort from 
Fort Sill and the Cheyenne agency in Indian Territory. 

While in the possession of the Spaniards, St. Augustine was considered a 
place of much strategic importance, and as it had St. Sebastian River on one 
side and St. Augustine Bay on another, they built a stone wall across its 
northern end and regarded that as a sufficient protection. Later on, how- 
ever, a fort was built with walls 20 feet high and 12 thick, in which ^^6 guns 
were mounted. The old wall had quite an ornamental gateway with towers 
and curious loop-holed sentry boxes. This wall has now totally disappeared, 
but the gateway has been preserved, and even the contour of the original ex- 
ternal ditch, which was broad and deep and extended from water to water. 
The gateway, the cathedral, and ruins of many of the early coqiiina houses 
now constitute the real curiosities of the place, though the old fort, at once 
an Indian prison and school-house, receives a fair share of admiration. 

Concerning its antiquity as a settlement, it may be briefly narrated that 
the famous Ponce de Leon, he who searched the world in vain for the foun- 
tain possessing the power of restoring youth, landed there on Palm Sunday, 
March 27, 15 12, and, as the ground was covered with flowers, called it " Pascua 
Florida." He took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and then set sail for the mysterious island, Bimini, and its magic 
fountain. No permanent settlement was made there till 1565, when Don 
Pedro Menendez founded a town and called it St. Augustine. His early ad- 
ministration was historically marked by the massacre of several hundred 
Frenchmen who had surrendered themselves prisoners of war. In 1567 the 
town was captured and destroyed by the adventurous Huguenot, Dominique 
de Gourgues, as a retribution for the treachery shown his countrymen ; but 
Menendez immediately rebuilt it and ruled there till 1577. Sir Francis 
Drake sacked and burned it in 1586, when it had attained considerable size 
and population — probably more than it has since had. It was again rebuilt, 
and again burned in 1665, this time by Captain Davis, an Englishman. There 
is a tradition that between these dates it was also destroyed by Indians, but 
proof on this point is not conclusive. After Captain Davis's raid it must 




HAMPTON, VA., WITH OLD POINT COMFORT, THE NATIONAL 
soldiers' home, and THE NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL IN- 
STITUTE. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 757 

have been rebuilt more substantially than before, for in 1702 an English ex- 
pedition against it, led by Governor Morris, of South Carolina, was success- 
fully repulsed. Governor Oglethorpe, of Georgia, also proceeded against it 
in 1740, and though he beseiged it a long time failed to occupy it. A second 
expedition, which he led in 1743, provided with the best means of attack then 
known and composed of men of picked determination, was likewise repulsed. 
It thus remained in the possession of Spain till the cession of the territory of 
Florida to the United States in 1821. During the civil war it was seized and 
occupied a short time by a Confederate force, being regained by the Union 
troops. In 1875, at the suggestion of General Sherman, a body of refractory 
Indians was separated from their comrades on the plain and sent as prisoners 
to the old fort, renamed Fort Marion, for exemplary punishment. They still 
remain there, and under the direction of the Federal government are being 
educated and taught the manners and employments of peaceful life. 

In 1 82 1 the population of the city was 2,500; in 1870, it had fallen to 
1,717; and in 1889 it was 5,000. 



CITY OF HAMPTON. 




AMPTON, though small in area and population, is large in the amount 
of its social and historical interest. It is the capital of Elizabeth 
County, Va., and is situated on the north side of Hampton Roads, 
at the mouth of James River. It is three miles west of the famous Fortress 
Monroe, and eighteen miles north northwest of the city of Norfolk. The very 
mention of its location arouses vivid reminiscences of many stirring events 
in the civil war. Several naval expeditions were fitted out by the Federal 
authorities at Fortress Monroe; but the chief event was the destruction of 
the United States war vessels Oimberland and Congress by the Confederate 
iron-clad steam ram Merrimack, assisted by the steamers Jamestown and York- 
town, in Hampton Roads, where a large Union fleet was at anchor, on March 
8, 1862, and the novel and unexpected engagement between the Merrimack 
and the first Union iron-clad, the Monitor, on the following day. The re- 
sults of this first battle between iron-clad vessels led the Union and Confed- 
erate authorities to construct others on the same general plan, and set all 
European naval powers to work overhauling their costly wooden frigates and 
building new ships on the American plan. 



758 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Hampton has a good harbor for vessels of light draft, opening into the 
Roads. Its chief attractions, all out-growths of the civil war, are the national 
cemetery, the National Home for Disabled Soldiers, shown in the centre of the 
illustration, and the normal and agricultural institute, founded originally for 
the education of freedmen's children and subsequently utilized by the Federal 
government for the education of a number of its young Indian wards. The 
buildings and farm are shown at the bottom of the illustration. The city 
contains 5 churches, has manufactories of bricks, fish-oil, and other articles, 
enjoys a considerable trade in fish, oysters, and garden products, and is visited 
annual!}- by a large number of tourists, beside the hosts that pass the season 
of fashionable recreation at Old Point Comfort, shown at top of illustration, 
which has become a very popular resort, and possess an unrivalled bathing 
ground along its beach. The permanent population was estimated in 1870 at 
2,300; 1889 at 2,800. 



CITY OF PORTLAND. OREGON. 




ORTLAND, the metropolis of Oregon and of the Pacific northwest 
as well, is situated on the Willamette River twelve miles above its 
junction with the Columbia, fifty miles north of Salem, the capital 
of the State, 122 miles by river from the Pacific ocean, and 530 miles north of 
San Francisco, and in latitude 45° 30' north and longitude 122'' 27' west. It 
was originally staked out by two men, Messrs. Lovejoy and Overton, in 1843, 
practically settled in 1845, and incorporated as a city in 185 i. With the excep- 
tion of the great fire of August 2, 1873, when over $1,000,000 worth of prop- 
erty in its heart was destroyed, it has met with uninterrupted and substantial 
prosperity. The city extends from the river back to a range of abrupt hills, 
a distance of one mile, and along the river, which is bordered with spacious 
wharves, warehouses, and mills, nearly three miles. It is the first city in 
point of wealth, proportionally to size, in the United States; is the seat of 
an extensive and rapidly increasing wholesale trade and the supply point of 
the great Columbian region; and has a direct commerce with the leading 
Asiatic ports and the Pacific islands. 

The city is regularly and beautifully laid out ; the number of palatial resi- 
dences, encircled by richly ornamented grounds, strike the visiting stranger 
with astonishment ; and the great solid and handsome business blocks of 



76o GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

brick and iron give an idea of wealth and commercial activity rarely met in 
so young a place. Many of its business blocks would adorn the busiest thor- 
oughfares of any thrifty city. Its churches bespeak a toleration of religious 
opinions and a worthy denominational zeal, and its educational and charitable 
institutions testify to a quickened intelligence, refinement, and beneficence. 
To the tourist it has two permanent charms, the view of the eternal snows on 
Mounts Hood and St. Helen and on the farther peaks of Rainier and Adams, 
and the pleasant steamboat sails down the Willamette and up the broad 
Columbia to the Cascades and the Dalles, or down to Astoria, resting on piles 
by the water side, like a picturesque lacustrine village of Switzerland. The 
city has many miles of costly streets and avenues, large gas and water works, 
and ample street railroad service, and is lighted by gas and electricity. 

Portland is a city of churches and schools. It had 26 churches of differ- 
ent denominations in 1889, and its public and other schools were attended by 
9,000 pupils. The public schools are organized on the graded system, and 
sustained with great liberality by a public tax voted by citizens in annual 
school meetings, beside the quota derived from the public school fund of the 
State. The Protestant Episcopal Church has a number of private schools of 
a higher order for young ladies and gentlemen, and the Roman Catholic 
Church maintains a boarding-school, an academy, and a college, beside a 
number of parochial schools and and other educational institutions. There 
are also numerous private schools of an exceptionably high standard. In the 
line of denominational charity, the Protestant Episcopal Church supports 
the Hospital and Orphanage of the Good Samaritan, and the Roman Catholic 
the Hospital of St. Vincent. With the educational interests of the city 
should be included the Portland Library, an incorporated and flourishing in- 
stitution, possessing over 15,000 volumes of standard works, and advantages 
that meet with general appreciation. 

During 1887 the value of the various products of Oregon and Washington 
Territory that passed through Portland for direct export to foreign countries 
amounted to nearly $20,000,000, and during the same period the city did 
a wholesale and retail trade of over ,$45,000,000. It had six banking institu- 
tions with an aggregate capital of $3,000,000; three lumber and numerous 
planing mills; 5 iron foundries, turning out the heaviest kind of work; several 
carriage, furniture, boot and shoe, and harness factories; world-renowned 
salmon fisheries and canning establishments; and large interests in wool and 
cattle raising. Nearly all the commerce of the Columbia River region is trans- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 761 

acted at Portland, and includes on an average 8,000,000 pounds of wool per 
annum, valued at $2,000,000, and 10,000,000 bushels of wheat worth as many 
dollars, beside shipments of hops, vegetables, fruit, oats, lumber, and many 
other articles that must aggregate nearly or quite $25,000,000 more; and this 
trade increases at a ratio that is governed by the progress and development 
of the whole region north of California and west of the Rocky Mountains. 

Portland owes its wonderful prosperity, first,- to its location on the river 
at a point accessible by ocean steamships, thus giving it all the material ad- 
vantages of a seaport while over 100 miles inland; second, to the fact that it 
is the natural depot for the shipment of the various products of the fertile 
Willamette and Umpqua valleys and the vast salmon product of the Colum- 
bia River; and third, to the remarkable development of the northwestern rail- 
road system. Its population in 1861 amounted to 2,917; the census of 1880 
gave it 17,500; a local census in 1882 enumerated 20,000 whites and 5,000 
Chinese; and a careful estimate in 1887, which included East Portland, on the 
opposite side of the river, destined to become incorporated with it shortly, 
showed a total of 45,000. 



CITY OF DES MOINES. 




ES MOINES, the capital city of Iowa, is beautifully situated in Polk 
County near the centre of the State and on both sides the Des 
Moines River, where it receives the waters of the Raccoon River. 
Its location gives it a large commercial and manufacturing importance. Each 
river has a width of about 600 feet within its limits and both unite in an eight- 
foot fall, which provides an admirable water-power. Beneath and for a con- 
siderable distance around the city are coal veins of great richness and extent, 
giving employment to over 2,000 persons. The surrounding territory, easily 
accessible by railroad, is a high-grade agricultural region. Fifteen railroads 
and branches have stations in the city, thus giving it exceptional facilities for 
shipping its manufacturing, industrial, and agricultural products, and bring- 
ing it in close connection with other prominent business sections. It is 88 
miles from Fort Dodge. 138 from Omaha, 161 from Keokuk, 174 from Daven- 
port, and 357 from Chicago. The present prosperity of the city is due first 
to its natural location, and second to its railroad advantages. 

In 1880 there were 155 manufacturing establishments within its corpo- 



762 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

rate limits, conducted on a capital of $1,463,250, employing 1,378 hands, pay- 
ing $667,699 in wages, and yielding products valued at $4,220,709. The 
chief industries, as indicated by the value of products were: wholesale 
and jobbing trade, $10,700,000; grain and produce, $2,665,000; pork, $2,- 
465,000; spirits, $500,000; tobacco, $179,500; foundries and machine shops, 
$176,000; tin and sheet iron works, $174,000; and flour-mills, $156,000. The 
barbed-wire industry reached a productive value of nearly $200,000, and the 
local mines gave an output valued at $1,055,840. The same year its citizens 
spent $1,000,000 in erecting 650 residences, $340,000 in business structures, 
and $405,000 in churches, educational establishments, and municipal buildings. 

In 1889 Des Moines contained a United States court house and post-ofifice 
that cost $250,000; the State arsenal with its precious treasure of civil war 
battle-flags; Drake University; Des Moines University; Callaneau College 
for young ladies; public, district, and high schools; State, public, and city 
libraries; 3 opera houses; 5 national banks with an aggregate capital of 
$850,000, 5 State banks with a capital of $400,000, and 4 loan and trust com- 
panies with a capital of $753,000; and 51 churches divided among the lead- 
ing denominations. The chief glory of the city was the new State Capitol, the 
building that towers in the back-ground of the illustration. This grand 
monument to architectural skill stands on an elevation of 120 feet above the 
Des Moines River, covers an area of 58,850 feet of ground, and cost with its 
furniture $3,500,000. It has a dome at each of its four corners, and a central 
one that rises to a height of 275 feet above the ground. The stone work of 
the building is chiefly granite and marble, and twenty-nine varieties, of the 
latter were used in its construction and ornamentation. The building is one 
of the most substantial and imposing in the country. 

The city is well drained, provided with water by the Holly system, is 
lighted with gas and electricity, has four lines of horse cars connecting its 
business centre with the suburbs, and is supplied with a steam fire depart- 
ment. 

The site of Des Moines was a part of the reservation of the Sac and Fox 
Indians, which the Federal government acquired by treaty in 1842. A tract 
of 160 acres having been ceded to the State in 1846, the legislature organ- 
ized Polk County, and after much contention Fort Des Moines, as the settle- 
ment was then called, from the name of the United States military post, was 
chosen the county seat. The first survey was made in July, 1846, the town 
was incorporated in 1853, was selected by the legislature as the capital of the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 763 

State instead of Iowa City, the first capital, in 1854, and was chartered as a 
city with the word Fort expunged in 1857. It was not till August, 1866, that 
railroad connection with the outer world was established. The construction 
through it of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad gave it its first 
great boom, and its citizens have since been alert in utilizing every means that 
could conduce to its advancement. Population, 1870, 12,035; 1880,22,408; 
1889, 38,000. 




CITY OF PRINCETON. 

RINCETON, famous the world over for its institutions of learning, 
is in Mercer County, N. J., about midway between New York and 
Philadelphia, and three miles from the main line of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad. It is an ancient city, its settlement dating back to about 
1700, and possesses a great wealth of historical associations. The streets are 
broad, with a beautiful expanse of charming lawns and spreading trees, and 
disclose many magnificent residences. In 1746 the College of New Jersey 
was founded at Elizabeth, N. J., by royal charter, and remained there till 
1757, when from a variety of causes it was removed to Princeton, where it 
has since been maintained. In point of age.it is thus the third college in the 
United States. The grounds now cover nearly 70 acres, and the principal 
buildings, erected on the crest of a steep hill, command superb views of a 
natural panorama. Nearly all the buildings, of which there were twenty-six 
in 1889, are built of stone, and many of them display great architectural 
beauty, with their environments of unsurpassed lawns. Nassau Hall, the 
oldest in the cluster, was dedicated by Governor Belcher to the memory of 
King William III., who belonged to the royal house of Nassau. When com- 
pleted it was the largest building in the colonies. It long sufificed for all 
college purposes, was used as barrack and hospital by both the British and 
the American forces in the Revolutionary war and was frequently a target 
for cannon balls, and is now devoted to the celebrated museum of paleon- 
tology with its work-rooms and laboratories. The other buildings of note are 
the Chancellor Green Library, erected 1873 at a cost of $125,000, and con- 
taining over 70,000 volumes; Dickinson Hall; the Halstead Observatory; 
Murray Hall; Marquand Chapel; the Art Museum, containing the almost 
priceless collection of ceramics presented by W^illiam C. Prime : and the Bio- 



766 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

logical Laboratory. During the presidency of the Rev. James McCosh, D.D., 
LL.D., Litt.D., 1868 to 1888, twelve new buildings were erected and $3,000,000 
were contributed to the college. This patriarch of learning, on resigning 
from age, was succeeded by the Rev. Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D., 
philosopher, professor, theologian, and native of Warwick, Bermuda. 

Next to the College of New Jersey, Princeton takes justifiable pride in its 
Theological Seminary, founded in 18 10, the largest and oldest Presbyterian 
divinity school in the United States. Besides these institutions there are 
three classical schools and two very popular schools for the exclusive instruc- 
tion of young women. With the venerable Nassau Hall, the various modern 
college and seminary buildings, the ornate residences, the quaint old colonial 
houses, the wide shaded streets, superb lawns, and magnificent trees, Prince- 
ton presents a very unique appearance, a tasteful commingling of the very 
old and the very new. It is a quiet place, as befits its seeming mission, a 
centre of intellectual pursuits and reflection, a university town in all but 
name. Princeton is equally interesting for the scenes of national progress 
enacted there. It was occupied by both contesting forces at times during 
the Revolutionary war. In 1783, when the exigencies of military movements 
necessitated the flight of the Continental Congress from Philadelphia, it ad- 
journed to Princeton and resumed its sessions in the library room on the 
second floor of Nassau Hall. But before this the soil of Princeton was torn 
and reddened in the conflict of arms. Washington's success at Trenton on 
December 26, 1776, recalled Lord Cornwallis to New Jersey from his projected 
departure for England. Washington moved stealthily from the Assanpink 
at Trenton on the night of January 2, 1777, and directed his main army 
toward Princeton, with the intention of giving battle to the British troops 
remaining there, and of seizing their supplies at New Brunswick. On the 3d 
Washington struck the rear of Cornwallis's army near Stony Brook. Both 
armies manoeuvred to gain a rising ground in the vicinity. The Americans 
succeeded, but were driven away by the bayonet. Washington rallied his 
troops, opened artillery fire, drove the British in retreat toward Trenton, 
pushed into Princeton, where he defeated a British regiment, compelled the 
surrender of another regiment that had sought safety in Nassau Hall, burned 
bridges to prevent the approach of Cornwallis's main army, and pursued the 
retreat of the rest to New Brunswick. Population: 1870,2,798; 1880,3,209; 
1889, 3,940. 



Views in tlie Great Wonderlands of 
our Republic; 



EMBRACING 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 



NEW ENGLAND COAST SCENES. 

Y the term " New England Coast " we mean to designate that 
narrow strip of territory lying along our Atlantic shore between the 
southern boundary of Rhode Island and the northern boundary of 
Maine. The distance, measured in a straight line, is about five degrees of 
latitude — say 350 miles — but fully twice as much measured along the winding 
coast and the deep inlets by which it is everywhere indented. We propose to 
consider ourselves setting out for a tour along this New England Coast, 
making New York our starting-point ; for such are the facilities for travel that 
one can well set out from that metropolis for any part of this continent ; or, 
for the matter of that, for any part of the globe. On this journey of ours we 
shall pass by and through not a few places of much note by reason of their 
population, their industries, or their historic associations. Of these places we 
shall speak only incidentally; they will be treated at due length in other 
portions of this volume. 

We are now setting out from New York, primarily for Boston, which will 
be our immediate point of departure along the New England Coast. We 
might have gone the whole way by rail had we not had it in view first to see 
Newport, in Rhode Island, which can be best reached by steamer. So we go 
by what is designated as " The Fall River Line," an association which not 
only runs the steamers traversing Long Island Sound, but also manages that 



768 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

railroad system known as " The Old Colony Railroad," whose various 
branches so thoroughly " gridiron " southeastern Massachusetts that it would 
not be easy for one to put his foot upon a spot more than ten miles from a 
railroad station. Our steamer runs up the Sound, having the rightly-named 
" Long Island " on the right, and the opposite shores of a bit of New York, of 
Connecticut, and of Rhode Island on the left. Unless, as sometimes happens 
at all seasons, there should be a dense fog, the world cannot show a safer or 




BOAT-HOUSE LANDING, NEWPORT, K. I. 



more charming bit of inland navigation than the hundred miles and more 
through Long" Island Sound. 

As we left New York late in the afternoon, it will be in the small hours of 
the next morning when we round Point Judith, a bold headland in Rhode 
Island, jutting out just where the Sound begins to widen into Buzzard's Bay, 
then into Nantucket Sound, and then into the broad Atlantic. If there be 
any gale blowing hereabouts we shall be sure to find it at Point Judith. But, 
gale or no gale, we shoot across the narrow mouth of Narraganset Bay, which 
sets far inland up to Providence, the second city in New England in point 
of population. But up to Providence we do not purpose to go ; so crossing 
the mouth of Narraganset Bay, we land at Newport, This city, the capital 
of Newport County and one of the capitals of the State, is the most noted of 
all American seaside resorts. It practically covers a little island, which the 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 769 



aborigines called Aquidncck, which we are told means " Peace Island." The 
early English settlers found or fancied in this islet some resemblance to the 
island of Rhodes (" Rose Island "), in the Mediterranean, and called it " Rhode 
Island ;" and this name came to be applied to the entire State — one of the 
original thirteen — of which the island forms only a small part. 

If, a little more than a century ago one had been asked to point out the 
probable site of the future commercial metropolis of the British colony in 
America, he would doubtless have placed it upon Rhode Island rather than 
upon Manhattan Island. During the war for Independence Newport Harbor 
was the principal station of the British fleet, and when the British were forced 
to abandon the region, they burned 
six men-of-war and many smaller 
armed cruisers, and scuttled and sunk 
more than fifty transports and other 
vessels in Newport Harbor. They 
also, out of sheer wantonness, tried 
to' destroy the curious old Round 
Tower, the almost perfect remains of 
which are a puzzle to archsologists. 

Nobody knows, or can more than 
guess, by whom, or when, or for what 
purpose, this Tower was built. Some 
will have it to be the work of the 
Norsemen, who are supposed to have 
coasted down from Greenland and set- 
tled here and hereabouts some five centuries before Columbus made his first 
voyage across the Atlantic to find the New World. Others, quite as con- 
fidently, and perhaps with quite as good reason, maintain that this Round 
Tower was built by some whimsical Englishman not more than a century 
and a half, or at most two centuries, ago, to be used as a windmill, or more 
probably as a granary. But whoever was the builder, or for whatever pur- 
pose it was built, the work was w'ell done. The Towner has existed, sub- 
stantially as we now see it, for considerably more than a century, and 
doubtless much longer. It may be safely assumed that it is one of the most 
ancient structures by human hands now standing in New England; and there 
seems no good reason to doubt that it wnW stand for centuries to come. 
Whatever view as to its origin one may adopt, he may congratulate himself 




770 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



that, if he cannot prove his own theory to be right, nobody else can prove it 
to be wrong. The Tower, as it stands, consists of an unroofed chamber rest- 
ing upon eight arches, of about 12 feet from the ground to the crown of the 
arches. The diameter of the Tower is about 23 feet, and its present height 
about 24 feet. It is built of blocks of the ordinary stone of the region, laid 
in a mortar composed of sand and shell-lime, this mortar being now quite as 
hard as the stone itself. During the latter part of the war for Independence 
the chamber of the Round Tower was used by the British as a powder-maga- 
zine — for which it was admirably adapted. When they attempted to blow it 
up by exploding a quantity of gunpowder in the chamber, they only suc- 
ceeded in blowing off the roof (probably 
i of wood and conical), and in throwing 
down some four feet of the upper part 
of the stone wall. 

But, however interesting the old 
Tower may be to antiquarians, and the 
historic associations to the student, the 
tourist will look upon the city princi- 
pally in its character as a summer resort. 
But little observation will convince him 
, that the attractions are manifold and 
^^^^p diverse. The natural beauty is of the 
fairest type. The landscape is charm- 
ing. Fine trees and ornamental shrubs 
abound. The turf is green and soft 
like a rich carpet spread o\'er the 
ground. On a sunny day the delightful shade and the invigorating air make 
one wonder whether the original Eden was more beautiful and enjoj-able than 
this celebrated locality. Then, too, the varying appearance of the shore as 
viewed from different points adds greatly to the scenic attractions. Beaches 
alternate with ledges. The former, of which there are four, are long and fine. 
Three of them lie east of the town and form a dri\^eway of great beauty. 
The other, called the South Beach, is less visited because less easy of access, 
but, though smaller, it can hardly be considered less beautiful. Here may 
be seen the " Spouting Rock," from the cavities in which, when the wind and 
tide are in the right directions, the spray is thrown in a most beautiful man- 
ner. This beach is not as much freauented for bathing as the one nearest 




CLIFF WALK, NEWPORT, R. I. 




SCENES AT NEWPORT, R. I. 



772 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



the city, which is a favorite because it is readily accessible, has a clear, 
smooth, sandy bottom, is safe, and its waters are warmed by the Gulf Stream, 
which, at this point, is only a short distance from the shore. 

The cliffs and ledges at various places along the shore impart an air of 
wildness and exquisite beauty to the scene. As the waves break against 
these precipitous walls they show the power and grandeur of the ocean as 
clearly as the beach reveals its placid beauty. Fort Adams, at the mouth of 
the harbor, is an attractive feature, while on the other shore of the bay may 
be seen the ruins of some of the fortifications of Revolutionary times. 

The harbor itself 
also presents a beau- 
tiful and interesting 
view. Here may be 
seen small sail-boats 
and immense ships, 
diminutive tug-boats 
and magnificent 
steamers, while the 
finest yachts in Amer- 
ican waters may here 
be found. The num- 
berless small boats 
furnish abundant 
means for all who 

ULU FORT, NEAR NEUIURI, R. I. ^^j^J^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ g^JJ 

near the shore. The sportsman will find excellent fishing either a little 
out from the shore or in the streams and lakes of fresh water which are 
close at hand. 

The beautiful drives in the vicinity add not a little to the attractions of 
the place. A good road is now open all along the coast and passes over hills 
of considerable elevation and across valleys of the greatest beauty. From 
some of these hill-tops splendid views of both ocean and shore are obtained. 
Numerous islands stand like emeralds in the surrounding blue, while looking 
inland the landscape is beautiful beyond description. 

While in a certain sense Newport is an " aristocratic " locality, it is also a 
favorite place of resort for thousands who have neither wealth nor eminence 
in the social world. There is room, and the accommodations are ample, for 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 773 

all. Sea and shore present the same beauties to the poor as they do to the 
rich. The climate is as mild and genial to the one class as to the other. 
Even the attractions which wealth has added to the natural features of the 
landscape are in a degree enjoyed by all. The beautiful residences, and par- 
ticularly the magnificent grounds of the rich are admired by the poor as well 
as by the owners themselves. In few places have nature and art united so 
fully and extensively to adorn a locality, and in but few spots upon the coast 
can there be found such perfect beauty of both sea and shore combined. 

The population of Newport in 1889 was over 20,000 besides the summer 
population, which ranges from 8,000 to 12,000. The city has excellent schools, 
libraries, and banking facilities, and numerous churches. Newport claims 
the distinction of having the oldest newspaper in the United States and of 
being the place of the yearly meeting of the Society of Friends for almost 
two centuries and a half. During the past few years the permanent popula- 
tion has rapidly increased and the number of summer visitors grows larger 
year by year. 

Bidding good-by to Newport on the Narraganset, a nicer place, we ven- 
ture to say, than Nice on the Mediterranean, we commit ourselves trustingly 
to the care of the Old Colony Railroad, whose numerous tracks " gridiron " 
this region. The central bar of this gridiron is about the best by which one 
can reach Boston. From Boston we purpose to go over more than one of 
the bars of the big gridiron, and notably its long crooked handle which men 
call Cape Cod; and thence, as at the time may seem best, to such out-of-the- 
way places as Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Then, getting back to 
Boston by the way which seems to be most convenient — and the conjoined 
Fall River Steamers and Old Colony Railroad will give us abundant means 
for choice — we shall set out upon the northern part of our trip, up to the ex- 
treme boundary of Maine. 

Setting off from Boston, our first objective point is Plymouth, about forty 
miles southeastward, as the crow flies, but perhaps twice as far by the railway 
route, which we choose ; for it is well worth our while to take one of the 
short bars of the gridiron, and have a look at Nantasket Beach, which, as we 
are told at Boston, is the finest thing of the kind in the world. 

Perhaps our Boston friends are a little too enthusiastic; but Nantasket 
Beach is well worth the few hours which will be required to " do " it. The 
Beach is simply a peninsula of wave-hardened sand, stretching 5?ome half- 
dozen miles northward from the coast-line, the trend of which is here due 



774 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

eastward, though it soon turns sharply to the south, down to Plymouth Bay, 
Avhence it seems not to have made up its mind which way to go. At length 
it seems to have come to the conclusion that an eastward course was worth 
looking at. If it had kept on this course for two or three thousand miles, it 
would have linked itself to the Old World, somewhere in France or Spain, 
which lie in about the same latitude. But after going eastward for a few 
leagues, the unstable coast went pretty nearly southward for a while; then 
again turned eastward once more ; then bent again to the north, with even a 




PLYMOUTH BAY. 



slight westward look. This sickle-shaped inner shore line, with its outer 
shore line nearly parallel, forms the peninsula of Cape Cod, at whose extremest 
northeastern point is the village of Provincetown, from which one can look 
westward across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth. The distance in a straight line 
from Provincetown to Plymouth is not far from twenty-five miles; measured 
around the coast-line of the Cape, with which the railroad runs nearly parallel, 
the distance is about three times greater. 

Leaving Nantasket Beach, the " landscape " around which is rather nice, 
and the '^waterscape " a good deal more than nice — the Old Colony Railroad 
takes us toward Plymouth. As we approach the venerable and venerated 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 775 



town of the Pilgrim Fathers we shall pass Marshfield, for many years the 
homestead of Daniel Webster. We shall not see it from the train ; but its 
location will be indicated to us, and our Guide Book will have a picture of it, 
so that we can congratulate ourselves upon having seen it, after a fashion. 
A few miles further on, and in the township of Duxbury, overlooking Ply- 
mouth Bay, is a quaint, substantial structure known as " The Miles Standish 
House," said to have been built in 1666. It cannot, therefore, have been 
built by the valorous little " Captain of Plymouth," who had died ten years 
before at the goodly age of seventy-two. Quite probably this house may 
occupy the site of the one where the only Miles Standish of whom we know 
anything had his abode at and after that " courtship " of his of which 
Longfellow tells us. At all events, the grim little Captain did not die of a 
broken heart in 
consequence of his 
courtship by proxy 
of young John 
Alden, who, upon 
the hint of the sweet 
Priscilla, " spoke for 
himself " with more h"«nJ$8stEp^ 
success — though -^ 
certainly not more 
earnestly, than he 

had been speaking in behalf of his middle-aged friend. Miles Standish lived 
nearly two-score years after this " disappointment ; " and Longfellow tells us 
— and who will question him — he looked on, with more of pleasure than pain, 
when John Alden walked away from the scene of his wedding, leading the 
" snow-white bull," upon which was seated " Priscilla the Puritan maiden," the 
just-wedded wife of John Alden. It is no unreasonable stretch of imagina- 
tion for us to believe that in the coming years the little Aldens — and there 
were not a few of them — children born to John and Priscilla, were wont to 
visit the valorous Captain Miles Standish, whose fighting days were now over, 
in his " simple and primitive dwelling," which certainly was not far from Ply- 
mouth, and which we hope no accurate antiquarian will be able to show did 
not stand upon the very spot where now stands the " Miles Standish House." 
Plymouth Bay, which we are now in sight of, in a bright summer after- 
noon, is a pleasant piece of water. Quite otherwise must it have looked to 




-Re? _, 



THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER. 



77^ 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 




WHERE MILES STANDISH. LIVED. 



the voyagers in the " Mayflower," who on a day late in December, 1620, were 
the first men of the white race who ever saw its waters and forest-clad shores. 
Shutting our eyes, and calling to mind the narratives which have come down 

to us, we can pic- 
ture to ourselves 
how the scene must 
have looked to the 
Pilgrim Fathers and 
Pilgrim Mothers. 
Opening our eyes, 
and looking around, 
no two pictures 
could well be more 
unlike. Yet both 
are absolutely true. 
The brightness of glad waters, with their " innumerable laugh," and the white 
sails darting in every direction will be all the brighter in contrast wath the 
hoarse murmur of the breakers heard by the Pilgrims of the " Mayflower " 
as their solitary weather-beaten vessel steered into these unknown waters. 
Yet no vessel freighted with loftier fortunes ever sighted an unknown coast 
than did this little " Mayflower." In her was potentially the being of our 
New World. Had she borne other men and women than she did, our social 
and political insti- 
tutions would have 
been quite other 
than they are: not 
improbably like 
those of Mexico or 
Peru. 

We do not pur- 
pose here to narrate 
the story of Ply- 
mouth Colony. 
Taking the term in 

its widest sense, it was never more than a small settlement, not covering 
much more than the present "township" of Plymouth, a tract 18 miles long, 
with an average breadth of some six miles — the area thus being about 100 



I 




THE MAYFLOWER NEARING LA.NLi. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. ^77 

square miles. Plymouth is the oldest settlement by Europeans of which we 
know anything certainly on the New England Coast. If Norsemen settled 
there, as perhaps they did — centuries before, they vanished, leaving behind 
them nothing which clearly shows that they had ever been there or there- 
abouts. 

Leaving out of view Saint Augustine, in Florida, where the Spaniards had 
a post as early as 1565, Plymouth is the third early spot occupied by Euro- 
peans within what 
we now designate 
as North America. 
This occupation 
was made in 1620. 
In 1608 the English 
made a settlement 
at a place in Vir- 
ginia, which they 
called Jamestown ; 
this was kept up for 
many years, but was 
at length aban- 
doned, and there is 
now hardly an in- 
dication that there 
had ever been a set- 
tlement there. In 
1614 — six years be- 
fore the " Mayflow- 

^^ .. 1 • PILGRIM HALL, PLV Mv-)UTii, MASS. 

er appeared in ' ' 

Plymouth Bay — the Dutch made a settlement at the mouth of a stream 
which they called Hudson River. They called this settlement " New Am- 
sterdam," designating the region thereabout as " New Netherlands." All 
this is what we now know as " New York." Plymouth, though an old place, 
as we reckon age in this New World of ours, is "very small for its age." 
Assuming the territorial area of the ancient colony to have been that of the 
present township, its population in 1885 — a little more than two centuries 
after its settlement— was about 7,000, and there is no reason to suppose that 
it had ever been greater. The general physical features of this old colony 




778 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

are given by one who knows them better than we can pretend to do, and 
whose description we give, though with much abridgment. 

" The land is broken in outline, and rolling in every part, being heaped up 
in quick-succeeding hills and ranges, like the billows of the ocean in a strong 
tideway. This conformation affords situation for numerous ponds and lake- 
lets. The forests are ancient and primeval, sometimes extending for miles 
without a break, save where great fires have devastated, and showing neither 
building nor clearing in evidence that man has ever brought the region under 
subjection, \yithin the last decade as many as two hundred deer have been 
killed in these and the adjacent woods of Sandwich during a single year. 
Skirting the lakes and ponds, and winding over and among the hills, innumer- 
able roads afTord the most beautiful driveways imaginable. Delightsome 
ocean-views are obtained from the summits of hill-tops, extending for miles 
inland, and outlooks over fair sections of hill and dale. Springs of purest 
water abound, and bubble over on every side, often proving the source of the 
finest ponds. 

"And where can be found ocean shores or ocean views, or any of the de- 
lights that the salt sea can afTord when contiguous to the land, superior to 
those of Plymouth and her surroundings ? There are beaches of the hardest 
and the whitest sand ; the shore in places exposed to the ceaseless rolling of 
the surf, and again receiving the advances of the tides quietly, without the 
turning of a single tiny sand-crystal. From the rock which marks the land- 
ing-place of the Pilgrim Fathers, away around to the ' White Horse,' beyond 
Manomet and ' Indian Hill ' to Sandwich line, isolated boulders, rock-patches 
and masses, and craggy formations alternate. The rarest of sailing and fish- 
ing is afforded along these shores ; and every object within sight from the 
shifting stand-point suggests the most interesting reminiscences and historic 
associations. Indeed, no situation on the entire Massachusetts coast presents 
so many varied features which go to make up the ideal summering-place." 

Still " Pilgrim Rock " — which some have rather irreverently called the 
" Yankee Blarney Stone" — is, for an outsider, what really makes Plymouth 
what it is — a kind of hallowed ground. Apart from the tradition which makes 
it mark the spot where the Pilgrims first set foot upon the New England 
shore, there is nothing noteworthy about this rock. It is to the eye as com- 
monplace a boulder as any other of the thousands which lie around. Neither, 
for the matter of that, is there anything specially notable in the look of the 
Irish Blarney Stone or in that of the still more sacred Black Stone in the 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 779 



Kaaba at Mecca, the kissing of which, in the faith of Islam, is held to be a 
sure passport to Paradise. The sanctity of any material thing rests not so 
much in the thing itself as in the associations with which it has somehow 
come to be linked in our own minds. Somewhat more than sixty years ago 
was erected Plymouth Hall, a substantial granite structure, which does not 
resemble the Par- 
thenon w h i c h 
crowns the Acropo- 
lis at Athens half as 
much as it was in- 
tended to do. It is 
by no means a mean 
building, and was 
designed especially 
as a repository for 
relics connected 
however remotely 
with the"Mayflow 
er " and her little 
band of Pilgrims ; 
of these there are 
here preserved a 
goodly number of 
moreorlessinterest. 
To the project- 
ors of Pilgrim Hall 
it seemed a good 
idea to transport 
" Forefather s' 
Rock " from its an- 
cient site, which had come to be a decidedly unsightly one, to a more respect- 
able place near the newly-built Hall. An effort was made to raise the rock; 
but it would not come up entire. A part of it was broken off, which was 
borne with due ceremony and deposited in front of the Hall, and surrounded 
with a substantial iron fence. The other, and presumably the larger part, 
was left where it had always been, on what is now styled Water Street. Over 
it is built a neat structure of stone, through the railed openings of which, as 




A PIECE OF THE PILGRIM ROCK, ill sitll. 



78o THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

shown on a preceding page, the top of the rock may be seen. Thus there 
are at Plymouth two Pilgrim Rocks — or, rather, two separate parts of what 
was once the original rock. Both are genuine; which is entitled to the 
higher reverence is an open question. The part in front of the Hall is doubt- 
less that which the feet of the Pilgrims touched; the part remaining near 
the waterside certainly marks the precise spot of the historic landing. 

Plymouth is a sort of jumping-off place on the Old Colony Railroad, for 
one bar of the big gridiron ends here ; and to go anywhere else by rail we 
must go back a little toward Boston, and take some other bar, of which there 
is ample choice for us. First we will strike the Cape Cod branch, which, as 
any map. will show, forms the long curved handle of the gridiron. The shape 
of Italy is not unlike that of a big boot ; quite as strikingly does Cape Cod 
resemble that of a human arm stretched out eastward from shoulder to elbow, 
where it crooks northward to the wrist, the hand then bending westward, so 
that the fingers point toward Plymouth, which we may call the collar-bone. 
The shoulder-joint of this long arm is about a dozen miles in a straight line 
south of Plymouth, where Buzzard's Bay sets in from Long Island Sound, so 
deeply that if it had gone some ten miles further it would have met the 
Atlantic, making our Cape Cod an island instead of a peninsula. Among the 
plausible projects which have been broached is that of a ship-canal across the 
narrow peninsula. Should this be carried out there is no saying what changes 
will not be wrought in our systems of coast navigation. 

But as it is, Cape Cod is a peninsula, not an island. Measured from 
shoulder-joint to finger-tip the length of this long arm is about 65 miles, with 
an average breadth of some five miles. It constitutes Barnstable County, in 
Massachusetts, having an area of about 600 square miles, and a population, 
in 1880 of about 32,000, of whom fully nine-tenths were born on the Cape. 
Probably the very Yankiest part of all Yankee-land is this sandy peninsula of 
Cape Cod. However commonplace the name may seem to sound, there is a 
pretty legend connected with its origin. In very early colonial days, so we 
are told, a fishing-boat found its way into this almost land-locked bay, which 
as far as known had as yet no name of its own. A name it ought to have; 
and what that name should be was piously left to the decision of higher than 
human powers: whatsoever fish should first be caught should give its name to 
the Bay. That fish was a cod — " a goodly codfish," it is incidentally mentioned 
— and so the smooth expanse of water was thereupon named " Cod Bay," and 
the long sand-arm which nearly encircled it came to be styled " Cape Cod." 




SCENES ALONG CAPE COD. 



782 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The popular idea of Cape Cod — and it could not have conne to be a popular 
one unless it were in a measure founded on fact — is that of a region of sand- 
dunes stretching for weary mile after weary mile over plains well-nigh destitute 
of tree or verdure, the loose sand so deep in the roads that a wagon sinks 
axle-deep into it. Cape Cod, as a whole, is undeniably sandy; and one who is 
on the lookout for sand — especially if he is looking out from the windows of 
a railway carriage — will find quite as much as he is looking for; and, moreover, 
the sharp sand-grains have a fancy for constituting themselves his fellow- 
passengers ; and get on board when they please, without the preliminary 
formality of purchasing a " ticket " or obtaining a " pass." 

Yet in this long narrow sand-sea there is many a green islet. There are 
not a few cranberry marshes, which are much nicer to look at than to walk 
upon. Nowhere does this acidulous berry attain higher perfection than upon 
Cape Cod, and nowhere is anything more carefully cultivated. A good 
cranberry-bog of a few acres has in it potentially more gold than as many 
square feet of bonanza in California or Colorado. Few people, we suppose, 
become very rich by cranberrry-growing on Cape Cod ; but still fewer lose all 
they had, or thought they had, than have done so in the lottery of gold-hunt- 
ing and gold-mining on the Pacific slope of the continent. We can count up 
on our fingers all the men who have drawn great prizes in this lottery; but 
where on earth shall we look for any record of those whose tickets drew 
nothing ? The lucky ones do not seem to have been any better, nor much 
wiser, than the unlucky ones ; only, by what we may call chance, they hap- 
pened to hold tickets which drew the great prizes. 

So, although we do not own a cranberry-patch on Cape Cod or a bonanza 
in California or elsewhere, we moralize during the few hours which intervene 
between our departure from Plymouth and our arrival at Provincetown, the 
very tip of the forefinger of the long arm of Cape Cod, which almost encircles 
Cape Cod Bay. We shall have passed within sight of — whether we have seen 
them or not — several pretty spots which, if we could have shut our eyes to 
everything else, would almost have persuaded us that there was no such thing 
as sand on Cape Cod. There are several villages — notably those of Barn- 
stable, Yarmouth, and Eastham — the streets of which are shaded by old trees 
as fine as can be seen anywhere in the valley of the Connecticut. There are 
several places where are fancy farms hardly to be matched elsewhere on the 
continent. At the lower end of the Cape — the shoulder of the arm, where it 
has a width of perhaps a score of miles — there is yet a not inconsiderable 



784 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

growth of native forest. The prevaiHng tree is the dwarf pitch-pine, the 
odorous " needles " of w'hich perfume the atmosphere, and are held to have 
no little to do with the acknowledged salubrity of the region. We know of 
no region of a couple of hundreds of square miles where so large a propor- 
tion of the population pass the age of threescore-and-ten. 

Provincetown, at the very tip of the forefinger of the long " arm " of Cape 
Cod, apart from its being just where it is, presents some things to attract atten- 
tion. Of it we read in Lippincott's concise " Gazetteer of the World : " " Prov- 
incetown, a post-village in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, at the northern 
extremity of the long peninsula called Cape Cod. It is 55 miles by water 
and 118 miles by rail E.S.E. of Boston. It has a good harbor, and contains 
a national bank, a public library, a newspaper ofifice, two hotels, a high-school 
and several churches. It is mainly supported by cod and mackerel fisheries." 

But elsewhere we are told, much less prosaically: 

" Provincetown occupies the extremity, the curving finger, of Cape Cod. 
With the exception of a narrow strip or neck of sand-heaps which unites it to 
the main Cape, it is surrounded by the salt water of the Atlantic, which rolls 
unchecked between its shores and those of Europe. Its coast-line, beginning 
at a point opposite the narrow neck, sweeps around in a grand circle. The 
inclosed water of this circle is the harbor of Provincetown, the town being 
built along the inner shore at the bottom of the basin. Outside is the Race, 
Wood End, and sundry interesting points of light-house, life-saving station, 
and so forth. Inside is one of the most singular harbors of the world, deep 
enough and spacious enough to shelter a fleet of hundreds of the largest ships 
at one time, and with peculiarities belonging to itself sufificient to make it 
famous wherever those ships may sail." 

Undoubtedly the cod and mackerel fisheries are the main pot-boilers of 
the Provincetovvn fishermen; but they by no means constitute the entire list. 
The writer from whom we last quoted, goes on to say: 

" There are few kinds of fish, or any methods of taking them, which are 
not familiar to the people of this region. From the fry and minnow for 
pickerel-bait, up to the lOO-barrel ' right whale,' Provincetown waters have 
witnessed the capture of all kinds. The beaches have received as loot mighty 
carcasses of whales and blackfish, and shoals of porgies, which all the teams 
of the region could hardly remove soon enough, so immense was the deposit. 
A whale in the harbor of Provincetown, at certain seasons, is almost as com- 



I 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 785 



mon a presence as that of a turtle in a mill-pond; but they are usually repre- 
sentatives of a class disliked and scorned by old-school whale-men." 

This species of whale is that which is designated as the "finback;" and 
there are two good reasons why they should be held in slight esteem : they 
are not easy to catch, and are hardly worth the catching. The finback is 
described as " a long, clean, perfectly-formed creature usually from forty-five 
to fifty feet in length, but sometimes reaching seventy-five or eighty feet. He 
is a most complete model of a craft for speed and easy working in the water; 
and his tail, when in motion, is a perfect development of the screw-motor." 
When one is struck with a harpoon he starts off at his topmost speed. An 
instance is authentically reported when a finback who was harpooned near 
Provincetown head- 
ed straight across 1^ 
Massachusetts Bay 
in the direction of 
Boston, dragging 
the boat after him. 
In forty minutes 
the whalemen were 
in sight of the light- 
house on Minot's 
Reef, a distance of 

not less than forty miles, when the crew cut loose, having payed out all their 
line. For forty miles they had been towed at the rate of a mile a minute. If 
the finback had headed across the Atlantic, and could have kept up his pace, 
he would have brought them in sight of the European shores in about a day 
and a half. In 1885 the population of Provincetown was nearly 4,500. 

The following illustration presents a group of characteristic scenes on 
Cape Cod, most of which explain themselves. That at the top of the page 
represents a wind-mill surmounting a headland overlooking the water. It 
certainly does not remind one of the Round Tower at Newport, which may 
have been built for a wind-mill ; at least, no one can prove that it was not. 
Osterville is a pretty village on the ocean side of the Cape, about thirty miles 
east of New Bedford, which we shall visit. It is a favorite summer resort, 
having a large hotel, several churches, a boat-yard, and not a few " cottages." 
The pretty Library building might well be mistaken for a cozy private cottage. 
The " Codfish Orchard " is not inappropriately named, if the account be true 




BLACK FISH. 




VIEWS ON CAPE COD. 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 787 

that codfish is the staple fruit grown on the Cape. The story goes on to say 
— ^(but for the truthfulness of this part of it we cannot fully vouch) — that the 
Cape Cod cows feed mainly upon refuse fish, and when " milked," the pails 
are found to be filled with the purest " cod-liver oil." No one, however, will 
doubt this, who has come to put faith in that other story of the thrifty farmer 
who furnished his cows with green-colored goggles, fed them upon pine- 
shavings, which they took to be new-mown grass, and, when " milked," gave 
out " spirits of turpentine " instead of the more usual lacteal fluid. 

Retracing our course along the handle of the gridiron, we turn off to the 
southern rim of its frame, and in an hour or so find ourselves in the city of 
New Bedford, fifty-five miles from Boston, on the western bank of the Acushnet 
River, just where it opens into Buzzard's Bay. To reach the city the railroad 
crosses the river upon a bridge, three-quarters of a mile long. Half a century 
ago New Bedford was a very different place from what it now is. It was the 
metropolis of the whale-fishing industry. This was established there about 
1750, and flourished for a century. At the time of its highest prosperity in 
this industry, New Bedford had not less than 400 whaling-ships, which brought 
home annually 180,000 barrels of oil, besides many tons of "whalebone" — 
which, by the way is not bone at all, but like big bundles of hairs fastened 
together along their whole length of a dozen feet or more, and growing inside 
the whale's mouth; a very useful article for a whale to have about him, since 
it forms a net in which to catch sundry sorts of small creatures which form 
its food ; for we suppose the true whale could not swallow anything bigger 
than a herring; and as it has nothing in the way of teeth, could not chew up 
any larger creature which it might have caught. 

The New Bedford industry of whaling has greatly declined within the 
memory of men now living. In 1880 it did not employ a quarter as many 
men, or produce a quarter as much oil as it had once done. 

The corn-fed pigs of Illinois can produce oil more cheaply than the fish- 
fed whales of all the oceans can do. And of late years it looks as though the 
petroleum-wells are likely to drive both whales and pigs out of market as 
producers of oil for most purposes; and cotton-seed-oil and peanut-oil are 
trenching upon the products of the immemorial domain of the olive. It does 
not as yet appear that the petroleum-wells propose to enter the field as pro- 
ducers of oils for edible or culinary use. But for illuminating and lubricatory 
purposes — such, for instance, as those of lighting our dwellings and "making 
the face to shine " — the petroleum-wells have fairly put whales, pigs and 



788 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

olive-trees out of the market ; to say nothing of certain other important uses 
of which neither whale, pig, or olive-tree ever dreamed. 

If, however, the whale-fishing has come to be, or is likely to become, an 
almost extinct industry. New Bedford has been in nowise cast down. Acush- 
net River, whose chief occupation had been to make a nice harbor for 
whaling-ships, has been taught how to turn water-wheels for cotton-mills, 
woollen-mills, and such like purposes, which pay better than whale-hunting 
ever did. The result is that New Bedford is a much handsomer and richer 
city than it ever was in its palmiest whale-fishing era. The population, which 
has rapidly increased during the past decade, numbered in 1885 over 33,000. 

But New Bedford, be its attractions what they may, is for us merely the 
point from which we can most conveniently reach the islands of Martha's 
Vineyard and Nantucket, which lie not many miles off the southern shore of 
Cape Cod. 

By a steamer of the Fall River line we cross Buzzard's Bay, that inlet 
from Long Island Sound which, if it had continued half-a-score miles further, 
would have run into Cape Cod Bay, itself an almost land-locked inlet of the 
broad Atlantic; Cape Cod in that case, if it had any name at all, would have 
been styled Cod Island. The shores of Buzzard's Bay present numerous 
points worth visiting by one who can give a whole summer to this southern 
bit of the New England Coast. If he has not time for that, the accompany- 
ing views will tell him something of what he might have seen on Buzzard's 
Bay. 

Buzzard's Bay sets in about thirty miles. Both shores are deeply indented. 
Capes, locally styled " necks," project from the land into the water; coves, 
often dignified as "harbors," set into the land from the water; and every 
now and then an islet shows its head not far from the shore. 

Most of these necks, coves, and islets have names of their own, in which 
Indian and English stand in close proximity. As we leave New Bedford 
Harbor, we pass Clarke's Point, with its lighthouse, on the other side Fair- 
haven pushes its long sandy finger down into Buzzard's Bay. Close off shore 
lies West Island ; a little farther on is Ram Island ; then Mattapoisett Harbor 
sets well into the shore, with Cannonville lighthouse marking its entrance. 
Passing this, we see Charles Neck; a little beyond are Great Neck; Cromset 
Neck, Indian Neck, another Great Neck; then we have Bourne's Neck, just 
beyond which lies the little Buttermilk Bay, the northeastern extremity of 
Buzzard's Bay, whence " Bourne's Ship Canal " — which as yet exists only on 




buzzard's bay, and vicinity. 



790 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

paper — will cut across the neck of Cape Cod, completing the work which 
Buzzard's Bay had to leave unfinished. Now going down the eastern side of 
Buzzard's Bay, we pass Monument Beach and Wenaumet Neck, Bassett's 
Island and Shaggy Neck, Cataumut Harbor, Wild Harbor, Hog Island Har- 
bor, Falmouth, and Ouamquissct Harbor, until we reach Wood's Holl, which, 
as the Gazetteer tells us, " is a post village on the strait which connects Buz- 
zard's Bay with Vineyard Sound ; has a safe harbor deep enough to admit 
large ships, and contains a church, several summer boarding-houses, and a 
factory for fertilizers." 

W^ood's Holl (they pronounce it Hole) has a special interest from the 
fact that it was the summer headquarters of the United States Fish Commis- 
sion, headed until his death by Professor Spencer F. Baird, to whose labors pis- 
ciculture owes so much. Across the narrow strait lie the islets of Naushon, 
Pasque, Nashawena, Cuttyhunk, and a dozen or so more too small to have an 
inhabitant or even a name. These are collectively designated as the Eliza- 
beth Islands. A little out in Buzzard's Bay is the Penikese Islet, a hundred 
acres in extent, upon which for many years Agassiz kept up a summer 
school for the study of natural history. 

This tour of ours around Buzzard's Bay, with its long array of names of 
necks and harbors, has been made only upon paper. As a matter of fact, we 
take steamer at New Bedford, cross the Bay straight for Wood's Holl, where 
we might have stopped for a few minutes, but did not, for we were bound for 
Martha's Vineyard, and thence to Nantucket. 

Martha's Vineyard is an island lying hardly five miles from the southern 
shore of Cape Cod. In shape it is very like a codfish split open and dried. 
Its length from tail to shoulder — the head being wanting — is a little more 
than twenty miles; the breadth across the shoulders being about fifteen miles, 
whence it tapers down to the flukes. The average breadth is about six miles. 
The island itself constitutes a county, called " Dukes," the smallest by far, 
save one, of the fourteen into which the State of Massachusetts is divided. 
The resident population of Dukes County numbers about 4,200, while that of 
the neighboring island and county of Nantucket is only about 3,100. 

Who the " Martha " was from whom the island derives its name ; why it 
was styled her Vineyard, or why a " vineyard " at all, are questions about 
which not a little has been written more or less wisely. A very early legend, 
which nobody can now prove to be untrue, has it that in 1602— six years 
before the settlement was made at Jamestown, in Virginia, and eighteen years 




VIEWS ON SEA AND SHORE. 



792 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

before the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on Plymouth Rock — Captain Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold was cruising about in these almost land-locked waters. He 
sighted this pretty islet, and gave it the name which it bears. Whether he 
landed upon it is not so certain. Some authorities will have it that Gosnold's 
" Martha's Vineyard " was a little neighboring islet which now goes by the 
name of " No Man's Land." 

The well-authenticated history of Martha's Vineyard goes back to 1642, 
when a company of emigrants from Southampton, England, established the 
settlement of Edgartown on its eastern and broadest end. Edgartown is the 
shire-town of the county, containing fully a third of the permanent popula- 
tion of the island. The island has several nice roadsteads, such as Holme's 
Hole, which furnishes a natural harbor of refuge when the weather is foul. 
Not unfrequently hundreds of water-craft tie up here for a few days, their 
crews perhaps doubling the regular population of the island, and putting 
much money into their already fairly-filled purses. Yachtsmen, in particular, 
are fond of Martha's Vineyard aiid its surroundings. A good authority, 
whom we have already quoted, and shall have further occasion to quote, 
says : 

" Whatever of excellences of climate or sanitary conditions any of the 
localities of this region can boast are enjoyed to their fullest degree on 
Martha's Vineyard. Owing to the peculiar conformation and extent of this 
island, it has many natural landing-places for shipping, and as a haven for 
any kind of sailing-fleets it has no superior in the northern Atlantic waters. 
Its ocean outlooks in every part are of the finest ; and for what may be styled 
purely marine pleasures it has no equal on our coasts. And as the waters 
round about Martha's Vineyard present the finest highways for yachting and 
boating, so the gently rolling grounds of the island, and its long reaches of 
level country, offer the most excellent drives, the adjuncts of which are pecu- 
liar to the place, which in almost every part is in full view of the ocean. 
Every breeze which prevails here must of necessity be tempered by ocean 
influences, and the summer winds are deliciously cool and invigorating, even 
while only a few miles inland on the mainland the most enervating heats are 
prevailing." 

The accompanying views on Martha's Vineyard will tell, better than words 
can, many things there to be seen in summer time, when the actual popula- 
tion of the island may be four times greater than its normal number of 4,000; 
the overplus consists of summer visitors who come and go week by week. 




Martha's vineyaud, mass. 



^94 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 

"Cottage City" is one of the prettiest places of its kind anywhere to be 
found. It stands on the northeastern point of the island, on what used to 
be styled " Oak Blufifs." Somewhat more than half a century ago the 
Methodists fixed upon this then secluded spot as a place for their outdoor 
religious assemblages, or " Camp-meetings." Year by year the frequenters 
of these assemblages began to put up cozy cottages, instead of tents or 
tabernacles. The spot was so pleasant that they began to come there a few 
days before the " meetings " began, and remain there a few days or even 
weeks after they closed. They, in fact, became summer residents at Oak 
Bluffs. It was not long before other people learned of the attractions of the 
spot, built cottages and villas, and made the place their home for half the 
year. By-and-by men who cared more for profit than praying cast their eyes 
upon these bluffs. They began to put up summer hotels and such like 
attractions. The new hotels drew more visitors, and the throng of visitors 
gave rise to new and more sumptuous hostelries, and more palatial " cot- 
tages," until after half a century, Cottage City claims fair rivalry with New- 
port. Though acknowledging itself to be not quite as big, it asserts itself to 
be much nicer in more ways than one. If Martha's Vineyard has not the 
rocky bluffs of the Island of Rhodes, it has much longer and finer drives 
along the sandy shore. If Cottage City has no antique Round Tower, it has 
its great annual camp-meeting — an attraction the like of which Newport has 
nothing to present. We do not here venture to pronounce which of the two 
resorts is the more enjoyable ; but we will maintain against all comers, that 
both are better than either. 

Among the views presented is one of Gay Head, the loneliness of which 
stands in striking contrast with the urban scenes among which it appears. 
Gay Head is as far off from Oak Bluff as one can get without leaving Martha's 
Vineyard. It forms one fluke of the tail of the fish, a shoulder of which is 
occupied by Cottage City. As one approaches the Head, driving down the 
shore, nothing more desolate can well be conceived : bare sand, with here and 
there a patch of scanty verdure. Upon the Head — or rather upon a ledge 
just off-shore — is a lighthouse which stands sharply against the evening sky, 
rising to a height of 170 feet above the water. There is nothing especially 
remarkable to us about this lighthouse ; but somehow its revolving light has 
fascinations for the seabirds who come voyaging along in the gloom. Not a 
few of these from time to time dash themselves against the stout glass plates 
which inclose the revolving light, and come to grief thereby. But as these 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 795 



birds are rarely of a toothsome kind, we do not suppose that their numerous 
dead bodies add much to the dietary of the residents of the post-township 
of Gay Head, which the Gazetteer tells us, numbers "216,- of partial Indian 
stock." 

The Gazetteer says, in a few words, " The promontory of Gay Head 
affords abundant miocene fossils." The authority which we have made our 
own tells us much more : " This headland is one of the most remarkable 
natural curiosities of New England, being composed of alternating strata of 
differently colored clays, red, white, yellow, green, and others, succeeding 
each other from base to summit, and displaying in the sunlight the most 
singular effects. Like all the region of southeastern Massachusetts, Martha's 
Vineyard furnishes the foundation and loca- 
tion for many a legend and tradition." Hard- 
ly ten miles southeastward from the shoulder 
of Martha's Vineyard is the tail of Nantucket 
Island, which on the map looks much like a 
huge shrimp. How the " moraine," or pebbly 
mass which constitutes the geological forma- 
tion of the island, got here is a problem 
with which scientists have amused and per- 
haps wearied themselves. Those who hold 
that during the " glacial period " huge ice- 
bergs, or ice-continents, came slowly plough- 
ing down from the North, got stranded in these shallow waters, warmed by the 
Gulf Stream, and melted away, depositing the stony fragments which they 
had torn off from the coasts of Labrador and the summits and slopes of what 
we now know as the White Mountains and the Green Mountains: those who 
thus hold and teach are quite likely not far from the truth. At all events, 
here is Nantucket, a bank of water-worn pebbles rising nowhere more than a 
few score feet above the present level of the ocean. 

Nantucket island, which also constitutes a county of Massachusetts, though 
it contains only one township, has an area of barely fifty square miles and is 
inhabited by about 3,100 people. There is good reason for believing that the 
Norsemen saw the island eight centuries ago, and that it formed a part of the 
region to which they gave the name of Vinland (" Wine-land "). They do 
not seem to have sailed much further south than this. With the exception 
of the Round Tower at Newport, Rhode Island, and the curious inscribed 




GAY HEAD-LIGHT. 



796 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

stone at Dighton, in Massachusetts, we know of nothing on our New England 
shores which anybody imagines to be the work of these ante-Columbian 
discoverers of America. 

The two following groups of views on Nantucket island will give a fair 

idea of what is to 
be seen there dur 
ing the spring, sum- 
mer, and autumn 
months. During 
the winter, for 
weeks at a time the 
few resident dwell- 
ers upon Nantucket 
are practically as 
far from the rest of 
the world as they 
are from the moon. 
They are frozen in 
for a time; but 
when warm weather 
comes again they 
do not appear to 
be any the worse 
for their hiberna- 
tion. We here have 
to do with what we 
can see in Nan- 
tucket during the 
summer time ; and 
there are contrasts 

enough to sufifice our widest wish for variety. The artist has depicted not 
a few of these scenes better than we can do in words. 

Whittier, in one of the most spirited of his legendary poems, tells of what 
we may hold to be the first establishment of white folks on Nantucket. The 
date is placed at 1660. Thomas Macey, who lived not far from Newburyport, 
was threatened with fine, imprisonment, and the whipping-post for having 
given the shelter of his roof to a " banished Quaker." To escape from their 




VltWS Al NAMUCKET. 








NANTUCKET, MASS. 



798 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

pursuers, he and his young wife sprung into a Httle boat, and paddled out 
into the waters. We can trace almost every mile of this adventurous voyage 
of some 150 miles, mostly in open ocean, until they reached their destined 
haven, of which they seem to have known nothing: 

By green Pentucket's southern slope the small boat glided fast ; 

The watchers of the " block house " saw the strangers as they passed. 

That night a stalwart garrison sat shaking in their shoes 

To hear the dip of Indian oars, the glide of birch canoes. 

The fisher-wives of Salisbury (the men were all away) 

Looked out to see the stranger oar upon their waters play. 

Deer Island's rocks and fir-trees threw their sunset shadows o'er them, 

And Newbury's spire and weather-cock peered o'er the pines before them. 

Around the Black Rocks, on their left, the marsh lay broad and green ; 

And on their right, with dwarf-shrubs crowned. Plum Island's hills were seen. 

With skilful hand and wary eye the harbor bar was crossed, 

A plaything of the restless wave, the boat on ocean tossed. 

The glory of the sunset-heaven on land and water lay ; 

On the steep hills of Agawam, on cape, and bluff, and bay. 

They passed the gray rocks of Cape Ann, and Gloucester's harbor-bar ; 

The watch-fire of the garrison shone like a setting star. 

Now brightly broke the morning on Massachusetts Bay; 

Blue wave, and bright green island, rejoicing in the day! 

On passed the bark in safety, round isle and headland steep; 

No tempest broke above them, no fog-cloud veiled the deep. 

Far round the bleak and stormy cape, the venturous Macey passed, 
And on Nantucket's naked isle drew up. his boat at last. 
And now, in log-built cabin, they braved the tough sea-weather; 
And there, in peace and quietness, went down life's vale together. 
How others drew around them, and how their fishing sped. 
Until to every wind of heaven Nantucket's sails were spread ; 
How pale Want alternated with Plenty's golden smile: — 
Behold, is it not written in the annals of the isle.? 

And yet the isle remaineth a refuge for the free. 
As when true-hearted Macey beheld it from the sea- 
Free as the winds that winnow her shrubless hills of sand ; 
Free as the waves that batter along her yielding land 
Than hers, at duty's summons, no loftier spirit stirs. 
Nor falls o'er human suffering a readier tear than hers. 
God bless the sea-beat island ! and grant for evermore 
That charity and freedom dwell, as now, upon her shore. 

When Macey settled upon the island it had an aboriginal population esti- 
mated at 1,500; within the ensuing century this gradually decreased to 350; 
in 1763 a pestilence carried off 222 of these. The last Indian of full blood 
died in 1821; the last of half-blood in 1854. Hardly ten years had passed 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 799 

before Nantucket became noted for its off-shore fisheries. The date of the 
capture of the first sperm-whale by Nantucket fishermen is given at the year 
1712, and vessels of larger size, fitted for longer voyages, began to be em- 
ployed. In 1775 Nantucket had 150 whaling ships, which cruised as far as 
Davis Strait on the north and the coast of Brazil on the south. The war of 
the Revolution stopped this industry for the time; but after its close the 
business was revived with still greater activity. In 1791 the first whale-ship 
from Nantucket was sent to the Pacific. For another half century the busi- 
ness was a prosperous one. But in 1846 the town of Nantucket was well- 
nigh burnt down; and from that time the whale-fishery from this place grew 
less and less, until it has come to be practically extinct. Among the causes 
of this falling off — total as far as Nantucket is concerned — we find the follow- 
ing enumerated by competent authority: "The scarcity of whales from their 
being so constantly hunted; the increasing use of gas and mineral oils; and 
the substitution of steel for whalebone in many articles of clothing, umbrellas, 
parasols, and the like, and of hard-rubber or vulcanite in other cases." In 
fact, petroleum wells and the india-rubber tree have pretty well driven whales 
out of the market as producers of oil and whalebone. 

The following figures show the fluctuations in the white population of the 
island at different periods: in 1763, 3,220; in 1774, 4,545, among whom w^re 
one clergyman, one lawyer, and two physicians; in 1784, 4,209; in 1800, 
5,617; in 1810, 6,807; ii^ 1820, 7,202; in 1840, 9,712; this was the highest 
point ever reached, and from this time the population has gradually but 
steadily fallen off. In i860 it was 6,094; in 1870,4,123; in 1880,3,727. As 
people do not die off rapidly there, the conclusion is inevitable that the emi- 
gration to other sections much more than counter-balanced the natural in- 
crease of population. 

Among all the locations which have been assigned to the Garden of Eden, 
we almost wonder that nobody has thought of naming the island of Nan- 
tucket. It would require no great strain of the imagination to recognize in 
the waters which encircle the sea-girt island, the " river which went out of 
Eden to water the garden, whence it was parted and became into four heads." 
Pison, Hiddekel, and Phrat, would be fairly enough represented by the waters 
which circle the northern, western, and southern shores, which have tidal and 
other currents that might well have led an early narrator, who had nothing 
but his own observations to rely upon, to suppose them to be veritable 
rivers. And as for the " Second river Gihon, that which compasseth the 



8oo THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

whole land of Ethiopia," how better could have been named the broad 
" ocean river " on the east, whose limits no man then could know, and of 
which we now know that in it is no inch of dry land until we reach the sliores 
of the Eastern Continent, upon which must have been " the whole land of 
Ethiopia " — no matter how much or how little of the region may have been 
in the narrator's mind when he put down the score of words in which he 
describes it. 

As for soil and productions, we must acknowledge that the Nantucket 
which we know does not well correspond with our ideal of the Garden of 
Eden, wherein " the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to 
the sight and good for food " — to say nothing of those two wonderful trees, 
the "Tree of Life" and the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. ' Few 
things are rarer on our Nantucket than a tree of any kind. Instead of fruit- 
trees it now grows summer hotels, and bathing-places. 

As for climate, using the word in its widest sense — Nantucket comes well 
up to our idea of what the Garden of Eden might have been. For a time in 
winter the weather must be rather cold, since, as we are told, the surrounding 
waters are so frozen " that weeks go by without the possibility of passing to 
or from its shores." But it is not so much winter cold as summer heat that 
tells upon the human frame. Nantucket hardly knows what we call a " hot 
day." Year after year the highest temperature indicated by the thermometer 
is 86°, never going above 90°; and even in a hot day " there is a never-failing 
succession of breezes blowing over the land," which render the markings of 
the thermometer no correct indications of the temperature as felt by the 
human system. In a word, never, for more than a few hours in succession, 
does anybody think it very hot at Nantucket. 

The sanitary effects of the climate are set forth in a paragraph which we 
quote from what we judge to be good authority: "Within a few years 
there has happened a period when upward of one-ninth of the population of 
the island was over 70 years old. During one recent year there were JJ 
deaths, and of this number 72 per cent lived to the age of 73 years. Five of 
these deaths were of persons over 90 years of age; fifteen had lived over 80 
years, and eighteen over 70 years. There were but eleven deaths under 36 
years of age, and of these 8 were babes under one year old. The remaining 
ages were, one of 16 and two of 25. Surely," adds the writer, "there must 
be something 'life-giving' in the sanitary condition of the island so to prolong 
existence and lower the death-rate." He says, furthermore, that those who 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 8oi 

come here only for a brief sojourn find immediate benefits from this sea-girt 
sanatorium, " which they are often able to note from the very first hour of 
their coming; persons sojourning here invariably find the appetite and the 
inclination to sleep largely increased during their visits; and the benefits to 
health here received are permanent, and to be carried away and enjoyed by 
the recipient wherever he may go. It will," he says in conclusion, "be a 
sufificient recommendation of Nantucket, as a place of summer resort, to say 
that here one may be sure of finding cool nights for sleeping, and never a 
mosquito to hum his lullaby." 

But New^port and Nantasket, Plymouth and Provincetown, Martha's Vine- 
yard and Nantucket, and all the hundreds of fair places around and between, 
do not constitute the entire New England Coast. Indeed, they form only a 
very small part of it, as a glance at any map will show. We propose to con- 
tinue this summer tour of ours to a region where nature works for our delec- 
tation with rock rather than with sand and where there are besides ocean 
shores inland lakes and ponds innumerable: the region, in short of which 
Whittier, writing "First, Nov. 26th, 1887," says: 

" Gems of the Northland, never yet 
Were lakes in lovelier valleys set, 
Glassing the granites and the pines 
That mark New Hampshire's mountain lines. 

'And not less fair the winding ways 
Of Casco and Penobscot bays. 
They seek for happier shores in vam, 
Who leave the summer isles of Maine." 

Our proposed trip — already accomplished, notes of which are to follow — 
covered much more territory than this. From Boston we are to go by rail 
to Lake Winnipiseogee, in New Hampshire; thence to Portland in Maine, 
and to the celebrated summer resort near by known as Mount Desert Island. 

Leaving Nantucket Island, a steamer carries us back, past Martha's Vine- 
yard to Wood's Holl, at the southwestern shoulder of Cape Cod. A detached 
bar of the Old Colony Railroad gridiron comes down here. We leave the 
water, and take to the rail, skirting the western and northern sides of Buz- 
zard's Bay. For want of more exciting topics of inquiry we try to find out 
how this bit of water came by its name. We are told by one that in former 
times the " buzzard," a pretty big kind of fishing-bird, which some naturalists 
describe as " an inferior sort of eagle, having a rather small and weak bill," 



8o2 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

used to abound hereabouts, where they managed to pick up a comfortable 
Hving by catching fish. Another informant was quite as confident that a 
certain Mr. Buzzard had his home hereabouts, and gave his own name to the 
bay. After all, the stories are not contradictory. Who knows that both are 
not " founded on fact ? " At all events, we get back to Boston by rail, and 
the Map and Gazetteers tell us of not a few pleasant places along the route 
which we might have seen had we looked out from the windows of the cars — 
which we did not do to any great extent. 

We reached Boston late at night, but were ready to set out early next 
morning for " fresh fields and pastures new." The " Boston and Maine Rail- 
road," a union of several lines originally distinct, but now under one general 
management, foreseeing our wants, and those of many others with more or 
less money in their purses, has made provision to carry us as far as we 
propose to go — and much farther, indeed, if we had wished. The Com- 
pany furnishes excellent facilities for reaching the various points of interest 
on the route. It operates three distinct lines between Boston and Port- 
land, a distance of a little more than one hundred miles in a straight 
course. The eastern line runs along the Atlantic coast, rarely at a dis- 
tance of ten miles. The western line starts from Worcester, not quite 
fifty miles southwest of Boston, where it connects with other railways run- 
ning in every direction. About midway between these routes, and nearly 
parallel with both, is the middle line by which we are to travel. There is 
rarely anywhere a distance of a score of miles between one of these lines and 
the one next to it, and all are connected at frequent intervals. 

Starting from the main station in Haymarket Square — so-called because 
not many years ago sloops and barges laden with hay used to come up here 
and deposit their bulky cargoes — our train heads northwestward toward the 
Merrimac River, as though we were going to touch at Lowell, twenty-five 
miles from Boston, and next to it in the State in point of population, having a 
few hundred more inhabitants than Worcester, its close rival. The Merrimac, 
rising among the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and having a total 
length of about 150 miles, is perhaps the most industrious river in the world. 
Every cubic foot of its water is set to work spinning or weaving, especially at 
Lowell, at Nashua, fourteen miles, and Manchester, about as much more above 
Lowell, and at Lawrence ten miles below. These great manufacturing cities 
have a population of about 160,000; and not one of them could have been 
more than a quiet agricultural village save for the Merrimac River which 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 803 

stood ready to turn innumerable water-wheels as soon as anybody should ask 
it so to do. 

Lowell, the oldest and the largest of these cities, was never dreamed of 
seventy years ago. About 1674, John Eliot, "the apostle to the Indians," 
was preaching to the natives hereabouts. On one spring Sunday he and his 
companion, Daniel Gookin, were hospitably entertained " at the wigwam of 
one called Wannalancet, near Pawtucket Falls in the Merrimack River." 
Gookin, in his " Historical Collections of the Indians in New England," gives 
an instructive account of Eliot's method of Christianizing the Indians. We 
may, with no great stretch of the imagination, believe that he describes what 
actually took place on that bright May Sunday in 1674, in the very centre of 
the spot at the foot of the Pawtucket Falls, around which has within the mem- 
ory of men now living grown up the " City of Spindles." Gookin says: 

" Besides preaching to them, he framed two catechisms in the Indian 
tongue, containing the principles of the Christian religion — a lesser for 
children, and a larger for older persons. These also he communicated unto 
the Indians gradually, a few questions at a time, according unto their capacity 
to receive them. His manner was, after he had begun the meeting with 
prayer, then first to catechise the children. Then he would encourage them 
with some small gift, as an apple or a small biscuit, which he caused to be 
brought for the purpose. And by his prudence and winning practice the 
children were induced with delight to get into their memories the principles 
of the Christian religion. When the catechising was past he would preach to 
them upon some portion of Scripture for about three-quarters of an hour, 
and then give liberty to the Indians to propound questions; and, in the close, 
finish all with prayer." 

What with preliminary catechising the children, a sermon of three-quarters 
of an hour, subsequent catechising of the grown-up Indians, and the inter- 
spersed prayers, we imagine that this first Christian service of which we have 
any record held at what is now Lowell, must have occupied some four or five 
hours. Religious services there are in our days much shorter. A century 
and a half passes before we get another glimpse at these Pawtucket Falls on 
the Merrimac, which effectually barred all passage up the river for boats or 
even fish. But this stoppage of fish was a godsend to the Indians, for it gave 
them, in proper season, the best fishing-ground in the region. They could 
literally scoop them up by the boat-load with their bare hands from among 
the broken rocks at the foot of the Falls, where their upward course was 



8o4 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

stopped ; for we suppose nothing that swims could ascend these falls, or 
rather rapids, which in the space of three or four miles have a descent of 
perhaps fifty feet. It happens that the writer of these pages spent several 
years of his boyhood at Lowell, then rapidly growing into a manufacturing 
town; and he has seen the fish (notably lamprey-eels) caught by the barrelful 
by hand. Only once since — and that more than twenty years ago — has he 
seen Lowell. He would then have scarcely known the place. Still less 
would he recognize it now, as he found it described in a recent work, which 
he happened to have with him. 

" Pawtucket and Wamesit, where the Indians resorted in the fishing season, 
are now Lowell, the city of spindles and Manchester of America, which sends 
its cotton cloth around the globe. The water power was not utilized until 
1821, when some Boston men set up a factory here. In 1823 the Merrimac 
cotton mills were started. Now Lowell's textile factories employ a capital 
of nearly $20,000,000, running 25,000 looms and almost 1,000,000 spindles. 
They produce annually 240,000,000 yards of cotton cloth, 10,000,000, yards 
of woollens, 3,500,000 yards of carpetings, 120,000 shawls, 16,500,000 pairs of 
hose, and 100,000,000 yards of cloth are dyed and printed. In a word, Lowell 
weaves enough cotton cloth to furnish every man, woman, and child in the 
United States with five yards a year. Lowell was incorporated as a city in 
1836; in 1840 its population was 21,000; in i860, 37,000; in 1870, 41,000; in 
1880, 60,000; and is now fully 70,000, the larger half of whom are employed in 
the mills, the wheels of all of which are turned by the water of the Merrimac. 
It would be a curious inquiry how many hundreds of thousands of human 
beings could do the mechanical work performed by the Merrimac at this one 
point. And, moreover, at Lawrence, ten miles below, the river does quite 
half as much work as at Lowell, and fully as much more at Nashua and 
Manchester, a few miles above." 

These speculations occupy our thoughts while we are carried inland to the 
beautiful lake Winnipiseogee. This lake, which lies about 470 feet above the 
sea level, is about 25 miles long, the greatest breadth being less than half as 
much, and its surface consists to a good degree of narrow bays or coves jut- 
ting up into the land in all sorts of directions; not seldom, if these bays had 
shoved a little further, they would have made their way into other little lakes, 
or ponds. As it is, however, we suppose that their waters, fed by brooks in- 
numerable, find their own way into Winnipiseogee, and thence into the 
Merrimac, of which it is the main reservoir, keeping its waters at an almost 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 805 

equal volume throughout the year, and year after year, much as Superior and 
Michigan and Huron and Erie do for the mighty St. Lawrence. Indeed, 
were it not for the storehouse of Lake Winnipiseogee, the Merrimac could 
not have become the useful servitor to man which it now is. It would have 
been a mountain torrent overflowing in the spring, and with but scanty water 
in summer and autumn. 

One may make a tolerably good map of Winnipiseogee by laying his left 
hand and wrist, palm downward, upon a sheet of paper, spreading the fingers, 
and marking around them with a pencil. But he must not omit to adorn 
thumb, fingers, and wrist with island jewels to his heart's content, for their 
actual number is almost past counting, and their names, in Indian, Yankee, 
and what not, afford material for many an hour of philological study. 

The most admirable Timothy Dwight, for a full score of years (1795 to 
1 8 16) President of Yale College, was wont to spend his annual vacation in 
what were then considered long excursions; and long they were if we con- 
sider the weeks rather than the number of miles which they occupied. Besides 
his merits as a theologian, Dwight was an ardent lover of nature, and a poet 
of no mean rank. We are told that, in these excursions, " he journeyed through 
the neighboring States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 
New York; visited the White Mountains, Lake George, Montauk, Niagara, 
the Kaatskills, etc., keeping notes of his journeys, written out in the form 
of letters, which were published after his death, under the title of ' Travels in 
New England and New York.' " 

Of one of the earliest of these journeys we find the following prefatory 
mention in Dennie's " Farmer's Museum," published at Walpole, N. H., under 
date of September 25th, 1797: " This morning the truly respectable President 
of Yale College proceeded from this village on a journey to the Upper Coos; 
whence, we understand, he intends passing over the White Mountains. His 
rugged tour will, we hope, be relieved by those civilities which are due to the 
gentleman, the scholar, and the unaffected Christian." 

It was not in this journey, but in one made ten or more years later, that 
Dwight first saw Lake Winnipiseogee ; he expresses his wonder that while 
Lake George was annually visited by numerous people from New England, 
" Winnipisaukee, notwithstanding all its accumulation of splendor and ele- 
gance, is almost as much unknown to the inhabitants of this country as if it 
lay on the eastern side of the Caspian." The simple fact is that seventy or 
even fifty years ago Winnipiseogee was actually farther from Boston than 



8c6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

any spot in the Heart of the Rockies now is. All this has been changed; and 
now " this most exquisite jewel in the lake necklace of New England," as it 
has been well styled, is within a few hours of any point in our Eastern States. 

Of some of the neighboring lakes Thomas Starr King — true poet as he 
was, though we have never seen a line of verse composed by him — writes: 
"There is Great Squam, singularly striped with long, narrow, crinkling 
islands, and Little Squam, unbroken by islands, fringed and shadowed by 
thickets of the richest foliage that are disposed around its western shore in a 
long sweeping curve-line which will be remembered as a delightful melody of 
the eye. . . . The larger lake, though not a fourth part so large as 
Winnipiseogee, is doubtless the most beautiful of all the small sheets of 
water in New England ; and it has been pronounced by one gentleman, no 
less careful in his words than cultivated in his tastes, more charmingly em- 
bosomed in the landscape than any lake of equal size he had ever seen in 
Europe or America." 

In default of any description of our own we quote a few paragraphs from 
Mr. Ernest Ingersoll: 

" Red Hill has a summit at the northern end over 2,000 feet high, the 
picture visible from which, as many men have gazed upon the noted land- 
scapes of the world will tell you, is unequalled in either continent for that 
enduring quality which we call loveliness. Its extent alone is worth noting. 
Kearsarge and Monadnock are plainly visible at the southwest, and in the 
west the eye reaches far over the hills toward the Connecticut. Turning to 
the right, where Squam Lake is glittering in the foreground of the west, Mt. 
Cardigan, the hills along the Connecticut, and more to the northward, the 
immense mass of Moosilauke are seen; then the Franconia Mountains far 
away over nearer ranges. The huge dome of Sandwich cuts off the north for 
a space, hiding the White Mountains and their neighbors as far as Carrigain, 
of which a portion only is revealed, with a part of the slide-marked Tri-pyra- 
mid at its right. And so the eye is led around to the shapely broadside of 
the Ossipee, and the circle is complete. What fills this circle as you rest your 
gaze in the southward ? Winnipiseogee — ' fashioned with every elegance of 
figure, bordered with the most beautiful winding shores, and studded with a 
multitude of islands,' as Dwight expressed it; 'liquid silver run into a vessel 
of unequal surface,' as Isaacs fancied it to be; 'islands and shores that fringe 
the water with winding lines and long narrow capes of green,' as Starr King 
paints it in words, more truly than can be done by the pencil of the artist." 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 807 

From Winnipiseogee one may well hesitate whether to go first to the 
White Mountains a little northward, or to turn eastward, toward the Atlantic 
coast. We choose the latter; and what is styled "the Northern Division of 
the Boston and Maine Railroad " is ready to take us whither we will. We 
have elected to make Portland, the principal seaport in Maine, our next 
objective point. 

Of Portland, as a city, there is not very much to be said here. We read 
in a reliable Gazetteer, that it is beautifully situated on a peninsula at the 
southwestern extremity of Casco Bay. It was first named Falmouth; was 
settled by an English colony in 1632, and was three times burned in the wars 
with the French and Indians. It possesses broad, shaded streets, and hand- 
some public and private edifices, at the same time forming a centre to the 
numerous watering-places within reach, where the purest of sea air can be 
found The harbor is one of the best on the Atlantic coast; the anchorage 
being protected on every side by land, the communication with the ocean 
easy and direct, and the depth sufficient for the largest ships; although in a 
northern latitude (about 44° N., or some 140 miles north of Boston), it is 
never entirely closed by ice, even in the coldest weather." 

Simply as a harbor, we doubt if there is in the world a finer one than this 
of Portland. Not improbably, some generations hence, Portland may come 
to be a great commercial city, being the .natural emporium for the trade 
between the Old World and that vast region which we now know as the 
" Dominion of Canada." But, as it is, the growth of Portland has not been 
a rapid one. In 1830 its population was 12,000; in 1840, 15,000; in 1850, 
20,000; in i860, 26,000 in 1870, 31,000; in 1880, 34,000. Its population in 
1889 was estimated to be about 40,000. 

From Portland there is ready communciation by steamer all along the 
Atlantic coast as far south as Boston, and as far north as Eastport, on the 
eastern frontier of the United States, where it abuts on the Canadian province 
of New Brunswick and looks across the Bay of Fundy to the Canadian penin- 
sula of Nova Scotia, which, with New Brunswick, would at the present time 
be worth more to us than all the rest of what we used to know as " Upper " 
and " Lower" Canada. The area is not very large, being about equal to that 
of the State of New York, with a population of something less than a million 
— about one-fifth of that of the entire Dominion of Canada. 

Our next point, going from Portland, is Mount Desert Island, just off the 
coast of Maine, from which it is separated by a channel a mile wide. We 



8oS THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 

might have gone thither (that is to a point on the neighboring mainland op- 
posite the island) by rail; but we have decided to go by water. Our steamer 
(her name is the "City of Richmond ") leaves Portland about midnight, upon 
the arrival of the train which started from Boston at seven in the morning, 
and is due at Bar Harbor, on Mount Desert, at noon the next day. As 
morning breaks we find ourselves thridding the islets which stud Penobscot 
Bay, which, says Mr. Noah Brooks, "are covered, for the most part, with fir, 
spruce, and larch. The shores are bold and rocky, and rich tones of brown, 
gray, and purple are reflected in the silvery tide." As the sun begins to ap- 
proach mid-heaven we see ahead of us the summits of a cluster of hills. These 
are the precipices of Bar Harbor Head, the southernmost point of the island 
of Mount Desert, surmounted by a lighthouse. 

The island is about fifteen miles long with an extreme breadth of twelve 
miles, and has a resident population of about 4,000. It embraces seven par- 
allel ranges of granite mountains, \vith deep and narrow valleys between. 
The loftiest point attains an altitude of nearly 1,800 feet above its base, against 
which break the long Atlantic swells. This is the highest point of land along 
the entire Atlantic coast. One of these valleys, which is cut down clear to 
the water's edge, almost divides the island, " giving it the shape of a pair of 
Avell-stuffed saddle-bags." The northern extremity of the island consists 
mainly of irregular foot-hills, with an area of arable land along the shore, 
which here approaches the mainland so closely that the interval is crossed by 
a bridge. At the southwestern extremity of the island is an almost level 
plateau. Upon the southern and eastern shores the mountains come sheer 
down to the ocean, often without a yard of beach. Mount Desert is growing 
year by year more and more a place of summer resort. At present, if one 
wants to pass a few weeks in a manner different from that to which he has 
been accustomed, this is the place for him. How long this will continue to 
be the case no man can say: most likely not for any very long time. 

Even now one, if he so pleases, can live at Mount Desert very much as he 
might have done at Newport or Coney Island, at Saratoga or Cape May, or 
anywhere else; for we are told, upon authority of a little Handbook put forth 
a year ago by the " Passenger Department of the Grand Trunk Railway," 
that the island has a prosperous community engaged in cod and mackerel 
fishing, and has some twenty excellent hotels." We may rest assured that 
the Bar Harbor Bonifaces catch fatter fish on shore than do their neighbors 
Avho fling their hooks for cod and mackerel into the briny deep. Not very 



8io THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

long ago Mr. Charles Dudley Warner gave a lively picture of societ)- life on 
Mount Desert. He says: • 

" Except in some of the cottages at Bar Harbor, it might be said that 
society was on a ' lark.' The young ladies liked to appear in nautical and 
lawn-tennis toilets. As to the young gentlemen, if there were any dress-coats 
on the island, they took pains not to display them, but delighted in appearing 
in the evening promenade in the nondescript suits that made them so con- 
spicuous in the morning — the favorite being a dress of stripes, with a striped 
jockey-cap to match. ... 

"But the principal occupation at Bar Harbor was out-door exercise: in- 
cessant activity in driving, walking, boating, rowing and sailing, bowling, ten- 
nis, and flirtation. There was always an excursion somewhere, by land or 
sea; watermelon parties; races in the harbor, in which the girls took part; 
drives on buckboards, which they organized. Indeed, the canoe and the 
buckboard were in constant demand. This activity, this desire to row and 
walk and drive, and to become acquainted, was all due to the air. It has a 
peculiar quality. It composes the nerves to sleep; it stimulates to unwonted 
exertion. The fanatics of the place say that the fogs are not damp as at 
other resorts on the coast. Fashion can make even a fog dry. But the air 
is delicious. In this latitude, and by reason of the hills, the atmosphere is 
pure and elastic and stimulating, and it is softened by the presence of the sea." 

Commenting upon the foregoing passage, Mr. Ernest Ingersoll says: " We 
came to know (and hereby testify to) the solemn truth of all that, excepting 
perhaps the ' dry fogs,' of which we heard much, b-ut saw nothing, though it 
was a good year for fogs." 

Let us admit, causa argiuncnti, that Mount Desert may be an Arcadia for 
those who carry such a thing about with them ; if otherwise, they will not 
find it on the New England Coast, or anywhere else. 

For a few sentences more we must stand indebted to Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, 
although we quote with very much condensation : 

" Nowhere in America are lovelier summer houses. The island is almost 
engirdled with a row of cottages, great and small. But the word ' cottage ' 
here is as expansive as at Newport or Saratoga. The rise in the value of real 
estate has been most extraordinary. A lot of forty acres was bought in 1880 
for $2,500, which has since paid its owner $46,000. Land at Bar Harbor is 
now cheap al $25,000 an acre, and for some $125,000 has been paid. Desira- 
ble cottages have appreciated in proportion ; one small one was pointed out 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 8ir 

as having gone from $3,000 to $11,000 between 1882 and 1885. The people 
of the island are thriving greatly under this new state of things, so that Mount 
Desert, from being one of the most forsaken, hardest-working and poorest- 
living corners of Yankee-land, has become one of the most prosperous and 
easy." 



THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 



HIS remarkable range, called by enthusiastic travellers "The Switz- 
erland of America," and known to the Indians as Agiocochook, 
" The Mountain of the Snowy Forehead and Home of the Great 
Spirit," is situated in Coos and Grafton Counties, N. H., and consists of a 
plateau 1,600 feet above sea level and having the general form of a parallelo- 
gram, from which rise several clusters of peaks, a number of which are 
among the highest in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, It is 
believed that the first white man who visited them was Walter Neal, who left 
suf^cient records to establish the fact that he was at least partially familiar 
with the region as early as 1632. Shortly before the Revolutionary war an 
attempt was made to explore it, with the result of the discovery of the Notch, 
and after the war considerable attention was turned toward it. That the 
wonders of the locality had become somewhat known and appreciated at this 
period, seems evidenced by the fact that a shelter, where warmth, food, and 
liquors could be obtained, was erected in 1803. The summit of Mount Wash- 
ington, the highest peak in the eastern cluster, having an altitude of 6,285 feet, 
was rendered accessible by a bridle path in 18 19, and by 1852 travel had grown 
•to an extent that warranted the erection of a hotel. The region then attained 
a popularity as a summer mountain resort that has never since flagged in the 
least. As there are two periods in the year when the grandeur of the scenery 
is presented in its most perfect wealth of tinge and cloud-effects : the latter 
half of June and the first half of October; it has become a favorite custom 
with tourists and summer travellers to precede or supplement a season at the 
popular springs or seaside resorts with a trip to the White Mountains. The 
location of the principal attractions is such that they may be reached by any 
one of half a dozen or more routes and from as many starting points. But the 
course most generally pursued is to begin the ascent at North Conway, N. H., 
near Mount Kearsarge, which belongs to the southeastern cluster. The village 



8i2 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



overlooks the intervals of the Saco River, and is surrounded on all sides by 
mountains. East of it is the Rattlesnake Ridge of hills, Middle Mountain top- 
ping them all, and but a short distance northward is Mount Kearsarge or Pe- 
quawket, rising to a height of 3,367 feet. To the westward is seen the cluster 
called the Moat Mountains, with the peak of Chocorua, " The Old Bear," a 
mass of granite with but little vegetation, 3,358 feet high, in the distance. The 
chief attraction of the place is the magnificent view of the valley of the Saco, 
where the great dome of Mount Washington, changing almost hourly in ap- 
pearance, form.s an impenetrable curtain across the vista. In the immediate 
neighborhood of North Conway are the Artist's Falls, a pretty descent of 



.. >(-^'K*?^ 




MOAT MOUNTAIN FROM NORTH CONWAY, N. H. 

water in the midst of a patch of forest ; Echo Lake, a beautiful sheet of 
water lying at the foot of Moat Mountains, and on the opposite side of the 
river; the Cathedral, a cavity in the granite, with a wall eighty feet high, 
which, inclining outward, forms a magnificent arch that is met on the other 
side by a wall of great trees; the White Horse displayed upon the perpendi- 
cular sides of the cliffs that extend a distance of four or five miles and are 
from 100 to 800 feet high; Diana's Bath, a little to the north of the Cathe- 
dral, and Mount Kearsarge, the highest peak south of the mountains in this 
direction, from which the best view of the entire White Mountain range is 
obtained. 

While the spectacles of natural grandeur that are visible at every turn are 
thrilling and awe-inspiring, the supreme pleasure of a trip to this region is to 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 813 

be found in the ascent of Mount Washington. The bridle path alluded to 
went up the mountain side in almost a straight line; but the carriage-road, 
begun in 1855, completed to The Ledge — four miles from the base— in 1856, 
and opened for travel from base to summit in 1861, winds round the ledge 
and up the mountain side, making nearly double the distance. In 1866 the 
construction of a railroad to the summit was begun, and three years after- 
ward completed. Of these routes the carriage-road is doubtless the most 
popular; but many tourists make the journey of eight miles at least one way 
by rail. During the four first miles of the carriage-road trip, but little is seen 
save the forest. At the Ledge, however, the vehicle emerges from the thick 
woods, and the first glories of the ascent appear. The road winds between 
Mounts Washington, Clay, and Jefferson, passes eastward at the Great Gulf, 
and then rises over several plateaus till it reaches the level ground of the 
summit. By making the ascent by way of the old bridle-path the tourist will 
pass over the tops of four lower summits of the ridge after leaving the "Notch, 
each one a little higher than the preceding, and from the Glen directly up 
Mount Washington itself. On the right is an enormous ravine, down which 
a singular view is afforded of Mounts Jefferson, Adams, and Madison from 
base to crown. The Glen is eight miles from Gorham, and among the at- 
tractions of its vicinity are the Imp, a peak of the Moriah Mountain whose 
summit resembles a grotesque human face from a distance; Mount Carter, 
3,000 feet high and an unbroken mass of forest from base to crown; the 
great " Gulf of Mexico," across whose waters fall the changing shadows of 
Mount Clay according as its upper regions are clear or enveloped with clouds; 
the pyramidal peak of Mount Adams, the grandest of all in shape and im- 
pressiveness; and Mount Madison. The remarkable effect which this scenery 
has upon the imagination will be greatly intensified when it is known or 
remembered that Mount Washington is 6,285 feet high. Mount Clay 5,400, 
Mount Jefferson 5,700, Mount Adams 5,800, and Mount Madison 5,361. 
Beside these peaks there are in the vicinity the Garnet Pools, a series of 
basins in the Peabody River near the Gorham road, exhibiting many curious 
phases of natural rock sculpture ; Thompson's Falls on the North Conway 
road, and two miles below the Glen House, a series of charming cascades and 
water-slides; Emerald Pool; the Glen Ellis Fall, where the Ellis River shoots 
twenty feet over the cliff and then falls sixty feet into a dark-green pool; 
Crystal Cascade, one mile from Glen Ellis Fall and three from the Glen 
House, where the water, part of which comes from the very dome of Mount 



8i4 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

Washington, has a fall of eighty feet, seen to the best advantage from the 
high bank opposite the foot of the fall; and Tuckerman's Ravine, which 
carries the water from Mount Washington to the Crystal Cascade, an enor- 
mous gulf in the southerly side of the peak with walls i,ooo feet high, and 
containing a beautiful snow cavern formed by a spring stream flowing 
through the mass of snow several hundred feet deep that collects there 
during the winter season. 

From the village of Gorham, N. H., on the eastern side of the mountains,, 
the ascent of Mount Washington can be made in one day by way of the Glen 
House The distance from Gorham to the Notch is thirty-two miles, and 
the Cherry Mountain road abounds in pretty spectacles. The beauties of 
Mount Moriah, Mount Carter, and the Imp are here seen to better advantage 
than elsewhere; the Pilot range of mountains rise on the northwest; while 
at the east and southeast stand the Androscoggin hills, from the highest of 
which, Mount Hayes, 2,500 feet high, a magnificent view is obtained of 
Mounts Adams and Jefferson, while Washington itself from this point seems 
invested with additional grandeur. Fronting Mount Hayes is Mount Surprise, 
a spur of Moriah, 1,200 feet high, whose crown is easy of access by foot or 
horse. At its summit there is no obstruction to the view of the " Presiden- 
tial " mountains, and there is no other eminence where one can get so near 
those monarchs of rock and forest. This point also commands a grand view 
of the great cleft between Mount Carter and the White Mountains, through 
which the Peabody River flows, as the summit of Mount Willard commands 
the Notch and the Saco River. A capital pedestrian tour for those who can 
depend upon their legs may be made from the Alpine House at Gorham by 
riding to the base of Mount Madison, at the foot of Randolph Hill, then 
footing it up Madison, passing over its summit, continuing around or over 
the sharp pyramid of Adams, over Jefferson between the humps of Clay, and 
thence to the summit of Washington. The tramp can be made between 
sunrise and sunset. Another attraction of Gorham, and by many considered 
the best, is Berlin Falls, six miles from the Alpine House. The entire scenery 
is wild and noble. The Androscoggin River here pours down a rocky gate- 
way. The mountains seem to ov^erhang the stream, which, having the ap- 
pearance of a long, swift rapid, is broken here and there by a direct and 
powerful fall. In the course of a mile the river descends nearly 200 feet, and 
as the road winds directly by the river the entire panorama may be viewed 
without the effort of rock climbing. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 815 



The ascent of Mount Washington may also be made from the Crawford 
House, and at one time this route was very popular. A bridle-path leads 
over the summits of Mount Clinton, Mount Pleasant, Mount Franklin, and 
Mount Monroe, but the railroad and carriage-path from the Glen House are 
now usually preferred. The ascent by rail may be made from the Crawford 
House, the Twin Mountain House, and the Fabyan House. The grade of the 
road is 3,596 feet in three miles, and in some places is one foot in every three. 
The rails are three in number, bolted to a heavy trestlework of timber, the 
centre one resembling a ladder, between whose rounds the cogs of a wheel on 
the engine find an unfaihng purchase. However great the inclination of the 

cars may be, the seats maintain a 
uniformly horizontal position. 
The ascent is made in an hour 
and a half. 

The Notch, the gate to which 
is near the Crawford House, is a 
great gorge in the mountains 
which rise on either side to a 
height of 2.000 feet. At the 
Gateway these mountains, Web- 
ster on the right and Willey on 
the left, are only twenty-two 
feet apart- Ethan's Pond lies 
placidly at the top of Willey 
Mountain, and the great stone 
face of the Old Maid of the Mountain peers out from a spur of Mount Web- 
ster. The Devil's Pulpit is near the gate of the Notch, and close by are the 
profiles of the Infant and the Young Man of the Mountain. Near the sum- 
mit of Mount Willard is the Devil's Den, a cavern accessible by means of 
ropes. Proceeding a short distance down the Notch, the tourist meets the 
Flume, a narrow, deep gorge through which the waters rush with great 
rapidity ; and the most beautiful of all the falls on this side the mountain, the 
Silver Cascade, which is seen to admirable advantage on a moonlight even- 
ing. Three miles beyond the Willey Memorial House is the Sylvan Glade 
Cataract, considered by veteran travellers the most beautiful and impressive 
waterfall in the entire range of mountains. A mile above the cataract are 
several minor falls, the chief of which is the Sparkhng Cascade. The fol- 




THROUGH THE FRANCONIA NOTCH. 



8i6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



lowing is the name and height of each mountain of the range, in its order, 
beginning at the Notch: Mount Webster, 4,000 feet ; Mount Jackson, 4,100; 
Mount Clinton, 4,200; Mount Pleasant, 4,800; Mount Franklin, 4,900; Mount 
Monroe, 5,400 ; Mount Washington, 6,285 ' Mount Clay, 5,400 ; Mount JefTerson, 

5,700; Mount Adams, 
5,800; and Mount 
Madison, 5,400. 

The Franco nia 
Mountains, though to- 
tally distinct and pe- 
culiar, are usually con- 
sidered a part of the 
White Mountain 
range, and are always 
visited in connection 
with it. Two roads 
lead from Bethlehem 
to the Notch in this 
range, and both ex- 
tend over a high hill, 
from the summit of 
which the whole of 
the range is compre- 
hended in front, with 
the head of Lafay- 
ette rising above them 
all, and the dark por- 
tal of the notch ap- 
pears on the right. 
The Profile House is 
in the immediate vi- 
cinity of Echo Lake, 
a sheet of water of 
great depth and transparency, surrounded by green hills, and navigable by 
small boats; Cannon Mountain, or, as it is sometimes called. Profile Mountain, 
receiving its first name from the resemblance to a great gun which a rock 
upon its summit exhibits, and the second from the great stone face, or Old 




THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. 



8i8 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

Man of the Mountain, that appears on the southern extremity of ics crown; 
Eagle CHff, a huge columnar crag, separated from the rest of the mountain, 
and rising perpendicularly, the former eyrie of a family of eagles; Bald 
Mountain; the Cascade; Profile Lake, known also as Ferrier's Pond and the 
Old Man's Washbowl; and Mount Lafayette. 1,200 feet below Mount Wash- 
ington in height. Among the other attractions of the Franconia range are 
the Basin, a granite bowl, sixty feet in circumference and fifteen feet deep, 
into which the waters of the Pemigewasset River, flowing from Profile Lake, 
and passing over a rocky ledge, fall ; the Cascades below the outlet of the 
Basin ; the great Flume, where the walls of rock approach within ten feet of 
each other, and hold in their unrelenting embrace about midway to the 
bottom a huge granite boulder weighing several tons ; the Cascade below it ; 
the Pool, directly in front of the hotel ; and Georgianna, or Harvard, Falls, 
two miles below the Flume House, where the water plunges over the preci- 
pice in two leaps of eighty feet each. 

Another great curiosity of this part of New Hampshire is a remarkable 
pass, some sixty miles north of the White Mountains, and narrower than 
either of the great notches of the White Hills, known as the Dixville Notch. 
About half-way through the notch is Table Rock, a lofty, projecting pinnacle, 
from which one may look into Maine, Vermont, and Canada. 

To fully enjoy the marvellous scenery and grand monuments of nature in 
the White Mountains, at least two weeks' time should be allowed. And even 
with that and a constant riding and tramping, there will be much left over for 
a second season. But whether the weird region is visited once or more fre- 
quently, there can never be any lessening of interest, exhaustion of novelty, 
or regret at the expenditure of time, money, and energy. 



THE RANGELEY LAKES. 




HE Rangeley Lakes, often called the Androscoggin Lakes, are 
principally located in the western portion of the State of Maine, 
but about one-half of the lowest lake in the chain is situated in 
New Hampshire. There are six lakes in this remarkable series, but they are 
all connected by streams and form a continuous water-course for almost sixty 
miles. For the most part they lie in a densely wooded region, and they are 
among the most picturesque sheets of water to be found in the country. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 819 

The one unfortunate thing pertaining to them is the character of the names 
which they have received. They are known as the Oquossoc (the original 
Rangeley), Cupsuptic, Mooselucmaguntic, Molechunlcamunk, Welokenneba- 
cook, and Umbagog. The latter is partly in New Hampshire, and along its 
southern shore agricultural operations have been commenced. In the valley 
of the Magalloway River, one of the connecting streams, and around a con- 
siderable portion of Oquossoc Lake, there are also a good many farms. The 
remainder of this large territory remains in its original condition of a wilderness. 

While the region of the Rangeley Lakes is very beautiful and will prove 
attractive to all lovers of Nature, it is especially adapted to meet the wants of 
those who like to spend a considerable portion of their time in hunting and 
fishing. There are several good hotels, though they are not as numerous as 
they are at many summer resorts. But for parties who wish to " camp out," 
hunt, fish, take long walks, and spend most of their time in the open air it is a 
magnificent place. It is one of the very best sections for the sportsman, both 
as regards the quality of the game, and the degree of success attending its 
pursuit. Animals of various kinds, and in large numbers, are found in the 
adjacent mountains, while beautiful trout and other fine varieties of fish 
abound in the lakes. During the last of June and the first half of July, flies 
and mosquitoes are somewhat troublesome, but b}' proper precautions their 
attacks may be largely prevented. The lakes are from 1,250 to 1,500 feet 
above the sea, and lie among high mountains. Consequently the air is cool, 
even in summer, and an extra supply of warm clothing is indispensable to 
the comfort of the tourist who takes his vacation in this elevated region. 

The Rangeley Lakes are easily reached by the Grand Trunk Railroad. 
Portland, Maine, is the best point of departure. There are several trains per 
day, which are met at Bethel, about seventy miles from Portland, by stages 
which make the trip to Cambridge, New Hampshire, in about five hours. 
This town is located at the foot of Lake Umbagog. The route is through a 
broken country, but the scenery, including the valley of the Androscoggin 
River with its surrounding mountains, Mount Washington, and quite a portion 
of the White Mountain Range, is extremely beautiful and makes the trip, in 
spite of minor disadvantages, one of the finest in New England. From this 
point the other lakes of the chain are easily reached. Steamers ply upon the 
lakes, and upon the largest rivers in the vicinity, and boats are readily ob- 
tained on the smaller streams. Where water communication is impossible, 
teams are supplied by a local transportation company. 



820 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

The tourist who enters the Rangeley Lakes region, should not fail to 
visit the Dixville Notch, which is in the western portion of the district therein 
included. This notch is in the State of New Hampshire, and sharply divides 
the mountain range to its very foundations. The ravine is a mile and a 
quarter in length, and much narrower than the celebrated Franconia Notch 
in the White Mountains. The cliffs rise almost perpendicularly and present 
a general aspect of grandeur combined with desolation and decay. From 
Table Rock, which rises some 800 feet above the road and which is only about 
eight feet wide at the top, a magnificent view may be obtained. Points in 
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada, are easily seen from this 
elevated station. The mica-slate of which the cliffs are composed, is being 
rapidly disintegrated by the action of the elements, and many of the pinnacles 
of rock by which they are adorned, are being destroyed. The road through 
the Notch was constructed with great difificulty, and a large annual outlay is 
required to keep it in repair. Just outside the Notch, at the eastern end, 
there is an entire change of scene. Instead of the rugged, crumbling walls of 
the desolate chasm, we see the beautiful and luxuriant verdure of a meadow, 
through which flows a lovely stream. The mountains stand around, looking 
like solemn guards to keep the peaceful vale from harm. In the woods, at 
only a little distance from the road, there is also a series of cascades which 
are extremely beautiful. Many other objects of interest will be found by the 
tourist who will take the time and trouble to explore this attractive region. 
A hotel in the vicinity furnishes excellent accommodations to visitors, and 
those who have spent some time here seem agreed that while the locality is 
not as famous as some of the White Mountain resorts, its attractions are un- 
surpassed by those of its more widely-known rivals. 



ALONG THE HUDSON. 

HE Hudson, or North River, is one of the most majestic and impor- 
tant of North American streams. It rises in Essex County, New 
York, in the Adirondac Mountain region, about 3,000 feet above 
the level of the sea. After a devious course among the mountains it flows 
toward the east until it reaches Sandy Hill. Thence it continues nearly due 
south for 190 miles, when it empties into New York Bay. It is formed, in the 
mountains, by the union of two small streams and in its course receives 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 821 

several small tributuries before it reaches Cohoes. Here the Mohawk, a 
larger stream than the Hudson itself, unites with it. At Kingston, 88 miles 
from New York, the Wallkill River is received and many small streams join 
it at different points. 

The Hudson River is 300 miles in length, and is a tidal stream for nearly 
half its course. At Albany, 145 miles from the mouth of the river, the tide 
rises one foot. The fall in the bed of the river in this long distance is only 
five feet. Large steamers pass as far as Hudson, 116 miles up the river, and 
boats of considerable size are able to reach Troy, six miles above Albany. 
Beyond this place, sloops and smaller craft pass to Cohoes, which is the 
highest point to which the river is navigable. 

Between Hudson and Albany there are various obstructions, principally 
caused by shifting sand, which interfere with rapid navigation. To remove 
these obstacles the State of New York has at various times made large appro- 
priations, and the United States government has expended more than $1,500,- 
000. The United States also has erected more than twenty light-houses 
along the banks of the river. 

Above the point to which the river is navigable, the scenery along the 
shores is beautiful, and in many places romantic. There are also various 
rapids in the river and near Sandy Hill, about fifty miles north of Albany, 
are Glens Falls, which are well worth a visit. Here is a deep and wild ravine, 
900 feet in length, through which the river rushes over a rocky bed down a 
descent of fifty feet. Not only is it a picturesque locality, but it also has an 
interest to a multitude of readers from the fact that it was the scene of some 
of the important incidents in Cooper's famous novel, " The Last of the 
Mohicans." The place has been well fitted up as a summer resort and is quite 
popular with a large number of visitors. As the region of the Adirondacs is 
entered the scenery is pleasantly diversified and in many places is extremely 
picturesque and delightful. 

Many thousands of tourists who take a trip up the Hudson do not go be- 
yond the point which gives the most convenient access to the Catskill Moun- 
tains, which have become a sort of Mecca to pilgrims on the Hudson, whether 
from the South or the North. Still, large numbers wisely extend the trip from 
New York to Troy. Unfortunately, many of these tourists have but little 
time at their command and are consequently obliged to pass many interesting 
places and a great deal of beautiful scenery unnoticed. 

The trip along the Hudson can be made either by rail or by boat. If 



822 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

made by daylight the latter will give the most extensive views. Several 
steamers leave New York daily, except Sunday, for various points up the 
river— some of them going as far as Troy. On the east bank, the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad runs from New York to Albany, 
while on the west bank the West Shore Railroad takes passengers to the 
same city. 

Passing up the river on one of the large steamers, said to be the finest 
and the fastest which ply upon American inland waters, the tourist will obtain 
excellent views of New York City and harbor, of Jersey City, and of various 
suburbs. Soon the Palisades will appear on the western shore. This re- 
markable line of precipices, rising from 300 to 500 feet in height, is composed 
of trap rock and extends for a distance of about twenty miles. Upon the 
summit is a fine growth of forest trees. Upon this lofty height may be seen 
Fort Lee, which stands upon the site of an old Revolutionary fortification. 
Fifteen miles from New York, on the east side of the river, is the Convent of St. 
Vincent. Two miles beyond, on the same side of the river, is the large and 
growing town of Yonkers. At the end of the Palisades is Piermont. It is 
on the western shore, and is a terminus of a branch of the Erie Railroad. Its 
principal feature is a pier a mile long, which runs from the shore to a point 
at which the water is deep enough for large steamers. About three miles 
distant is the historic town of Tappan, at which Washington at one time had 
his headquarters and which was the place of execution of the unfortunate 
Major Andre. 

Beyond Piermont the river becomes much wider and assumes the form of 
a lake, which is called Tappan Zee. Its extreme width is about four miles 
and its length is nearly ten miles. On the east bank of this broad expanse 
of water, and about twenty-three miles from New York, is the little town of 
Irvington. This place derives its fame from the fact that here Washington 
Irving spent the last years of his life. His little cottage, " Sunnyside " still 
remains and is "one of the shrines of American pilgrimage." It stands upon 
the bank of the river, but the surrounding trees and shrubs hide it from the 
sight of parties on the boat. The east wall is covered with ivy which has 
grown from slips presented by Sir Walter Scott, and planted by Irving's own 
hands. A short distance above is Tarrytown, a favorite summer resort, and 
famous as the place at which Major Andre was captured. A valley, lying 
a little north of the town, through which flows the stream known as Mill River, 
is the original of the Sleepy Hollow with which Irving made the English-speak- 



824 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

ing world acquainted. The stone bridge referred to in the story of Ichabod 
Crane still remains, as does the Dutch church, which was built in 1699, and 
which is the oldest building in the State used for religious purposes. In the 
cemetery belonging to this church and located in Sleepy Hollow is Irving's 
grave. In Christ Church, of which Irving was one of the wardens during his 
last years, is a handsome tablet, which has been placed there to commemorate 
his virtues, and perpetuate his fame. 

Opposite Tarrytown is the beautiful town of Nyack, which is principally 
built on the river bank, but has many fine residences on the wooded hills 
which lie just back of the main part of the town, and rise above it to a con- 
siderable height. The large building on the bluff just south of the town is 
known in winter as the Rockland Female Institute, but in the summer it is 
used as a boarding-house, and is called the Tappan-Zee House, A little 
farther up the river is Rockland Lake, a pretty sheet of water lying among 
the hills, and of special interest to the inhabitants of New York City, from 
the fact that from this lake a large part of their ice supply is obtained. The 
lake itself is not seen from the boat, but a large pier from which the ice is 
loaded, and numerous storehouses, indicate its vicinity. 

Almost directly across the river from the lake is Sing Sing. The peculiar 
name comes from an Indian word signifying a " stony point." The town is 
most widely known as being the seat of one of the State Prisons. This cele- 
brated institution is located about three-fourths of a mile south of the village. 
The main building is nearly 500 feet long, is five stories high, and " accom- 
modates " 1,200 persons. Instead of the high walls by which prison grounds 
are usually inclosed the place is guarded by armed sentinels. But A\ithout 
regard to this somewhat exceptional feature of a popular resort the town is 
one of the most beautiful in the country, and is a desirable place for the 
tourist to visit. It is built on sloping ground, some of the streets being more 
than 200 feet higher than others which run parallel with them, and com- 
mands a magnificent view of the Hudson at its widest, and also one of its 
most beautiful points. Tappan Zee lies spread out in all its beauty below, 
and another broad expanse of the river, known as Haverstraw Bay, is in full 
\'iew just above. Across the river Mount Taurn rises to a height- of 640 feet, 
Nyack, Stony Point, and several other villages and towns are easily seen, and 
numerous other features add to the general attractiveness of the landscape. 
The Croton aqueduct is also an interesting point. The stone arch which 
supports the aqueduct has a span of eighty-eight feet and is over eighty feet 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 825 

above the water of the Sing Sing Kill. The town contains several important 
schools, fine church edifices, and many beautiful residences. 

Four miles above Sing Sing, Croton Point separates the Tappan Zee from 
the similar expansion of the river known as Haverstraw Bay. This penin- 
sula, now noted for its splendid vineyards, was formerly known as Teller's 
Point. It is the place where the Vulture was to remain for Major Andre 
while he negotiated for the betrayal of West Point by the traitor Arnold, 
but from which position, fortunately for the colonists and the cause of liberty, 
she was driven by a few zealous patriots with an old iron cannon which 
carried only a six-pound ball. Here the Croton River, from which the water 
supply of New York City is obtained, joins the Hudson. A dam across the 
stream, six miles from its mouth, converts it into an artificial lake. The 
dam is 250 feet long, seventy feet thick at the bottom, and forty feet high. 
From this lake an aqueduct more than forty miles in length conducts the 
water to the city. The capacity of the aqueduct is from two million to two 
and one-half million gallons of water per hour. The lake is easily reached 
by team from Sing Sing, or Croton, and attracts many visitors. 

On the western shore of Haverstraw Bay is the town of Haverstraw. 
Here, on "Treason Hill" stands the house in which Major Andre and Bene- 
dict Arnold arranged the terms for the betrayal of West Point. This house 
now does service as a summer boarding-house. On the shore of the river 
there are valuable banks of clay, and several miles of brick yards in which 
vast numbers of bricks of the finest quality are made every season. So valu- 
able are these beds of clay that the West Shore Railroad follows a circuitous 
course to avoid crossing them. In the neighborhood of Stony Point are 
some limestone cliffs from which immense quantities of lime are obtained. 
This town also has historical associations, having been the scene of a hard- 
fought battle during the Revolutionary War. The fortifications then secured 
by the British were afterward retaken by the Americans without a blow. 
A lighthouse now stands on the ground formerly occupied by the magazine 
of the old fort. On the opposite bank, and a little above Stony Point, is 
Peekskill, a small but pretty town, located on the steep hill which rises from 
the river. It received its name from Jan Peek, a Dutch explorer, who settled 
here, in 1764. For a while during the Revolution, General Putnam had his 
headquarters here and Washington also remained here a short time. To the 
present generation it became somewhat noted as the summer home of the 
late Henry Ward Beecher. East of the town, and some 900 feet above the 



^ ^^ 





Q 

w 
o 

OS 

DO 

o 



M Q 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 827 

river, is Lake Mohensick. The distance is about six miles, through a 
picturesque region. The lake is a beautiful sheet of water, and the scenery 
in the vicinity is delightful. Nearly opposite Peekskill lies Dunderberg 
Mountain, the first peak of the celebrated Highlands reached in the journey 
from New York. 

From this point, for a distance of fifteen or twenty miles through the 
Highland region, the scenery is magnificent. Its beauty gives the Hudson a 




NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO THE HUDSON HIGHLANDS. 



valid claim to the title of "The Rhine of America," and fully justifies the 
claim that it is unsurpassed by any river-scenery in the world. 

In the midst of the Highland region is the famous Military Academy at 
West Point. This town is on the west side of the river, on a plateau some 
160 feet above the bank, with still more elevated points lying at but little 
distance to the west. On account of the school, the historic association of 
the locality, and the magnificent views which it presents, West Point is one 
of the most noted resorts in the State. Some of the buildings are very fine 
specimens of architecture, and have many interesting features and associa- 
tions. The Museum contains a large collection of relics, models, trophies of 
the various wars in which the country has engaged, and numerous other 



828 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

articles of interest. From the ruins of Fort Putnam, of Revolutionary fame, 
a splendid view may be obtained. There are many beautiful walks and 
drives in the vicinity and large and fine hotels furnish ample accommoda- 
tions for visitors. In the river, a little distance above the town, is Constitu- 
tion Island, on which Elizabeth Wetherell (Miss Susan Warner), author of 
" The Wide, Wide World," " Queechy," and other famous novels, had her 
home for many years with her younger sister, Anna, who wrote many popu- 
lar stories under the name of Amy Lathrope. 

Cornwall, a small but beautiful town on the west bank of the river, is 
probably the most popular of all the summer resorts on the Hudson. Here 
are many beautiful and fruitful vineyards and delightful scenes open to the 
eye in every direction. From this point Storm King, the last and one of the 
highest peaks of the Highlands, can be reached. From the summit, 1,529 
feet above the sea, a wide and magnificent view is obtained. In the village 
are several large and well-kept hotels. The place is of interest to people 
with literary tastes from the fact that Idlewild, the home of the late N. P. 
Willis, is on one of its beautiful elevations. Here, too, the late Rev. E. P. 
Roe wrote nearly all of his wonderfully successful novels, and also gave an 
impetus to the business of small fruit culture which has been of immense 
benefit to all the region around as well as an indirect advantage to the country 
at large. Four miles above Cornwall, and nearly sixty miles from New 
York, is the historic city of Newburg. It is located on a slope rising 'some 
300 feet above the river, has about 18,000 inhabitants, is beautiful in itself 
and commands fine views of other localities. The old stone house in which 
Washington for a time had his headquarters in the War for Independence 
still remains, and is now owned by the State. This house was built in 1 750 
and contains a large number of interesting relics. It is freely opened to the 
public. From this place the proclamation disbanding the army was issued, 
and at a little distance is a monument erected jointly by the United States 
and the State of New York to commemorate the successful termination of 
the Revolution. Immediately across the river is Fishkill. Immense ferry 
boats, each large enough to take a full train of cars at a trip, ply between 
tlie two places. Here the West Shore road connects with the New York and 
New England Railroad, which has its western terminus at Fishkill. This gives 
a through line to Boston by way of Hartford, and passes through several im 
portant manufacturing centres. 

Abovis Newburg the scenery is charming, but presents no very imposing 




He&iiif^^ 



NEWBUKGH, N. Y., SCENES. 



830 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

features. The region is celebrated for the immense quantity and excellent 
quality, as well as for the great variety of fruit which it produces every year. 
At Poughkeepsie, seventy-five miles from New York, there are large manu- 
facturing and commercial interests. The plain on which the city is built rises 
some 200 feet above the river, with a range of high hills in the rear. This 
elevated and protected location renders the name, derived from an Indian 
word meaning " a safe and pleasant place," singularly appropriate. In early 
times considerable latitude was allowed in the manner of spelling the name» 
It is asserted that in existing records it is spelled in forty-two different ways. 
The city is noted for its educational interests. Vassar College, the largest 
among the female colleges of the country, is on a beautiful and elevated site 
about two miles east of the city and attracts large numbers of visitors as well 
as students. There are half a dozen other important institutions of learning 
and many fine public and private buildings. A little north of the city are 
the large buildings of the State Lunatic Asylum. The great railroad bridge 
across the Hudson, which connects New England with the coal regions of 
Pennsylvania, is well worthy a visit. Including the approaches, it is about 
one and one-third miles in length. In its construction about 15,000 tons of 
steel and more than 6,000 toiis of iron were used. It is built in the cantilever 
style and its construction is one of the great engineering feats of the age. 
The end spans and the centre span give a clear space to the water of 160 feet, 
while the others rise 130 feet above the surface. From the water to the top of 
the rail is 212 feet. This bridge is one of the finest and strongest ever built. 
Across the river from Poughkeepsie is New Paltz Landing. It is reached 
by a ferry, and from it a line of stages runs to the beautiful Lake Mohonk, 
in the Wallkill Valley region. Passengers on the West Shore Railroad, ot 
on the Erie, going up the west bank of the river, reach New Paltz by rail and 
from thence go to the lake by stage or private conveyance. Kingston, 88 
miles from New York, is an interesting place, and is also a favorite point of 
departure for the Catskill Mountain region. Directly opposite is Rhinebeck 
Landing. Here may be seen the Beekman House, erected nearly 200 years 
ago and said to be the most perfect specimen of the old-fashioned Dutch 
homestead now remaining in the Hudson River Valley. Catskill, 1 10 miles 
above New York, on the west side of the river, is a famous summer resort as 
well as a point from which passengers leave for the Catskill Mountains. 
Hudson, a few miles further up the river, and on the east bank, is built upon 
a rocky cliff and extends up the slope of the hill to a point 500 feet above the 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 831 

river. From the high ground splendid views of the Catskill and other moun- 
tains may be obtained. Five miles away, in the Claverack Valley, is the 
quiet and pleasant resort known as Columbia Springs. There is a beautiful 
lake near by offering excellent opportunities for boating and fishing. Not 
far distant are the Claverack Falls, where the water passes over a precipice 
ninety feet high, and the scenery presents many picturesque features. 




.VIEW OF THE Turk's face on the Hudson. 

At Albany the visitor finds one of the oldest settlements by Europeans in 
the United States. It has been an incorporated city more than 200 years, 
and the permanent capital of the State for more than ninety years. It is lo- 
cated on the west bank of the Hudson and extends for more than three miles 
and a half along the river. The ground is very low along the shore, but 
gradually rises until it reaches a tableland 150 feet high a few miles west, thus 
giving, when viewed from the east, a splendid presentation of its public and 



832 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

private buildings. Of the many objects of interest the new Capitol building 
easily holds the first rank. This enormous structure will cost, when com- 
pleted, about $20,000,000. More than $2,000,000 were required to complete 
the foundations and the walls of the basement. The building is 390 feet 
long, 290 feet wide, and four stories high. The corner stone was laid in 
1871. With the exception of the National Capitol at Washington, this is 
considered the finest public building in the country. 

It is an interesting fact that on the banks of the Hudson that curious relic 
of the Middle Ages known as the Feudal System was established soon after 
the settlement of this nominally free country and continued in existence for 
a long period. Large tracts of land were granted to various parties, who 
were known as patroons. In the vicinity of Albany a grant of a tract of land, 
twenty-four miles square on both sides of the Hudson was made to the Van 
Rensselaer family in 1629. The lands thus obtained were leased by the patroons 
to settlers, who paid them a certain fixed rental each year, either in cash or 
in the products of the soil. The system, though nominally done away in 
1787, was not entirely abandoned until after the political party known as the 
Anti-renters, in 1846, secured the insertion of a clause in the State Constitu- 
tion abolishing feudal rights and tenures and prohibiting the leasing of land 
for farming purposes for a longer term than twelve years. The old manor- 
house of the Van Rensselaer family is still standing and there are various 
other buildings in the older part of the city which have an interest to the 
tourist as well as to the antiquarian and the historian. 

At Troy, the final landing place of the boat and the last point to visit on 
the trip, the tourist will find various educational institutions, many beautiful 
buildings, and several large manufactories. But the chief point of interest 
will be Oakwood Cemetery, and a visit thereto will be well repaid. This 
Cemetery is located on high land, from which may be obtained a splendid 
view of the Mohawk Valley and of the falls at Cohoes. Within the inclosure 
are the graves of two Major-Generals of the United States army — George H. 
Thomas and John E. Wool. The obelisk erected as a monument to General 
Wool is seventy-five feet high and is said to be the largest stone taken out 
of a quarry during the last 3,000 years. 



THE ADIRONDACS. 




HE Adirondac region lies in the northeastern corner of the State 
of New York. Thirty years ago it was almost entirely unknown. 
At the present time, although mainly a wilderness, it is a very 
popular summer resort. It is a vast plateau extending from the St. Lawrence 
River on the northwest nearly to the Mohawk River on the south, and to 
Lake George and Lake Champlain on the east, and lying about 2,000 feet 
above the level of the sea. It is crossed from southwest to northeast by five 
ranges of mountains. Several of the peaks are about 5,000 feet in height and 
Mount Marcy reaches an altitude of 5,370 feet. Though there are peaks in 
New Hampshire and in North Carolina which rise to a greater height, the 
general elevation of the Adirondacs is greater than that of any chain east of 
the Rocky Mountains. 

These mountains form the watershed between the "St. Lawrence River and 
the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. Among them, at an elevation of about 
3,000 feet, the Hudson has its rise. At only a short distance from this point, 
which is in the Indian Pass, one of the wildest portions of the region and to a 
great extent still unexplored, are the springs of the Ausable River, which 
flows into Lake Champlain. Though starting close together, the waters of 
these rivers are hundreds of miles apart when they reach the Atlantic Ocean. 
The most beautiful river in the region is the Raquette, rising in Raquette 
Lake and flowing a distance of 120 miles until it reaches the St. Lawrence. 

In this region there are said to be more than 500 mountains. Only a 
small portion of them have yet been named. Except at the summits of those 
which rise above the timber line, these mountains are covered with heavy 
forests. On the lower lands there is also a dense growth of trees, largely 
evergreens, which at many points are almost impenetrable. In the woods, 
and especially upon the mountains, various kinds of game abound. There 
are some ferocious animals as well as deer and several fur-bearing animals. 

The number of lakes and ponds in the Adirondacs which have received 
names and been definitely located exceeds 1,000. They vary in extent from 
an area of a few acres to a length of twenty miles. The general elevation of 
these lakes is some 1,500 feet above the sea level, but many of them are much 
higher, and at least one. Lake Perkins, lies at an altitude of over 4,000 feet. 



834 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The shores of these lakes are covered with rank grass and aquatic plants and 
their waters are liberally stocked with fish of good size and fine varieties. 
The largest lakes are the Saranac, Raquette. Schroon Lake, Blue Mountain 
Lake, Long Lake, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, and the chain of Fulton Lakes. 

Travelling throughout the region is largely done by means of small boats. 
The lakes are connected by rivers and small streams. A guide is needed for 
the double purpose of leading the way and carrying the boat where sailing is 
impracticable. Camps will be found at various points and in the most fre 
quented sections hotels have been erected. Within a few years railroads 
have been constructed and stage lines established, and it is now compara- 
tively easy to reach the most popular portions of the region. The Adirondac 
Railroad from Saratoga to North Creek leads directly into the district. The 
Chateaugay Railroad from Plattsburg, lying on Lake Champlain, reached 
from New York by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Railroad, runs 
to Saranac Lake. From Boston the tourist reaches Burlington by the Ver- 
mont Central Railroad and crosses the lake by a steamer to Plattsburg. 

The general aspect of the Adirondac region is said to closely resemble 
that of the Highlands of Scotland and the more elevated regions of Switzer- 
land before they were settled. There are areas of considerable extent which 
no white man has ever traversed and in which " untamed nature in all its 
purity " holds undisputed sway. Throughout the whole region the scenery is 
wild and romantic and we can easily believe the assertion of experienced 
travellers that it has " no parallel in the world." 



THE REGION OF THE CATSKILLS. 




HOUGH somewhat separated from the main line, the Catskills be- 
long to the great Appalachian range of mountains, which extend, 
in a southwesterly direction some 1,300 miles from the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to the State of Alabama, and which throughout their entire course 
are but a comparatively short distance from the Atlantic coast. The Cats 
kills lie principally in Greene County, N. Y., rising from a plain about ten 
miles wide on the west bank of the Hudson River. 

One of the principal points, and for many years the only place of departure 
for the interior of the mountain region, is Catskill, no miles from New York 
City, and itself a famous summer resort. Situated on the west bank of 




A VIEW IN THE CATSKILLS. 



836 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

the river, at the mouth of Catskill Creek, it long ago became known as the 
" Gem of the Hudson," and although many new rivals have been brought 
to public notice it still maintains its popularity. The beautiful and varied 
scenery, the plains and cliffs, the forests interspersed with cultivated fields, 
the mountain-brooks and the quiet glens, combine to make it a place for 
rest and peace. In this town Thomas Cole, the famous painter, lived for 
many years, and here, in 1848, he died. It was while residing here that the 
two series of his celebrated allegorical pictures entitled " The Voyage of 
Life," and " The Course of Empire," were painted. While Catskill is a 
most attractive place, and in some portions very quiet, the town is also 
quite a business centre, a fact which makes it a favorite resort of city people 
who desire to find rest and refreshment, but who also wish to remain in 
close connection with the active affairs of the world. It is a point from 
which either the mountains or the city can be very easily and quickly reached. 
The opening of new railroads has made it easy to reach the resorts in the 
Catskills from Kingston, also on the west bank of the Hudson River. This 
city, eighty-eight miles from New York, is readily reached from that point 
by the West Shore Railroad on the west side of the river; by the New York 
Central and Hudson River Railroad on the east side, connecting at Rhinebeck 
with Rondout, a suburb of Kingston, by a steam ferry; or by steamer up 
the Hudson. Kingston was settled by the English in 1614. Here the State 
Constitution was adopted and the first Legislature of the State of New York 
was convened. The old house in which the Constitution was written is still 
standing. In 1872 the villages of Rondout and W'ilbur were incorporated 
with Kingston as a city. Here the Delaware and Hudson Canal has its 
eastern terminus. Through this canal 1,500,000 tons of coal are brought 
every year. From this port enormous quantities of blue flagging stones for 
paving the sidewalks of New York City are annually shipped and here is 
located the largest cement manufactory in the United States. Rondout 
Creek, about a mile south of Kingston, is crossed by trains on the W'est Shore 
Railroad by means of a bridge a fourth of a mile long and 195 feet above the 
water. Just beyond the bridge the train passes through a tunnel 400 feet in 
length. From this point it is only a short distance to the fine Union Depot, 
built in the Queen Anne style, which is used by the West Shore, the Wallkill 
Valley, and the Ulster and Delaware railroads. It is at Kingston that the 
traveller passing up the Hudson by the West Shore Railroad gains his first 
clear view of the Catskills. Leaving this ancient town by the Ulster and 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 837 

Delaware Railroad he can pass to the very centre of the mountain region, 
where the breezes are fresh and cool, and the most beautiful scenery greets 
the eye in whatever direction it may be turned. 

From time immemorial the Catskills have been famed for their beauty and 
grandeur. Before the advent of the white man the Indian rejoiced to gaze 
upon their massive forms and feast his eye upon their wondrous beauty. He 
imagined that in this glorious region was the home of the Great Spirit who 
ruled the Universe, and he looked with awe upon the peaks which to his un- 
taught mind were the visible dwelling place of a Being who was clothed with 
the glory and mystery of a mighty power of which he saw many evidences, 
but which he could in no-wise comprehend. To him they were the " blissful 
regions," the land of rest and peace. The early Dutch settlers also had a 
certain degree of superstitious reverence for this locality. They imagined 
that from the beautiful heights the soul of Henry Hudson watched with joy 
and pride the ceaseless flow of the magnificent river which he discovered and 
which bears his honored name. And when Washington Irving, the first and 
foremost of the great American writers of fiction, wove the various legends 
of the section into his charming tales, he attracted the attention of the Eng- 
lish-speaking world to the manifold beauties of the region and gave to the 
Catskills, as well as received for himself, a deserved and an enduring fame. 

The proximity of the region to New York, and the ease with which it can 
be reached from the principal points in the Eastern and Central States, unite 
with its wonderful natural attractions to make it a favorite summer resort for 
multitudes of the residents of these sections. Yet, while close to the great 
centres of civilization and easily reached by parties who need rest as well as 
recreation, the Catskill region to a great extent maintains its primitive simplic- 
ity. Large hotels are numerous, boarding houses abound, many beautiful 
private residences have been erected, and there are various centres of business 
life and activity. But close to these are quiet walks and silvery streams, 
the beautiful trees and the towering mountain peaks, and the peace and quiet 
of nature unchanged by man. The mountain roads pass through a wonder- 
ful variety of scenery and at many points seem to bring the traveller to a 
" fairy land." Those who long for the life and gayety of fashion will find all 
they desire at the large hotels, while those in search of rest can readily find 
quiet and peaceful homes. There is room enough for all and nature spreads 
her beauties and her glories with a lavish hand for all who come. 

Though none of the mountains rise to a great height, the views from many 



838 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



of the peaks are really magnificent. Not only is the adjacent region spread 
out to view, but far outlying localities can be plainly seen. From some points 
the Hudson River and the fruitful valley through which it flows can be seen 
for nearly a hundred miles. They form a picture of beauty which once be- 
held will never be forgotten. The highest 
point is believed to be the Slide Mountain, 
which reaches an altitude of 4,220 feet above 
the tide level. It is near the centre of the 
Catskill region and is one of a group of nota- 
ble peaks. Several of the hotels of this region 
are located from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the 
sea. From many lower points, as well as from 
the higher elevations, splendid views may 
also be obtained. Indeed, so numerous and 
varied are the attractions of the landscape 
that, go where he will in all this section, the 
1 ourist will find a scene of beauty constantly 
pen before him. The several railroads and 
stage lines make it comparatively 
^^ ^ easy to reach any part of the re- 
gion, and a long distance can be 
passed and many views obtained 
in a limited time, though it is far 
more satisfactory to move slowly 
and allow the pictures to become 
indelibly impressed upon the 
mind. Some of the railroads are 
narrow gauge, and have very 
steep grades to overcome. In 
one case, there is a grade of 180 
feet to the mile, while a rise of 
140 feet in that distance is not 
uncommon. Even with these steep inclines it is often necessary to choose a 
winding pathway, and make the running distance between stations several 
miles farther than it would be if a straight line could be followed. 

Among the many points of interest in the Catskill region Sunset Rock is 
deserving of special mention. It is located in the Eastern Catskills, only a 




KAATERSKII.I. FAU.S. 




VIEW ON LAKE MINNEWASKA. 



840 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

short distance from the famous Hotel Kaaterskill, and ov^erhangs the Kaater- 
skill Clove. It is a table rock with an almost perpendicular descent of 1,500 
feet, while l}'ing opposite is the Kaaterskill High Peak, which rises in full 
view for its entire height of 4,000 feet. Looking down the Clove, the valley of 
the Hudson is seen spread out in wondrous beauty. At the head of the Clove 
Haines's Falls glimmer in the sun, while looking far inland the giant form of 
Hunter Mountain comes into view. The Clove itself is also one of the grandest 
features of the region. It is a ravine some five miles in length, at the head of 
which two rivulets unite. The stream thus formed flows rapidly to a point 
where a division in the mountain leaves an immense hollow forming a cata- 
ract of 180 feet, while just below are two falls of eighty feet and forty feet 
respectively. This cascade of 300 feet makes a wonderful scene of beauty in 
summer, and is said to be still more attractive in the winter when the sun- 
light is reflected by the ice, which in a multitude of fantastic forms beautifully 
decorates the falls. 

Overlook Mountain, which has been styled " the corner stone " of the 
Catskills, is also an important point of observation. From the hotel located 
here a fine view can be obtained, while from Grand View Rock, only a mile 
away, the outlook is beautiful beyond description, and is said by experienced 
travellers to be one of the finest in the world. The Hudson River can be seen 
for nearly 100 miles, five ranges of mountains besides the Catskills are in full 
vjew, as are also portions of seven different States. The range of vision is 
said to cover the vast area of 30,000 square miles. From the little observa- 
tory which has been erected at the top of Slide Mountain, in the Western 
Catskills, the view is also extensive and magnificent. The Berkshire Hills in 
Massachusetts, the Hudson River, and many mountains in New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania are clearly seen in the distance, while the Catskill region lies 
spread out in beauty and grandeur close at hand. Less imposing, but per- 
haps not less beautiful, views are to be obtained in many of the valleys of 
this " enchanted land," Beautiful drives and pleasant walks abound. The 
merry flow of the mountain streams, the beauty of tree and flower, and the 
silent grandeur of the adjacent peaks rearing their heads to the sky, combine 
to form a scene of loveliness of which the beholder never tires. If more 
sombre scenes are desired, the deep gorges of the region, in which snow and 
ice remain during the entire year, their sides covered with rich, dark ever- 
greens which shut out the sun yet which point toward the light will give the 
thoughts a tinge of sadness and solemnity which brighter views do not impart. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 841 

Li this wild region Nature can be seen in all her varied moods and the visitor 
can choose the aspect in which to him she shall appear. 

The sportsman, as well as the admirer of natural beauty, may here find 
abundant diversion ; excellent hunting and fishing being found throughout the 
section. The routes from New York to the Catskills have already been men- 
tioned. From Boston this delightful region is easily reached by the Boston 
and Albany Railroad, or the Hoosac Tunnel Route, with their connecting 
north and south lines, while our Canadian friends who wish to visit it will find 
excellent accommodations on the Grand Trunk road with its connecting lines. 
Several recently constructed railroads have made all portions of the Catskill 
section easily accessible, and it is now possible to start from the Hudson, pass 
through the entire length of the region, and return in a single day. A less 
hurried trip will be found far more satisfactory, but even this brief visit will 
be remembered with joy as long as life remains. 

Lying a little to the south of the mountains, but properly noted in con- 
nection with the Catskill region, is the Wallkill Valley, which presents numer- 
ous beautiful scenes and through which a path can be found to many charming 
resorts. It is easily reached from Kingston by the Wallkill Valley Railroad. 
The fertility of its soil as well as the attractions of its scenery made it a favor- 
ite locality with the early settlers of the country. It was discovered and set- 
tled by Huguenot refugees who fled from France to avoid religious persecu- 
tion. They cleared a portion of the land, planted vines upon the hillsides, 
and made the former wilderness to " blossom as the rose." The town of 
New Paltz, on the east side of Wallkill Creek, and on the Wallkill Valley Rail- 
road, was settled in 1683. It still bears, after the lapse of two centuries with 
the tremendous progress which has been made and the vast changes which 
have taken place in all the civilized world, the impress of the quaint and in- 
dustrious toilers who here found civil liberty and freedom to worship God. 
Some of the houses which they erected are standing to-day, and afford a curi- 
ous contrast to the structures of modern times. 

From New Paltz the Shawangunk Mountains are in view and a stage 
route leads to their various places of interest. Sky Top, one of the highest 
peaks of the range, is an interesting as well as prominent feature of the land- 
scape. Near its summit is Lake Mohonk, a beautiful sheet of water, lying 
nearly 1,250 feet above the level of the sea. A carriage road has been con- 
structed by which the lake can be readily reached. The view from all the 
upper portion of the route is rich and varied, while the lake itself, inclosed 



842 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

with rugged cliffs and massive rocks, is wonderful in its placid loveliness. 
Upon this mountain peak a fine hotel has been erected and many winding 
paths lead to the points from which the finest views may be obtained. The 
lake, though comparatively narrow, is about half a mile in length, and the 
water, which is 8o feet deep, is always clear and cold. About six miles far- 
ther on, and also located on a mountain peak, is Lake Minnewaska. This 
beautiful sheet of water is about 1,650 feet above the level of the sea and, like 
Lake Mohonk, is hemmed in by rocky walls. On Minnewaska Heights, a 
cliff overlooking the lake, two hotels have been erected, and from their win- 
dows very fine and extensive views may be obtained. The Green Mountains 
of Vermont, the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, the Housatonic Moun- 
tains of Connecticut, the Catskills and several other groups of mountains in 
New York, are all in sight, while many valleys, and lakes, and rivers, with 
villages and towns, add their attractions to the general beauty. Only a short 
distance from these houses may be seen the Aw^osting Falls, where a small 
stream of water has a clear fall of 60 feet, while about half a mile farther on 
its course, by a series of beautiful and rapid descents, it drops to a level one 
hundred feet lower still. In the vicinity are many other places of interest, 
including several caves and bluffs, a magnificent forest of hemlocks, and the 
placid Lake Awosting; all of which are within easy reach and by the beauti- 
ful views which they present will amply repay a visit from tourists who find 
their way to this delightful region. 



SARATOGA SPRINGS. 




HE town of Saratoga Springs has long been famous as a summer 
resort and for at least a quarter of a century has held the position 
of " Queen " of the inland watering places in America. It owes its 
fame to the wonderful mineral springs which it contains and to the large and 
elegant hotels which have here been erected, and which are said to be more 
luxurious and magnificent in their appointments than those of any other 
watering place in the world. Of these hotels the United States accommo- 
dates about 2,000 people, the Grand Union 1,800, and Congress Hall j;,ooo, 
while several others care for from 250 to 750 each. At several of the hotels 
fine orchestras are kept throughout the season. In all there are more than 
50 hotels and there are also a large number of boarding-houses. The town is 




THE AWOSTING FALLS. 



844 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

located in Saratoga County, New York, i86 miles from New York City, 36 
miles north of Albany, and 238 miles west and north of Boston. The name 
is from an Indian word meaning "the place of the herrings," and was doubt- 
less suggested by the sight of large numbers of this variety of fish which for- 
merly passed up the Hudson River to Saratoga Lake. The region around 
the Springs is also an historic locality. In 1693 it was the scene of conflict 
between the English and the French, and in this vicinity the great battle of 
Saratoga was fought in 1777. The latter was not only one of the most im- 
portant battles in the struggle of the colonists for independence, but, on ac- 
count of its far-reaching results, is included among the fifteen decisive battles 
of the world. 

The mineral springs, and their value in the treatment of disease, were 
known to the Indians at a very early period. When Cartier, the French ex- 
plorer, was in the region of the St. Lawrence in 1534 he was told of the 
springs by members of the Iroquois tribe with whom he came in contact. 
But he did not visit them, and it is supposed that the first white man who 
ever saw the springs or tested the waters was Sir William Johnson. He was 
the first white resident in the region. He settled among the Mohawk In- 
dians, and by his kind treatment and fair dealings soon acquired their respect 
and confidence. One of the various offices which he held under the govern- 
ment of Great Britain was that of superintendent of matters pertaining to 
the Indians in this vicinity. In 1767, during a period of illness, some of his 
Indian friends carried him to the High Rock Spring, and by the use of its 
water he was soon restored to health. The first framed house was built at 
the Springs in 1784 by General Schuyler and the first hotel in or about 181 5. 
The popularity of the waters rapidly increased and in 1826 their exportation 
in bottles was commenced. This business has assumed vast proportions and 
the waters of some of the springs are now sent to all parts of the civilized 
world. Several new springs have been discovered and a few have been 
opened by drills. There are now twenty-eight springs, from six of which the 
water spouts into the air. Among the most popular of the springs are the 
Congress, discovered in 1792; the Hathorn, discovered in 1868; the Empire, 
High Rock, and Columbian. Among the spouting springs are the Geyser, 
opened in 1870 by an artesian well 140 feet deep, and the Glacier, opened in 
1 87 1 by boring a well to the depth of 300 feet. 

The different springs vary greatly in the chemical constituents of their 
waters, and the effects which they produce upon the human system. Some 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 845 

contain iodine, sulphur, and magnesia. Some also contain lime and others are 
strongly impregnated with iron. All are charged with carbonic-acid gas. 
The waters of some of the springs are cathartic in their action and are valu- 
able for liver and kidney troubles, dyspepsia, and gout. Those of other 
springs act as a tonic, while those of the remaining classes seem to be useful 
in various other ways. The waters of some of these springs are used for 
bathing, and are very efficacious in certain forms of illness. For the diseases 
to the treatment of which they are specially adapted these waters are among 
the most efficient curative agents yet discovered. 

Saratoga Springs is not less famed as a fashionable summer resort than 
it is for the medicinal quality of its waters. While many invalids frequent 
the place in search of health, the great majority of the visitors go merely for 
pleasure, which, if their purses are well filled, they can pursue here with less 
difficulty and greater success than they can elsewhere. Multitudes of the 
wealthiest and most fashionable people of the country spend a few weeks of 
the summer season at this beautiful retreat. The air is clear, splendid trees 
abound, the streets and avenues are well laid out, and the excellent roads 
leading in all directions into the country furnish beautiful and attractive 
drives. A camp of Indians is located near by and adds variety if not beauty 
to the scene. 

Saratoga Lake, lying four miles from the Springs, is a beautiful sheet of 
water and offers one of the finest courses for boating found anywhere. The 
fishing is also excellent. There are ample hotel accommodations, and the 
lake is a favorite place of resort both for day and evening parties. Only a 
short distance from the village there is one of the finest race-courses in the 
country. It is controlled by a local association, but is famous throughout the 
land for the brilliant races which have here been held. Many of the most 
noted horses in the United States have been speeded upon this track, and 
regular and largely attended meetings for racing are held during the months 
of July and August of each year.* 

Saratoga Springs is also an excellent place from which to make excursions 
to various points, including the Saratoga Battle Ground, Lake Luzerne, in 
the Adirondacs, Lake George, Lake Champlain, and Mt. McGregor. The 
latter point is reached by the Saratoga, Mt. McGregor, and Lake George Rail- 
road. It is about 1,200 feet above the sea. The distance is 11 miles and the 
trip is made in 40 minutes. From many points along the route very fine 
views of both the Catskill and the Adirondac mountains are obtained. At 



846 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

the summit is a large hotel and a park of 1,000 acres, with fine walks and 
drives. Within a short distance there is excellent fishing and good boating. 
The scenery, including both the near and the more distant views, is diversi- 
fied and beautiful. The air is remarkably clear and pure. To large numbers 
of people, especially to soldiers, the principal object of interest will be the 
cottage in which General Grant died, and which has since become the prop- 
erty of the State of New York. 

As already intimated Saratoga Springs is pre-eminently a pleasure resort. 
Quiet houses can be found in which one can rest, but the large hotels are the 
recognized centres of fashionable amusements. There " the days are given 
up to ease, and the nights to mirth and pleasure," and the season is a constant 
round of the gayest enjoyments. There are several newspapers and each of 
the leading religious denominations has one or more churches. The perma- 
nent population is from 8,000 to 10,000 and the additional summer population 
ranges from 15,000 to 20,000. During the season, special and luxurious rail- 
road trains are run from several large cities, as Boston, Washington, Phila- 
delphia, and New York, to accommodate the large number of visitors who 
want to make the trip to the Sprin.gs as quickly and as comfortably as pos- 
sible. 




LAKE GEORGE. 

ROM the day that Fenimore Cooper began describing the glories 
and emphasizing the historical associations of its vicinage, this 
beautiful sheet of water has possessed a remarkable interest for 
all Americans. No other similar resort has so much of history, of romance, 
of natural beauty, of the very essence of quietude and repose, and no other 
is so popular to-day. It is the most democratic resort in the country, and 
its frequenters are thoroughly cosmopolit^i. Unlike almost all other sum- 
mer recreation grounds, it offers equal opportunities to the rich and poor to 
enjoy its myriad advantages. It is not an exclusive resort for the w^ealthy, 
for beyond the extravagances of the ultra-fashionable class, one may obtain 
as much health-giving recreation and enjoyment out of the little as out of 
the much. On the one hand wealth can find just as many avenues for ex- 
penditure as at the most exclusive caravansery, and on the other the means 
that have to be estimated and counted frequently can secure an equal amount 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 847 

of invigorating profit. The pure mountain air is free to all, the rare beau- 
ties of the lake and its surrounding scenery are open to all for the mere look- 
ing; and the scrambler in the woods along the shore stands a fair chance of 
receiving more real benefit from the natural advantages of the place than he 
Avho pays a summer's income for a suite of rooms in the finest hotel. Camp- 
ing out is the favorite method of seeking enjoyment at a comparatively small 
■expense, and in many respects it is the best. With few exceptions the 
numerous islands in the lake belong to the State, and camping parties are 
privileged to locate on any of them. A trip up the lake at any time during 
"" the season " will reveal hundreds of tents half hidden by the trees that line 
the shores, in which whole families pass the entire period of their annual 
outing. 

The lake lies partly in Warren and partly in Washington counties, N. Y., 
extends north-northeast and south-southwest, is thirty-six miles long, and 




CAMPING ON THE LAKE. 



from one to four miles wide. It is encircled by the foothills of the Adiron- 
dac Mountains, is 310 feet above tide, and has a northern outlet into Lake 
Champlain. The water is remarkably clear and of variable depth, the ex- 
treme being about 400 feet. At the present time it contains about 300 
islands, though once it was locally claimed that a person could spend every 
day in the year upon a. separate island. In the days of the Indian occupa- 
tion it was known as Lake Horicon, " silvery waters," which, like all Indian 
nomenclature, was at once indicative of truthfulness and suggestive of pictur- 
esque description. Early in the seventeenth century it was discovered by the 
French, who piously named it Le Lac du St. Sacrament, " Lake of the Holy 
Sacrament," and were in the habit of carrying its water long distances for 
baptismal purposes. Later on, and after the English had captured all that 
section, Sir William Johnson, prompted by his loyalty, named it Lake George, 



848 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

after King George IL, then on the throne. Though this name has since clung 
to it, and is in no wise appropriate, any one who* has enjoyed its attractions 
cannot but regret that tlie descriptive Indian designation has been allowed 
to become obsolete. History, as well as tradition, lingers around it, invest- 
ing many spots with more than ordinary interest. It was the scene of im- 
portant military operations during the French and Indian war of 1755-59, 
Fort George, Fort William, and other defensive works were erected there, 
and their remains are still visible. Col. Williams, the founder of Williams 
College, Mass., was killed, and Baron Djeskau, the French commander, 
severely wounded and his force totally routed by the English near the south- 
ern end of the lake on September 5th, 1755 ; the French General Montcalm be- 
sieged Fort William near by with 10,000 men, and forced the English garrison 
to surrender, after v/hich they were massacred by the Indian allies, in 1757; 
General Abercrombie, with 15,000, attacked Ticonderoga unsuccessfully, after 
passing up the lake in boats, in July, 1758; and General Amherst, with about 
the same force, repeated the journey and captured both Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, in July, 1759. There, too. General Burgoyne, before starting 
on his memorable march to Saratoga, established the depot of his military 
stores at the head of the lake. 

Starting from Caldwell, the post office village of the locality, the first ob- 
ject that strikes the attention of the tourist is W^illiams' Rock, where Col. 
Williams was killed. Close by is Bloody Pond, into which the bodies of those 
slain in the battle were flung. A hotel now stands on the site of Fort Wil- 
liam, from which a glorious view of the lake may be obtained. The ruins of 
Fort George are seen less than a mile away, while French and Prospect 
Mountains and Rattlesnake Hill loom up, tempting an ascent that may be 
comfortably made. Passing from Caldwell, at the south end, to Baldwin, at 
the north, in one of the steamboats that ply regularly. Tea, Diamond, the 
Two Sisters, Long, Dome, Recluse, and Sloop Islands successively come into 
sight, beside Ferris's, the North-west, and Ganouskie Bays, Shelving Rock, 
and Tongue, Black, Buck, and Sugar-Loaf Mountains. Near the narrows on 
the north is Sabbath-Day Point, the scene of several bloody encounters with 
Indians, previous to and in the early part of the Revolutionary war. Nearly 
all these places received their names from circumstances indicated thereby, 
the recital of which adds not a little to the charm of the tour. Near Sabbath- 
Day Point the boat enters the broad bay, and soon afterward is steaming 
between two precipices nearly 400 feet high — Anthony's Nose on the right, 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 849 

and Rogers's Slide on the left. Beyond the slide the lake is narrow, and 
relatively devoid of interest till the boat approaches the landing at Baldwin, 
where two other attractions are found. Prisoners' Island, where the English 
confined their French prisoners, and Lord Howe's Point, where that officer 
landed his army previous to the attack on Ticonderoga, five miles distant on 
Lake Champlain. 

It will thus be seen that there is a vast amount of material for historical 
study and contemplation ; and it may be accepted as trustworthy that the 




VIEW ON LAKK OrOKGE. 



narratives and traditions of local occurrences will furnish sufificient of the 
elements of romance and daring to cheer many a long winter evening. 
Beyond sailing, canoeing, mountain climbing, and the thousand and one 
time-killing employments of camping life, good fishing can be found at almost 
any point. The summer population of Lake George is now very large, and 
constantly increasing. Eighteen commodious hotels were scattered along its 
shore in 1888, none of which were able to shelter all the season guests, to say 
nothing of the transient ones. 



CHAUTAUQUA. 




LTHOUGH of a very different nature from most of the famous 
summer resorts, and managed upon unique principles, Chautauqua 
attracts a large and a rapidly increasing number of visitors every 
summer. It is beautifully located on Chautauqua Lake, in the extreme wes- 
tern part of the State of New York. It is in the county of Chautauqua, 
which has the peculiarity of being bounded on two sides by the State of 
Pennsylvania. The lake is from one mile to three miles wide and is about 
1 8 miles long. Although but a short distance from Lake Erie, it lies 726 feet 
higher than that large body of water and is about 1,400 feet above the ocean 
level. This is the greatest altitude of any navigable lake east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and with the exception of Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Nevadas, 
the highest on the continent. The lake itself is extremely beautiful and its 
surroundings are picturesque and charming. Steamers ply upon its waters 
and small boats ma}' be had b}- those who prefer a more quiet or a more 
leisurely trip. 

On the shores of the Lake are several popular resorts. At the southern 
end is Jamestown, on the New York, Pennsylvania Railroad, connecting with 
the Erie from New York City; and Lakewood, on the same railroad, is 
close by. Both have hotels and are charming places. Mayville, perhaps 
equally attractive, is at the northern end of the lake, and on the BufTalo, New 
York and Philadelphia, and the Buffalo, Pittsburg and Western railroads. 
This place also has abundant accommodations for visitors. Between these 
places are Point Chautauqua, a popular Baptist resort, and Chautauqua, the 
celebrated educational centre. 

Chautauqua is located on a point which pushes out into the lake and 
which, to quite an extent, is still covered with forest trees. The original 
name of the place was Fair Point and for man)' )-ears it was a famous local- 
it}' for camp meetings. It is some 125 feet higher than the water of the lake. 
The ascent is gradual and the view from the elevation is delightful. 

In 1874 the grounds now occupied were purchased by the Chautauqua 
Sunda}^-school Assembly and since that date the place has been the recog- 
nized centre of a peculiar and important educational mo\'ement. A portion 
of the forest was removed and buildings were erected. There has been an 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 851 

increasing interest in the work of the association and the place has had a 
steady growth. Nearly 150 acres have been inclosed. Several hundred 
" cottages," many of them elegant houses, have been erected, together with 
stores, public buildings, places of recreation and amusement, and a hotel 
which cost $100,000. Electric lights have been introduced, water is obtained 
from the purest part of the lake, the streets are well laid out, the sanitary 
conditions are excellent, and in every respect the place compares favorably 
with older and far more pretentious resorts. 

But it is principally the intellectual and educational features which draw 
people to Chautauqua. As the headquarters of the Chautauqua Literary 
and Scientific Circle it has a strong attraction for many thousands of people 
who are pursuing the course of study prescribed by the managers of that 
organization. The School of Languages is also held here, as is also a Mis- 
sionary Institute and a Sunday-school Assembly. Secular educators have 
here their Teachers' Retreat and literary and scientific, as well as religious 
matters are kept prominently before the attention of visitors. 

The season at Chautauqua lasts for six weeks. Many lectures by some of 
the ablest men in their respective lines are delivered, numerous meetings are 
held, and studies are pursued. Interspersed with these are splendid con- 
certs, fireworks, illuminations, and many and various recreations. Improve- 
ment is sought as well as pleasure, and the large numbers who attend the ses- 
sions each year and the growing popularity of the resort indicate that the 
plan here adopted is both practical and profitable. 




AUSABLE CHASM. 




HE wonderful chasm of the Ausable River is reached by a delight- 
ful drive of about twelve miles from the city of Plattsburg, N. 
Y., through a section of country that presents many natural ob- 
jects of curiosity and interest. Beyond its weird scenery, the chasm derives an 
additional attractiveness from the fact that it is an isolated formation, wholly 
independent of, and disconnected from, any other similar panorama. The 
surrounding country is comparatively level. But here a slight depression and 
a wooded valley with gently sloping sides suddenly arrest the attention of the 




A SHARP TURN. 



A LATERAL RAVINE. 



tourist, without, however, giving indication of the extent or variety of the 
scenes close at hand. At a point about eight miles from Plattsburg and one 
mile from Keesville, the river makes a leap of twenty feet into a semicircular 
basin of rare beauty; and about a mile further on, and in a spot of the wildest 
scenery, it makes another leap, this time down a declivity of i6o feet, where it 
forms the Birmingham P'alls. Still further on and nearly opposite the entrance 
to the chasm, it plunges over the Horse Shoe Falls, where great blocks of 
sandstone are piled on one another, assimilating the smoothest cut masonry. 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 853 



From the base of the falls the river begins to deepen and grow narrower, 
and maintains for a considerable distance an angry foaming. 

At the beginning of the chasm proper, the river is hemmed into a chan- 
nel not over ten feet wide by walls of rock that rise abruptly to a height of 
from 100 to 200 feet. 
Lower down and to- 
ward the lake, the 
walls gradually spread 
apart till in some 
places there is a dis- 
tance between them 
of fifty feet, and then 
extend into a lateral 
canal, with sharp turns 
and occasional en- 
largements for a dis- 
tance of nearly two 
miles. Lateral fis- 
sures, deep and nar- 
row, project from the 
main ravine at nearly 
right angles, and 
through one of these 
the abyss is reached 
by a stairway of over 
200 steps. The entire 
mass of the walls is 
formed of laminae of 
sandstone, laid in such 
regular and precise 
order by the hand of 
nature as to produce the effect of a grand architectural ruin. From the 
crevices of these walls, innumerable hardy pines and cedars rise in stately 
form, as if planted by man to heighten the artistic beauty of the landscape; 
or, from apparently less secure footing, threateningly project their trunks at 
angles that give them the appearance of being about to be drawn into the 
depths of the chasm by an irresistible power. Dark branches and darker 




LONG GALLERY. 



854 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

shadows thus lie athwart the gorge, suggestive of the additional charm of 
rugged-nature danger. 

The trip through the chasm may be made either in a small boat, which is 
much preferable, or on foot and with absolute comfort, as the distance is not 
sufificient to entail more than a healthful amount of fatigue. A boat ride 
over the last half-mile is one of the pleasantest features of the excursion, and 
the novel sensation of shooting the rapids and floating over unknown depths 
is something long to be remembered. The chasm is owned by a company, by 
whom stone walks with substantial iron railings, firm bridges, and safe and 
commodious boats have been provided. 



CHATEAUGAY CHASM. 





F the thousands of 
tourists who visit 
the Adirondac re- 



gion of New York State each 
season, and content themselves 
with camping, climbing, and 
hunting, would extend their 
journey a little further north- 
ward than has heretofore been 
customary, they would find am- 
ple recompense in the vistas of 
rugcred crrandeur that are dis- 
played in the marvellous chasm 
of the Chateaugay River. The 
locality is just within the west- 
ern boundary line of Clinton 
County, due west of Plattsburg, 
and north-northeast of Lyon 
Mountain. Norway Mountain 
rises on the southeast. Rand 
Hill is directly east, Owl's Head, in Franklin County, west. The vicinity com- 
prehends a number of lakes and large ponds, chief among which are Chateaugay 



POINT LOOKOUT. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 855 



Lake, Lower Chateaugay, which is geographically the upper, Ragged, Chazy, 
Meacham, Leon, Silver, Branch Lakes, and Round and Ingraham Ponds. 
The chasm is about a mile and a half north of the village of Chateaugay, and 
is reached by rail from Plattsburg, from the central and western portions 
of New York by the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad, and from 
the latter city by the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad. The waters 
of the Chateaugay River and 



the two lakes of the same 
name find an outlet to the 
St. Lawrence River through 
a hilly country. At the 
chasm the whole volume is 
forced through a narrow 
gorge, walled in on either 
side by high and perpendicu- 
lar cliffs, and with but one 
or two places where a de- 
scent can be made in safety. 
From the banks above splen- 
did and most interesting 
views may be had of the 
charming cascades and falls, 
and when the tourist has 
once gained the bottom sufifi- 
cient attractions will be 
found to engage the atten- 
tion for hours. Ample pro- 
visions have been made to 
guard against accidents, and the descent is accomplished with but little 
fatigue, though in places it is very abrupt. 

After leaving the pavilion on the edge of the cliff and passing down the 
steps cut in the solid rock, the tourist comes first to a broad flat rock by 
w^hich the river dashes over a high ledge which forms the upper or first falls, 
a cascade of considerable volume and much brilliancy. Above is seen the 
rugged masonry of sandstone blocks formed by the regular stratification of 
the natural deposit, with frequent irregular fissures and seams nearly at right 
angles with the strata. It is quite natural, in viewing such scenery, to allow 




CASCADE AND BUTTRESS. 



856 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

the imagination to mould what reall}' exists into forms and shapes that have a 
similitude to mystic creations. Just as one's fancy discerns the most grotesque 
objects and structures in moon-illumined clouds, so here, but slight elasticity 
of imagination sufifices to transform the rugged rocks that are really seen and 
may be felt into far-off vistas of feudal buildings with mighty embattled 
towers, arches, minarets, and the thousand and one architectural features of 

a lord's manor in the roman- 
tic days of King Arthur and 
his valiant knights of the 
round table. Such is the 
haracter of Cathedral Rock, 
he Bastile on the left, and 
the Niches of Jupiter on the 
ght, all comparatively close 
to Vulcan's Cave. The 
Niches and Cave are seen 
high up among the clifTs, as 
the tourist wends his way 
still downward and along the 
narrow gallery of stone 
smoothed by nature, and 
past the rippling surface of 
the stream, to a point where 
the gorge begins to widen, 
and where the fury of the 
water is somewhat calmed 
by its extension in a wide, 
thin sheet over the sand- 
stone base that unites the 
two walls of the chasm. A little further on, the water that here sparkles in 
seeming rest glides down from one to another of a series of stone terraces, 
worn smooth by its own action in unnumbered years, seething and foaming at 
each interruption in its hasty progress, and sending up clouds of spray that 
exhibit in the sunlight a succession of iridescent bows spanning the verdure- 
clad walls. This spot is known as Rainbow Basin. 

Then passing close by the leaping waters down a natural stairway of 
nearly lOO steps, formed by the stratification of the stone, the Giant Gorge is 




RAINBOW FALLS — SPARTAN PASS. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 857 



reached. Pausing at the entrance a moment and looking backward through 
the chasm, a magnificent spectacle is presented. Upward the walls gradually 
approach each other, so that the distance at the top is scarcely twenty-five 
feet. The ferns and foliage that clothe the towering cliffs seem almost close 
enough to interlace and arch the heights of the gulf. Entering the gorge 
the first object that rivets the attention is the mouth of Vulcan's Cave, sixty 
feet above the bed of the 
river and fully 120 feet from 
the top of the over-hanging 
cliffs. So far as is known 
the interior of this cave was 
never visited by human be- 
ings till wnthin a few years. 
It was first reached by means 
of long, spliced ladders and 
with considerable difificulty, 
but now an inclosed stair- 
way is provided, and who- 
ever has the hardihood to 
attempt to penetrate its re- 
cesses will be rewarded with 
the view of a chamber thirty 
feet square, with a number 
of gothic arches supported 
by massive pillars, dormer 
windows in miniature, irreg- 
ularly disposed niches, and 
ceiling and wall decorations 
of nature's sculpture-work 
in the most weird, fantastic shapes. Near the entrance to the cave is a 
plateau from which a view of another mile or so down the chasm, and into a 
region as yet accessible only with great danger, maybe had; up to 1888 it 
had not been sufificiently explored to determine its attractions, but evi- 
dences were found of the presence of other caves. Descending from Vul- 
can's Cave the tourist passes the foot of Pulpit Rock, and leaving the walk 
at its edge, picks his way along the margin of the stream for a distance of 
half a mile, and then reaches the grottoes of Juno, Venus, and Minerva, 




PULPrr ROCK — GIANT GORGE. 



858 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

which constitute a cluster of the most interesting features of the entire 
locality. 

As a popular resort Chateaugay Chasm is still in its infancy. We have 
illustrated and described suf^cient of its most accessible attractions to inter- 
est the tourist and direct attention to it, believing that within a few years 
venturesome travellers will discover so much more to please the eye and ex- 
cite wonder, that it will be said of the chasm as it was of the wealth and wis- 
dom of Solomon, the half has not been told. 



WATKINS GLEN. 




HIS beautiful Glen is situated west of and partly in the village of 
Watkins, Schuyler County, N. Y., near the head of Seneca Lake. 
It is 20 miles from Elmira and 40 from Geneva. It is on the 
Geneva and Corning Railroad, also on the Northern Central Railroad, which 
connects at Canandaigua with the New York Central Railroad. It is also 
reached by a line of steamers, running from Geneva to Watkins, over Seneca 
Lake, touching at all points. This is a delightful way of reaching the Glen 
from the north, as the scenery of this beautiful lake is equal to anything on 
the continent. The word Glen gives but a faint idea of the gorge ; it is a 
marvellous rift in the mountain, which appears to have been made by some 
stupendous earthquake. 

The Glen, with its dashing, flashing, cascading stream, is a really wonder- 
ful natural curiosity. It is not properly a glen, but a numerous succession 
and variety of glens. At every turn there is material for a wonderful picture. 
It is one of Nature's reservoirs of eternal coolness. Even in July and August 
the air is cool, fresh, and bracing; laden with sweet odors, the fragrance of 
many flowers. It is renowned the world over for its wonderful scenery. It 
is as well worthy a visit as the Falls of Niagara. The total ascent of the 
Glen is about 800 feet. Looking upward, what a sight bursts upon us! 
Towering and irregular cliffs of dark rock, angular and sullen, rise one above 
another till they appear tO meet in the clouds, and seem to forbid approach. 
At numerous places in the Glen we pause, and wonder how it is possible to 
go much farther, the way appears impassable, and the distance so inaccessi- 
ble; but as we advance the path always opens, and gives far more interest 
to the ascent than though we could clearly mark our way before us. 



I 




THE GORGE, 
WATKINS' GLEN. 

Total Ascent, 800 feel. 



86o THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

Minnehaha is one of the numerous beautiful cascades; it is irregular, yet 
full of grace. The water, broken several times in its fall, is dashed into foam 
and spray, which forms a brilliant contrast to the dark, rocky surroundings. 
About loo feet beyond Minnehaha is the Fairy Cascade, which, with one 
graceful bound, leaps into Neptune's Pool, For sublimity and grandeur 
Cavern Gorge is probably unsurpassed by any in the Glen. Near this beau- 
tiful cavern is another, known as Cavern Cascade, which leaps 60 feet in a 
single column from the rocks above into what is known as the Grotto, which 
is a dark, damp, weird cavern. 

After emerging from the dark chasm, we see before us silvery cascades, 
quiet pools, and moss-garnished walls overarched by stately forest trees and 
thick shrubbery, with a broad light flooding the distance; and far above 
through the emerald foliage, like a web of gossamer, is seen the beautiful 
iron bridge spanning the Glen. The beauty of the foliage is very impressive, 
and the vegetation is almost tropical. From this point along the verge of 
the gorge is a " new " pathway, with a fine stairway, broken by platforms re- 
cently erected, and which leads to the building known as the " Swiss Cottage," 
now a cottage of the Glen Mountain House, the only hotel connected with 
the Glen, which is located on a sort of natural shelf, 100 feet above the level 
of the stream, and 200 feet above the level of Glen Alpha, overlooking The 
Vista, and nestling among the trees and shrubbery. Thousands of feet of 
pathway and many of the stairs are cut in the solid rock. 

A few rods above the Mountain House is situated Hope's Art Gallery, 
which was built by Captain J. Hope, late of 82 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
and contains a superb collection of more than 100 of his finest and most 
celebrated paintings. From this point Sylvan Gorge is not far distant. It 
is considered one of the wildest, most beautiful, and interesting portions of 
the Glen, A succession of little rapids and cascades leap into Sylvan Gorge, 
of which the upper termination is called the Sylvan Rapids, and they glide 
and dance very beautifully through their irregular rocky channel. Here we 
have a delightful bird's-eye view down through Sylvan Gorge, with its many 
windings and mysterious recesses. 

Looking upward we find ourselves in Glen Cathedral. All attempt at de- 
scription fails, and words are inadequate to paint a picture that would do this 
subject justice, or convey to the mind an idea of its grandeur. The Cathe- 
dral is an immense oblong amphitheatre, nearly an eighth of a mile in length. 
Here the Glen is wider than at any other point ; the rocky walls tower to a 




GLEN MOUNTAIN HOUSE, WATKINS GLEN. 



862 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

great height — over 300 feet — and are richly tapestried with mosses and cling- 
ing vines, and crowned with lofty pines and other evergreen trees. The floor 
is composed of a smooth and even surface of rock; the vaulted arch of the 
sky forms the dome. In the upper end the Central Cascade forms the Choir, 
and, as it dashes from rock to rock, sings continual hymns of praise to tlie 
Infinite Power that created this mighty temple. 

Central Cascade has a beautiful fall of about 60 feet, and while far above, 
projecting through the trees, is seen Pulpit Rock, close by is the Glen of the 
Pools, so cr.licd from its great variety and number of rock basins. Situated 
near the upper end of the Cathedral is a large and beautiful pool, called the 
Baptismal Font. The Grand Staircase, which is close by, is 170 feet high. 
We have to ascend this before we can reach the " Poet's Dream," which pre- 
sents a magnificent scene, and afTords new phases of magical beauty like the 
ever-varying changes in a kaleidoscope. 

The Triple Cascade is considered by many to be the finest in the Glen. 
As its name indicates, it is composed of three portions, one above another, 
each, different in form from the others, and forming a beautiful combination. 
Just below the Triple Cascade, on the south side, a little brook leaps over 
the brow of a great cliff nearly 400 feet high down into the Glen, The water 
does not descend in a smooth sheet, but in a myriad of tiny threads and 
drops, forming a sparkling crystal veil, behind which our course leads. This 
novel cascade is known as Rainbow^ Falls. The space between the fall and 
the cliff is narrow^ but sufficiently wide to allow free passage. In the after- 
noon, from June to September, when fair weather prevails, the ra}-s of the 
sun fall into the gorge, and the enraptured visitor, in looking through the veil, 
beholds two most beautiful rainbows, a primary and secondary — a sight that, 
once enjoyed, can never be forgotten. 

Glen Arcadia well deserves its name, for a more beautiful scene cannot be 
imagined. It has been called ''The Artist's Dream," where all the beauties 
of the other glens, silver cascades, and crystal pools, light and shadow, sharp 
angles and graceful curves, foliage, sky, and rock, mingle and produce a pic- 
ture that more resembles an ecstatic dream than anything that can elsewhere 
be found. Other scenes of great beauty or interest are Pluto Falls, on which 
the sun never shines; the Arcadian Fall, which is a beautiful cascade, falling 
into a kind of natural grotto, and at its foot is a beautiful basin; Elfin Gorge, 
which is a scene of wondrous beauty; Glen Facility, at w^iich point the most 
important of the great natural beauties of the Glen terminate ; but many 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 863 

"visitors go half a mile beyond, to see the magnificent new iron bridge of the 
Syiacuse, Geneva and Corning Railroad Company, which spans the Glen at a 
height of 165 feet above the water. In our description we have passed 
through 2^ miles, and gained a level 600 feet above our starting-point. 




NIAGARA FALLS. 

MONG the sublime sights of the world the Falls of Niagara easily 
hold the highest rank. There are other cataracts with a much 
greater descent and other falls with far more picturesque surround- 
ings. But, so far as is known, nowhere else is there such an immense volume 
of water pouring over a mighty precipice, or such a majestic and unceasing 
exhibition of terrific power. It is estimated that 2,000,000 tons of water pass 
over this enormous ledge every minute. Its name, Niagara, is remarkably 

appropriate. It 
is derived from 
an Indian word 
meaning the 
"thunder of 
water" — a term 
which is natu- 
rally suggested 
by the constant 
and terrific roar 
*! of the falls. 

In this mighty 
cataract the 
beautiful, the 
magnifi cent, 

and the sublime are intimately blended. The visitor is at once charmed and 
astounded. The beauty is indescribable, but the majestic predominates, while 
the grandeur is altogether beyond the power of the human mind to portray. 
A few of the leading features can be imperfectly outlined, but the grand view 
of the falls and the impression which it makes upon the visitor cannot be 
adequately presented by either words or pictures. Writers and painters of 
great renown have endeavored to portray the scene " only to find in the end 




THE HORSESHOE FALL. 



864 TFE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 

that the English language was too poor and the scope of human skill too 
narrow to render justice to so sublime a theme." 

The Niagara Falls are on the Niagara River, which flows northward from 
Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and which carries the surplus waters of the upper 
great lakes, and of several smaller ones, toward the St. Lawrence. It ajso 
forms the boundary between the State of New York and the Province of 
Ontario. The distance is only thirty-six miles, but there is a total descent of 
333 feet. Of this but twenty feet occurs in the first sixteen miles from Lake 
Erie. The river contains several islands, the largest of which is Grand Island, 
situated only a few miles from Lake Erie. This island is several miles long, has 
an area of about 17,000 acres, and is famous as the place at which an enthusias- 
tic Hebrew once attempted to found "Ararat, a city of refuge for the Jews," 
in which he hoped to gather all the Jews in the world. As it leaves Lake 
Erie the river is about three-fourths of a mile wide, but below Grand Island 
it reaches a width of nearly three miles and, with its small islands and quiet 
surface, resembles a picturesque lake. Further down, by a contraction of 
the channel and a fall of fifty-two feet in the bed of the river in a distance of 
about one mile, the mighty current known as the Rapids is formed. Although 
there is an immense volume of water and the river is of great depth, the sur- 
face is always covered with a white foam. The rapids terminate in the falls, 
the distance from Lake Erie being about twenty-two miles. 

The earliest printed mention of the falls was contained in an account of 
the explorations of Jacques Cartier in 1535. In 161 3 Samuel de Champlain 
marked the location on a map of his voyages. But the earliest known de- 
scription of the falls was given in 1678 by Father Louis Hennepin, a French 
missionary. With this description there was a drawing of the falls as they 
then appeared. A comparison of this sketch with the falls at the present 
time shows that they have undergone great changes in outline during the past 
two centuries. But their grandeur still remains as unspeakable as it was 
when he wrote of the "vast and prodigious Cadence of Water which falls 
down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the Universe 
does not afford its Parallel." 

Scientists assert that the falls were originally near Lcwiston, and were 
caused by the filling up, by glacial action, of the old bed of the river. When 
the new channel was opened the water fell over the edge of the plateau which 
fronts the low region around Lake Ontario. Since then it has been con- 
stantly cutting its way backward toward Lake Erie, having now covered a 




NIAGARA FALLS. 



2,66 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



distance of about seven miles. The rate of its retrocession is unknown. The 
estimates of scientists vary from one foot per year to three feet per century. 
Even at the most rapid rate designated a period of over 30,000 years has 
passed since the river commenced wearing away the face of the plateau over 
which its waters fell. At the present location of the falls the bed of the 
river is of hard limestone to a depth of about ninety feet. Underneath this 
is a much softer material which is more rapidly dissolved and washed away. 
By this uneven wearing of the rock there has been formed, at some portions 
of the cataract, a projecting ledge which will eventually break ofT and in- 
stantly carry the 
falls backward a 
distance of sev- 
eral feet. It is 
predicted that a 
bed of sandstone ^ 
will be reached fe 
which will lower 
the falls so that 
they will be only 
eighty feet high, 
and which will 
be so hard as to 

almost wholly resist the erosive action of the water. To reach this sand 
stone formation will, according to the estimates of geologists, require a 
period of about 10,000 years. 

At the falls the river is divided into two portions by Goat Island. This 
is a small tract of land about 150 rods long by 70 rods wide, and contains 
about 65 acres. It rises about 40 feet above the water and is one of the most 
beautiful spots in the vicinity. It is reached by an iron bridge, 360 feet in 
length, built upon piers. From this point a splendid view of the rapids is 
obtained. Between this island and the shore is Bath Island, a beautiful spot 
which in summer is covered with luxuriant verdure. At a little distance 
from Goat Island is a massive rock projecting to the brow of the falls. Many 
years ago a stone structure, some 20 or 30 feet in height, and called Terrapin 
Tower, was built upon this rock. It was reached from Goat Island by a 
bridge, and but for the feeling of insecurity which the visitor could not throw 
off it would have been one of the pleasantest places, as it was one of the 




THE PRinGE LEADING TO BATH AND GOAT ISLAND. 



868 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



finest points of view, at the falls. The constant motion caused by the steady 
fall of such an enormous quantity of water, and the gradual wearing away of 

the face of the falls, at length 
rendered it so manifestly 
unsafe that it was destroyed 
with gunpowder. 

The width of the river at 
the falls is 4,750 feet, of 
which Goat Island occupies 
« about 1,000 feet. The width 
l|,i of the American Fall is about 
,1, 1,100 feet, broken, however, 
by a small island, while the 
^^ jii Canadian Fall is more than 
twice as wide. The line of 
the latter, or Horseshoe 
Fall, is curved to such an 
extent as to make the mea- 
surement of the face of the 
fall much greater than the 




THE TERRAPIN TOWER, DESTROYED IN 1 873. 



distance from Goat Island to the shore in a straight line. On account of 
the direction of the current, as well as the greater width of the channel, the 
quantity of water passing over the Canadian Fall is many times greater than 
that going over the Ameri- 
can side. The height of the 
precipice is 158 feet on the 
Canadian side and 167 feet 
on the American portion. 
The Horseshoe Fall has worn 
away very much faster in the 
middle than it has near the 
outer edges and is rapidly 
assuming an angular form. 
On the American side also 
there is, of late years, a ten- 
dency to cut away in the middle much faster than elsewhere. By the falling of 
vast masses of rock the outline of the falls is frequently modified. Table 




THE OLD lABLE-ROCK. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 869 

Rock, once a very prominent feature on the Canadian side, has entirely fallen 
in, though a spot near its former location is still called by that name. Other 
large portions have fallen in recent years, but the essential features of the 
falls remain unimpaired. 

From Goat Island there is a bridge leading to Luna Tsland, a mass of rock 
occupying an area of about three-fourths of an acre, which separates what is 
known as the Central Fall from the American Fall. Just beyond is a spiral 
stairway leading to the foot of the falls. This is known as the Biddle Stair- 
way and received its name from Nicholas Biddle, president of the famous 
United States Bank, by whose direction it was constructed. By this stairway 
access is gained 
to the Cave of 
the Winds. As 
already noted 
the rock near 
the bottom of 
the falls is dis- 
solved and 
washed away 
much faster 
than is the 
harder rock 
near the top. 

This process of undermining seems to have gone on quite rapidly at the Cen- 
tral Fall, and the overhanging rock projects for quite a distance. The tre- 
mendous force of the current also throws the water many feet beyond the 
brink of the precipice. Thus there is left a sufificiently wide but a " rough, 
slippery, half-subterranean half-submarine pathway "by which one can go 
behind the vast torrent of water. Waterproof clothing must be worn and 
an experienced guide should be secured. The air is greatly compressed, the 
mist is heavy and the roar is terrific. The first view from beneath the falls 
is absolutely appalling. But when the instinctive feeling of fear has passed 
the scene appears magnificent beyond description. A plank road has been 
laid to rocks outside, and near the foot of the falls, from which point another 
splendid view may be obtained. From Goat Island bridges lead to the Three 
Sisters, a cluster of pretty little islands lying in the rapids. There are also 
islands nearer the Canadian shore. 




NIAGARA RIVER BELOW THE FALLS — THE CANADA SIDE. 



870 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



In order to make free to the people of the world the wonderful attractions 
of the falls, place and keep the grounds in suitable condition, and put an end 
to the annoyances as well as the extortions to which visitors had been sub- 
jected, Governor Lucius Robinson sent a message to the Legislature of New 
York, in 1879, in which he recommended that the State take possession of a 
suitable area of land in the vicinity and set it aside as a public ]>ark. The 
subject was agitated until 1883, when commissioners were appointed to locate 
the lands which it seemed desirable to secure. The property designated in 
their report was appraised, by parties appointed by the courts, at $1,433,429.- 
50, which sum was duly paid by the State. 

On the 15th of July, 1885, "The New York State Park at Niagara Falls" 

was opened to 
the public with 
appropriate 
ceremonies. 
The grounds, 
i which include 
Goat Island, 
with several 
smaller islands, 
and a strip 
along the bank 
of the river, 
comprise an 
area of about 

107 acres. They are under the care of commissioners, who are authorized to 
maintain the property in good condition and make necessary improvements. 
The bank of the river has been terraced, fences, and barns, with other un- 
sightly objects, have been removed, a reception house has been built and vari- 
ous other means have been taken to promote the comfort of visitors, while an 
elevator at the Cave of the Winds is to be constructed, and certain other im- 
provements are either being made or will soon be effected. A railway has 
been built from the park to the foot of the falls, and a steamer, called Maid 
of the Mist, crosses the river. From this little craft a splendid view of the 
falls may be obtained. Passengers in the car and the steamer are charged 
a small sum and there is a charge for a guide in the Cave of the Winds, but 
entrance to the park, and to all points of interest, is entirely free. 




NIAGARA FRUM NEAR OUEENSTOUN HEIGHTS. 



872 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

At a somewhat later date measures were taken by the legislature of 
Ontario to secure a public park on the Canadian side of the falls. After 
some delay these efforts were successful, and on the 22d of June, 1887, the 
Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park was opened without ceremony to the 
public use. Roadways have been laid out, platforms built from which to 
view the falls, and an elevator has been constructed to take people from the 
clifT to a bank 80 feet below. From the latter point access is gained to the 
recess behind the Horseshoe Fall. The stairs leading to the foot of the falls 
are steep, but can be passed without much dif^culty. Waterproof clothing 
and a guide are required if one is to pass behind the fall. The air is so 
greatly compressed that it is impossible to go a long distance in this direc- 
tion. This park contains 118 acres of land, is some two and a half miles 
long, and embraces several small islands. To some portions of the park a 
small admission fee is charged. An immense Crystal Palace has been con- 
structed and various other attractions have been added. 

The bridges across the river below the falls are objects of interest. The 
first to be erected was a suspension bridge which was built under the direc- 
tion of the celebrated civil engineer, John A. Roebling. It is about two miles 
from the falls, was in process of construction about three years, and was 
opened for use in 1855. It measures 821 feet and 4 inches between the 
towers, is 245 feet above the water, and has a public roadway at the bottom 
and the Grand Trunk Railroad track on top. Thirty-one years after its com 
pletion the stone towers built to support the cables upon which the bridge 
was hung were replaced by towers made of steel. What is known as the 
New Suspension Bridge was built in 1868. It measures 1,268 feet between 
the towers and is 230 feet above the water. It is only about 50 rods from 
the falls, and from the top, which is reached by an elevator on the Canadian 
side, an excellent view may be obtained. It is used for foot passengers and 
carriages. The most remarkable bridge in the vicinity, and the first bridge 
of the kind ever built in the United States, is the cantilever bridge, which 
was built in 1883. It is 895 feet in length and 245 feet above the water. 
The cantilevers are supported by two enormous steel towers, 130 feet high, 
resting upon stone piers 39 feet high, which, in turn, are supported by massive 
masonry resting upon solid rock. This bridge is about 300 feet above the 
railroad suspension bridge, and is used for railroad purposes only. It has 
two tracks, one of which is used by the New York Central Railroad and the 
other by the Michigan Central road. The span across the rivei" is 500 feet 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 873 



in length and is the longest truss span in the world which carries two lines 
of railroad track. 

Between the falls and Lewiston, a distance of seven miles, there is a 
descent in the river bed of 104 feet. The water flows through a gorge vary- 
ing in width from about 800 to 1,200 feet, with sides so steep that stairways 
are needed to enable one to get from the bank to the river's edge. Much of 
the way the banks are from 200 to 350 feet high. Some three miles below 
the falls is the famous Whirlpool, which is caused by a short bend in the 
channel of the 
river by which 
the water is vio- 
lently turned 
t o \\' a r d the 
Canadian shore 
and quickly 
forced back to 
the American 
side. Trunks of 
large trees have 
been kept in 
constant mo- 
tion in this 

whirlpool for several weeks before getting into the current beyond. In the 
rapids above the whirlpool the motion of the water is so violent that the mid- 
dle of the stream is said to be 30 feet higher than the edges. From Lewiston 
to Lake Ontario the course of the river is tranquil and the gorge is reduced to 
a depth of about 30 feet. 

At the village of Niagara Falls, situated on the river an4 close to the cat- 
aract, are many hotels, some of them very large and well appointed, which 
furnish ample accommodations to visitors. The village of Suspension Bridge, 
one and a half miles below, also contains popular hotels. The former village 
has about 3,500 and the latter about 2,500 inhabitants. 




NIAGARA RIVER — THE WHIRLPOOL. 



THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 




HE St. Lawrence River is the volume of the overflow of Lakes 
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Its course is in 
a general northeasterly direction. From the point of its dcboucJicr 
from Lake Ontario to the crossing of the 45th parallel at Cornwall, it forms 
the boundary line between New York State and the Province of Ontario, 
Canada, a distance of 85 miles. For a further distance of more than 400 
miles it leads through the Canadian Provinces of Montreal and Quebec. The 
final 200 miles, or nearly all of that portion below the city of Quebec, is prac- 
tically a vast sound, varying in width from 6 to 30 miles. The ever-varying 
features and the constant change of vista afforded the voyager, overflowing 
at every turn with unexpected instances of those combinations of water, land, 
and sky which we recognize as beautiful, make up the charm and glory of the 
Upper St. Lawrence River. 

Much has been said by a multitude of writers concerning the rapids of the 
St. Lawrence, down which the large and staunch passenger steamers daily 
perform their exciting and apparently perilous descent. These rapids are 
seven in number, and are divided by intervals of smooth waters and broad 
lakes. Between the passage of the Long Sault and the Lachine there is an 
interval in voyaging down-stream of about five hours; the return is made by 
all craft around the rapids through a series of costly canals. 

The St. Lawrence was originally known as the Great River of Canada, 
and was also known by the names of Cataraqui and the Iroquois. The name 
it now bears was bestowed upon it by the explorer Jacques Cartier, who first 
penetrated its mouth upon the festival day of St. Lawrence. 

The steamboat express, which is a part of the through route via the St. 
Lawrence River to Montreal, leaves Niagara Falls over the Lake Shore Divi- 
sion of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad, arriving at the thriv- 
ing town of Clayton, where close connection is made with the steamer for 
Alexandria Bay and the trip down the St. Lawrence. Through sleepers arrive 
here every morning, also from New York, which is only 11 hours distant via 
Utica and Albany. All lines of steamers stop at Clayton. 

If you come from the West, you will be on board the steamer at Clayton 
just as the sun has fairly thrown off the rosy drapery of his couch, and touch- 



THE GkEAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 875 

ing at Round Island, Thousand Island Park, Central Park, and Alexandria 
Bay, within the next hour you will find the pretty skiffs or convenient steam 
yachts of scores of cottagers waiting to capture and bear away among the 
islands their happy, newly-arrived guests, and you are indeed fortunate if you 
are numbered among these. 

There is a strange enchantment in the stilly mornings here. The city, its 




ON THE ISLANDS. 



pressing cares, its hurry; its heedless, and often heartless, strife for supremacy, 
seem far away, and as unreal as a troubled dream that is past. Sometimes 
the voices of nature hint to us that here is the true life to lead — that all else 
is dross and a delusion. Dawn ushers in the beginning of the through trav- 
eller's trip down the river, and he makes up his mind whether or no the 
vaunted Thousand Islands are all that they are claimed to be. First, let it 
be understood that all of the land you can see to the left is made up of islands, 



876 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

one overlapping the other along the distance until they give the impression 
of being continuous coast line. Not so ; they are threaded by many devious 
and charming channels. 

As Round Isand is approached the graceful proportions of the large hotel 
in its centre are revealed through interstices in the dense foliage along its 
shores. From this point there is a charming succession of pretty, brightly 
painted cottages all along the cliff-like frontage of the island. Each year 
witnesses the rearing of scores of costly and beautiful villas upon coigns of 
vantage, and island property appreciates rapidly in value. After passing 
Round Island we have a fine view of Thousand Island Park and the clustered 
islands in its vicinity. We soon enter the narrow precinct of the American 
channel, which for several miles separates Wellesley Island from the mainland. 
Rock Island is on the right, and beautiful cottages are here, there, and every- 
where. 

At the lower end of Densmore Bay, which indents Wellesley Island at this 
point, are the " Seven Isles," a most romantic spot, which one must needs 
explore with a row-boat to discover its hidden charms. " Bella Vista," a 
large and costly place, is now noted upon the right, distinguishable by its 
square tower and ultra-modern style of architecture. Perched upon the cap 
of a cliff stands the villa known as " Louisiana Point." The tall tower loom- 
ing above the trees of a mid-stream island ahead is the large villa upon Com- 
fort Island. 

Within easy hail down-stream is Nobby Island. It hides modestly behind 
Friendly Island. To the west of Nobby Island stands Welcome Island. A 
pretty cottage stands in its centre. A notable property passed by the steamer 
just before reaching the " Bay," and the last in the channel, is that of Mr. 
Albert B. Pullman, of Chicago, known as Cherry Island. 

As the steamer rounds up to her dock at Alexandria Bay, the wealth and 
variety of picturesque surrounding, in which the natural and artificial are so 
happily blended, almost bewilder the new-comer, whose imagination must be 
vivid indeed if he has conjured from the recesses of expectation anything half 
so beautiful. The huge and shapely hotels loom up close beside the water, 
and sab^e representatives of each lay in wait for the coming tourist upon the 
wharf. In the foreground of the accompanying picture of Alexandria Bay is 
seen the famous Thousand Island House. 

Round Island, occupied as Round Island Park, is located in the centre of 
the American channel, 8 miles above Alexandria Bay. One hundred and fifty 




EOUND ISLAND PARK. 



878 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



acres of land, beautifully diversified by sun and shade, are contained in the 
island, every portion of which has some special attraction. The entire island 
is under the management of " The Round Island Park " Company, a stock 
company with a capital of $50,000. The hotel is modern, and well conducted. 
There are no two sunsets just alike at Round Island. Each day brings 
some special beauty. The going down of the sun, as it sinks upon the green 
Canadian hills, realizes the finest phenomenon in nature, save only that of 

lieht itself. Whether 



the declining orb 
drapes himself with 
the purple and gold 
of a royal couch, or 
sinks amid the tears 
and sackcloth beto- 
kening a coming 
storm, he is always 
grand in his leave- 
taking. Men in all 
ages have contempla- 
ted this phenomenon 
with awe and admira- 
tion — even to adora- 
tion. What a place 
for a moonlight row I 
What enchanted islets 
to thread between, if 
one but knows the 
way! In midsummer 
there are veritably but five hours of darkness upon the St. Lawrence. At 10 
o'clock the sunset yet stains the western sky; and soon after 3 there are 
manifest tokens of the coming of another day. 

The Methodist organization, known as the Thousand Island Park Associa- 
tion, began its operations in 1875 by the purchase of a large territory at the 
head of Wellesley Island, aggregating 1,000 acres. Thousand Island Park 
now stands, with its 300 tasty cottages, as the most extensive of the denom- 
inational resorts upon the river. The large hotel recently erected is a fine 
and costly structure, which must aid greatly in advancing the interests cf the 




BETWEEN THE ISLANDS. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS." 879 

park. As at Chautauqua, a regular programme of the season's exercises is 
announced. 

It is a mooted question if the islands which dot the broadened river in 
front of Alexandria Bay look prettiest at sunrise or eventide. At evening 
the camp-fires begin to twinkle out of the mellow purple gloom, and the 
merry sounds of human occupancy float out from the island homes. It is an 
hour of repose which even the wordy wrangling on the dock concerning the 
" catches " of the day can scarce disturb ; but wait, a finer thing is yet to come. 
Take supper and come out half an hour later. Now, displayed against the 




'■ liONMK CASTLE 



black masses where the islands stand, beneath the lingering stain of the sun- 
set, are a score of devices, wrought in twinkling lamps; here an anchor, there 
a star, a harp, or initial letter. Far up toward the cap of the lofty tower 
upon the Thousand Island House glows the white heat of an electric lamp, 
and along every cornice through the garden below and over among the rock 
and verdure of the illuminated Crossman House, a thousand lamps and tor- 
ches dance in the eddying night-wind, each tiny flame caught up and reflected 
on every ripple of the deep black stream ; and as we gaze and admire, the 
night is pierced by the swift flight of rockets, which mount into the dome of 
heaven, and, shattering there, scatter particolored stars far out upon the silent 
tide. 



88o THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The largest and most costly, if not the most picturesque, of the many hun- 
dreds of cottages along the river are found in the vicinity of Alexandria Bay, 
many of them being within an easy row of the dock. The passing voyager, 
who only looks at these places from the steamer's deck, can have but slight 
idea of the loving care, even extravagant outlay, lavished upon many of them. 
One of the best-known properties in the vicinity is " Bonnie Castle," the prop- 
erty and favorite home of the late Dr. J. G. Holland. It is said that the final 
words of that genial and popular writer, who died in October, 1881, after a 
joyous summer at " Bonnie Castle," related to his life here, which had ex- 
tended through five summers. " It is to me," he said, " the sweetest spot on 
earth." He then went on to speak of the constant, all-winter longing he felt, 
almost counting the days to the approach of the time when he could escape 
the weariness, or, as he expressed it, the " incessant grind," of the city to this 
delightful home. Dr. Holland is also credited with the mot: " We stay in New 
York, but we live upon the St. Lawrence." 

Over beyond the islands which shut out the western horizon when look- 
ing from the bay, is Westminster Park, which occupies an extensive domain 
upon the lower end of Wellesley Island. This park, like others upon the river, 
is under denominational influence, being Presbyterian in form. The hotel, 
known as the Westminster, is composed of two roomy buildings. In Poplar 
Bay one finds a commodious dock, and a semicircle of bright and pretty 
homes. Just here is the entrance to the weird Lake of the Island, a large 
pond hidden away in the midst of Wellesley Island, to which access is had 
through a narrow and precipitous channel. This pond or lake is two miles 
in length and nearly a mile in width. 

On leaving Alexandria Bay for Montreal, scattering islands, many of them 
quite as wild as when the white man first voyaged here, are passed all the way 
down to Brockville, where the Thousand Island system terminates in a group 
called the "Three Sisters." Brockville is a substantial Canadian city of 10,000 
people. It is 125 miles from Montreal by the river. The traveller will note 
the large number of fine private properties along the rugged river front, both 
above and below the town. Immediately opposite is the American town of 
Morristown. Fourteen miles beyond, the Canadian town of Prescott and the 
American city of Ogdensburg stand vis-a-vis upon the banks of the river. A 
railway connects the St. Lawrence at this point with Ottawa, the Canadian 
capital. Ogdensburg is the focal point of three lines of railway, and a depot 
for a vast transshipment of grain and lumber from the West. It has an ener- 



882 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

getic population of nearly 12,000, largely engaged in manufacturing and 
internal commerce. 

Five miles below Ogdensburg is Chimney Island, where vestiges of French 
fortifications still exist, and immediately below are the first of the series of 
rapids, the Gallopes, and shortly thereafter the Rapide de Plat is met. Neither 
of the swift places is especially exciting, but they serve as a preliminary to 
the great Long Sault (pronounced lojig sou), which is next in order. A long 
reach of smooth water intervenes, however, during which we pass the small 
American town of Waddington and the attractive Canadian city of Morris- 
burg. Just below this place is the battle-field of Chrisler's Farm, where an 
engagement occurred in 181 3 between British and American forces, while the 
latter were marching to the capture of Montreal and Quebec. Over upon the 
American side is Massena Landing, whence a stage connecting with a steam 
ferry runs to the fine old medicinal resort known as Massena Springs, which, 
aside from its picturesque and healthful location, the excellent Hatfield 
House, and good fishing, boasts of remarkably strong and potent sulphur 
waters. 

At Dickinson's Landing, the boat, which is well fitted for her daily task 
of breasting the wild surges of the rapids, turns in the swift current, and a mile 
ahead the passengers see the white, stormy waters of the Long Sault stretch- 
ing from shore to shore. Now the real fun begins. There is a sudden hush 
to the monotone of the steamer's pulsations. We are in the grasp of the cur- 
rent. Extra men are at the wheel, and others are aft in charge of a spare tiller. 
If you are inclined to be nervous now. remember that steamers have been 
going down here ever since 1840, and no passenger vessel has ever been 
wrecked in the rapids. The first plunge is over a cascade at "the cellar," and 
is exhilarating. In the vast expanse of broken waters fresh sensations await 
us. Now across our way a vast green billow, like the oncoming surge of 
the ocean upon soundings after a nor' easter, disputes our passage. It is of 
the beautiful green where the sunlight shows through its wedge-like cap that 
one sees upon the coral beds of Nassau, or at the deep centre of the Horse 
shoe Fall at Niagara, or in drug-store jars. It does not rise and fall, advance 
and recede. It simply stands there forever, a vast wall of water through 
which we cleave our way with a fierce, brief struggle, only to meet a second, 
a third, a fourth like wave beyond. 

The rapids are about two miles in length, but there is a continuance of 
reasonably swift water for several miles further. The actual Jight between 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 883 

the boat and the angry billows is over in less than three minutes. The im- 
portant town of Cornwall, where several large factories are located, is shortly 
seen upon the Canadian shore. After leaving Cornwall we bid good-by to 
American soil, for here the international boundary line intersects the river. 

Four miles below Cornwall the Indian village of St. Regis is noted on the 
right shore. We 
are now on the 
broad Lake St. 
Francis, which 
is about 25 miles 
long. We pass 
the village of 
Lancaster on 
the left shore of 
the lake, when 
we arrive at the 
riveroncemore. 
It dashes off im- 
petuously just 
afterleavingthe 
village of Co- 
teau du Lac, 
and carries us 
headlong down 
the "Coteau 
Rapids," which 
are about two 
miles long; then 
the "Cedars," 
three miles, and down the rapids. 

the Cascades, the village at the foot of which is Beauharnois; and now a 
second lake is met, as if the river dreaded the final plunge down the famous 
Lachine. Passing down the lake we soon come in sight of the great city of 
Montreal. The village of Lachine is simply a picturesque suburb of the city. 
The reader may ask why the curious name. La Chine (The China), is applied 
to this point. It is said that the earlier voyagers believed that the St. Law- 
rence opened a way to the Pacific, and therefore to the Flowery Kingdom. 




THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

From the deck of the steamer the passenger may see the bold outline, 
standing out against the sunset, of a huge stone watch-tower, and if close 
enough the crumbling remains of two stone forts built to protect the settle- 
ments along Lake St. Louis from the savages. Onward forges our speedy 
craft, and ere long the troubled waters of Lachine are seen far ahead, a snowy 
breastwork across our path. The lake is again a river. We are abreast the 
village of Lachine, where the canal from Montreal debouches into the St. 
Lawrence. The muddy Ottawa pours its tide into the pure blue waters in 
which we have voyaged since morning, as the Missouri pollutes the Missis- 
sippi. We are drifting steadily down toward the rapids. The bell signals 
"go ahead," and the Indian pilot, who has come aboard from a skiff, takes 
supreme command at the wheel. A little while later and we are in the vortex ; 
the current grows swift and swifter; all the mighty outpouring of the stream 
is pent up in a single channel ; all the bosom of the river is covered with reefs 
and rocks. The boat heads this way and that; down we plunge, and onward 
straight toward a rocky islet ! Which side? Just as destruction seems im- 
minent, the vessels swfeeps round to the right, and shoots like an arrow 
between two sunken ledges. We are through, and can look back up the 
watery hill we have descended, and admire the courage of the men who first 
navigated this wonderful channel. 

The once marvellous Victoria Bridge comes into view. In a few moments 
we steam beneath it and swing around the dangerous shoals that bar the ter- 
minus of deep-water navigation, and heading up-stream are speedily at the 
lock, within which, as the steamer rises to the upper level, the passengers are 
landed. In Montreal, an account of Avhich is given elsewhere, the Windsor, 
stately and American like, plays an important part in the pleasures of spend- 
ing a portion of each year upon the grand and changeless St. Lawrence. It 
is the memory of happy days in other years when the picture of care-free 
hours has included our warmest friends, the whole framed with the exquisite 
environment of the islands, which solaces us for the cold and cheerless days 
of winter which must intervene before we can again take up this ideal habit 
of life. All indications point toward a brilliant future for the island region 
and the tour of the river. 




CKESSON, ON THE ALLEGHENIES, PA. 




CRESSON. 

RESSON, one of the most recently developed resorts for summer 
travel and residence and an especial favorite of Philadelphia, fur- 
nishes a complete contrast to that city's home-life at Cape May and 
Atlantic City. It is in Cambria County, Penn., on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
and 15 miles southwest of Altoona, 102 miles east of Pittsburg, and 252 miles 
west by north of Philadelphia. It is on the crest of the Allegheny Mountains, 
at an elevation of 2,300 feet above tide-level, and is reached in eight hours 
from Philadelphia and four from Pittsburg. Beside the Mountain House and 
the public cottages, which have combined accommodations for about i,2CO 
guests, the summit and sides of the mountains are dotted with tasteful 
residences. The air of the locality is the purest on the continent, and is a 
thorough antidote for malaria and hay-fever. The hotel is built on a wide 
plateau, of a mixed oriental and Queen Anne style of architecture, and is 
surrounded by extensive grounds laid out in the handsomest forms of landscape 
gardening. But a little back of the building is an attractive stretch of wood- 
land, through which one passes into the heart of the primeval forest, thickly 
studded with trees of enormous growth. Good roads have been cut through 
this forest land, one of vrhich, occupying the bed of the old Portage, furnisheo 
an unusually romantic drive. The Portage, with its then inclined planes, was 
formerly used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in its wonderful climb over the 
mountains, and in its day was one of the engineering wonders of the con- 
tinent. Beyond the benefits of the air and the charm of the locality, Cresson 
has already achieved wide renown for the purity and medicinal properties of 
its numerous springs. These are of magnesia, alum, iron, and one that 
scientists have pronounced to be absolutely and faultlessly pure water. As 
a natural sanitarium Cresson is provided with all the requisites for coaxing 
robust health, restful recreation, and good fellowship, and its reputation grows 
daily wider and stronger. 



LEWISTOWN NARROWS. 

EWISTOWN, the capital of Mifflin County, Penn., is renowned in 
legend and history as the home of the famous Mingo Indian chief, 
Logan, who was converted to Christianity by Moravian mission- 
aries, and whose pathetic speech beginning: "I appeal to any white man to 





LEWISTOWN NARROWS, PA. 



888 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat?" and 
closing; "Who is there to mourn for Logan?' Not one," is famiHar to every 
school-boy in the land. The neighborhood of the town abounds in natural 
curiosities, none of which are more interesting than the caves. Alexander's 
Cave, in Kishicoquillas Valley, is full of stalactitic and stalagmitic formations, 
and preserves in solid shape through the summer the ice formed in A\inter; 
Hanewall's Cave, near McVeytown, is enormous in proportions, and contains 
calcareous concretions and much commercial saltpeter. Bevins's Cave is on 
the summit of a limestone ridge, and near it was a noted Indian mound, full 
of bones, pottery, war weapons, and arrow-heads, which was razed for the 
construction of the canal. Lewistown itself is on the left bank of the Juniata 
River, so famed in song and romance, was laid out in 1790, and incorporated 
in 1795, and contains two furnaces, two tanneries, three flour-mills, two carriage 
factories, large boiler works, and numerous minor industries. There are six 
churches, three banks, an academy, several large hotels, and substantial county 
buildings. It is 60 miles from Harrisburg on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and 
controls a large trade. Population of Mifflin County, 1880, 17,508; of Lewis- 
town, 3,222. 

The Lewistown Narrows, which appear in the illustration, are formed by 
the Black Log Mountain on the south, and the Shade Mountain on the north, 
and are directly east of the town, and between it and Mifflin. As may be 
seen, the mountains rise abruptly from the river, and in many places attain a 
height of over 1,000 feet. A dense forest growth spreads over their sides, 
which would give the gorge an appearance of deep gloom were it not for the 
weird contrast of lights and shadows when the sun pencils the verdure. With 
few exceptions the giant walls are unbroken, and between them the river 
flows as placidly as if it had never occasion to form its beautiful channel by 
erosive action. 



THE HORSESHOE CURVE. 




OON after leaving the city of Altoona, the tourist on the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad becomes aware by a peculiar motion of the train as 
well as the apparent downward tendency of the surrounding 
scenery, that the locom.otive has begun its marx-cllous feat of mountain climb- 
ing. The roadbed changes from the lc\cl to a grade of something over ninety 
feet to the mile. As the train st^a-lil}- ascends, the valley appears to sink and 



890 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

the perspective, instead of narrowing by natural laws, seems to widen and 
deepen. New formations of scenery break upon the view at every glance. 
The valley becomes a gorge, and the cottages below diminish to mere specks 
on the green drapery of the mountain. Up and still upward the train pro- 
ceeds, till at Kittanning Point, 242 miles from New York, the road winds 
around a curve in a manner at once thrilling and bewildering, and at the same 
time suggestive of extreme engineering confidence and skill. The valley, 
along which the train has moved for six miles, then separates into two 
chasms, where nature seems to have said : " Thus far shalt thou go and no 
farther." But the mind of man has achieved a remarkable triumph over the 
material barrier; and by building a great horseshoe shaped roadbed, carrying 
it over both chasms on a high embankment, and extending it around the 
enormous western wall, he has provided a way for the train to resume its 
singular transit. 

When the point of the curve depicted in the illustration is reached, the 
tourist has before him a unique delusion. The sides of the curve are parallel 
with each other, and many a wager has been laid upon the direction in which 
various trains are moving, for their actual course is directly opposite their ap- 
parent course. On entering the new pass the train continues its ascent through 
the very heart of the great dividing range of the continent. At Allegrippus 
the scene begins to change. The mountains seem to sink and the valleys rise. 
A rugged plane gradually gives way to mountain walls. Furnaces, mills, and 
cottages are disclosed. Evidences of vast mining operations are discovered 
just as the train rushes through a night-black tunnel, and a moment later the 
tourist is being whirled over the summit of the range, at an elevation of over 
2,000 feet above sea-level. Kittanning Point is named from a great Indian 
path or trail, between Kittanning and the valley of the Delaware River, which 
crossed the mountain through this gorge. 



I 



GREENWOOD LAKE. 

MONG the summer resorts which have become popular within a com- 
paratively recent period Greenwood Lake is one of the most at- 
tractive. The village is situated in Orange County, New York, but 
the lake, which is the principal attraction, lies partly in this county and partly 
in Passaic County, New Jersey. 

The lake is some ten miles long by one mile wide, and lies about 1,000 feet 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 891 

above the level of the sea. It has been called the miniature Lake George, 
and in picturesque beauty is a close rival of the most famous lakes either in 
this country or in Europe. The water is deep and clear and is also quite cold. 
Fish of various kinds, including bass and pickerel, abound and are easily 
taken. There are excellent facilities for sailing and bathing. Those who 
prefer the woods to the water will find beautiful walks and charming retreats 
upon the hills and mountains by which the lake is surrounded. Only two or 
three miles from the lake is a picturesque glen and a series of cascades of 
remarkable beauty. Wild flowers and ferns abound and several species of 
game birds find their home in this secluded region. 

Several hotels furnish ample accommodations for visitors. Those who 
prefer to " camp out " can find plenty of suitable and attractive places either 
by the shore, or upon the small islands which the lake contains. The distance 
from New York is only forty-nine miles. The trip is made by the New York 
and Greenwood Lake division of the Erie Railroad as far as Sterling Forest. 
From this point, a distance of five miles, the visitor is conveyed by a steamer, 
belonging to the same corporation, to the village, which is located at the head 
of the lake. The scenery for nearly the whole distance along the line of the 
railroad is very fine and the sail on the lake at the close of the trip is both 
charming and refreshing. The town has a permanent population of about 
250, and is supplied with churches, schools, and stores. It also contains a 
sanitarium for poor children of Newark, New Jersey, maintained by benevo- 
lent people, where each summer many hundreds of the little ones are given a 
brief period of unalloyed pleasure. 




CONEY ISLAND. 

ITHIN the past few years Coney Island has become one of the most 
famous summer resorts in the United States and it now has but 
few equals in any part of the world. In point of area it is a small 
island, being only about five miles in length with an average width of less 
than one mile. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Long Island, from which 
it is separated by a small creek, and forms a part of the township of Graves- 
end, in Kings County, N. Y. It was discovered by Henry Hudson in Septem- 
ber, 1609, and was the first point in the State of New York at which Euro- 
peans landed. The island was then inhabited by Indians. Since its discovery 



892 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

it has been considerably diminished in size by the encroachments of the sea. 
As lately as 1800 quite a proportion of the land was under cultivation and 
the farmers were greatly troubled with rabbits and foxes. In 18 19 a hotel 
was built, but, with everything else that was movable, it was swept away by 
a violent storm in 1821. The retreating tide left the island almost entirely 
barren and in that condition it has remained until the present day. With 
the exception of only about sixty acres the surface is almost entirely covered 
with sand. 

By the year 1830 the island had become so well known as a pleasure resort 
that a turnpike road was built to connect it with Brooklyn. A stage, running 
once a day, was soon put on and a steamboat line from New York was 
opened. The first horse railroad to the island was built about 1865 and a 
road for steam cars was soon afterward constructed. By these means the 
number of visitors was considerably increased, but nothing like a general in- 
terest on the part of the vast population in the vicinity was awakened until 
1874. Up to this time only a small portion of the island, at the extreme west 
end, was used. There were a small number of restaurants and bathing-houses 
of cheap construction, but no fine buildings had been erected and the beach 
was almost wholly bare and desolate. 

But in 1874 the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad was opened, 
hotels were built, and many and varied attractions were added by capitalists 
who invested their money liberally and, as the event proved, wisely, in order 
to make the island a really popular summer resort. During the succeeding 
four years there was an almost marvellous change. Many very large and 
costly hotels were erected, hundreds of fine bathing-houses built, and places 
of amusement of various kinds and in large numbers were also constructed. 
This was the beginning of an era of great and permanent prosperity for the 
island. Popular interest has appeared to increase year by year, and multi- 
tudes of people from New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and other 
cities in the vicinity visit the island many times during the summer. 

There are various reasons why Coney Island should be an exceedingly 
popular summer resort. It has a magnificent beach extending five miles 
along the Atlantic. The undertow is slight and there is a very gradual in- 
crease in the depth of the water. Consequently, it is one of the safest places 
for bathing which can be found along the coast. The island is also very easy 
of access from several great centres of population. It is distant only five miles 
from Brooklyn, and ten miles from New York. There are several railroads 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 893 

and steamboats by which it can be reached quickly and cheaply. There is 
room enough for all, and attractions which will gratify every taste from the 
most fastidious to the least critical. Here "the rich and the poor meet to- 
gether," not exactly on terms of social equality, of course, but the same views 
are open to both, the air is as fresh and cool, and the sea is as inviting to the 
one class as it is to the other. It would be hard to say which of the two 
classes obtains the greatest degree of enjoyment. 

From Prospect Park in Brooklyn there is a magnificent drive, some 200 
feet wide and five miles long, to the Concourse on the island. This Con- 
course is a broad, asphalt roadway a mile in length, under the control of the 
city of Brooklyn and maintained for a drive and walk. Near this drive are 
two immense iron piers, which extend some 1,000 or 1,200 feet into the ocean. 
They are each about 50 feet wide, but near the outer end one is about 85 and 
the other 125 feet in width. These piers furnish excellent places for prome- 
nades, open-air concerts, and restaurants. They also accommodate bathers 
and furnish landing places for the numerous steamers which every pleasant 
day in summer bring many thousands of people to the island. 

Among the numerous hotels on Coney Island are several of immense size. 
The Manhattan Hotel faces the ocean for 600 feet, and at high tide is only 
400 feet from the water. The Brighton Beach Hotel has about the same 
ocean frontage, is 525 feet wide and five stories high. Near this hotel is a 
celebrated race-course, where horse races are held almost daily during the 
warm season. 

The four divisions of Coney Island, known as Manhattan Beach, Brighton 
Beach, West Brighton, and the West End, are connected by carriage roads, 
and also by railway. The former is at the eastern extremity and is by far 
the most aristocratic portion. West Brighton is the most popular with the 
masses. Here is located one of the observatories which attracted much 
attention at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and by means of which 
an elevation of 300 feet may be attained. From this point magnificent views 
of the ocean, and of the many cities and towns in the vicinity, may be secured. 
Here, too, is the famous hotel which is built in the form of an immense 
elephant. There is also an aquarium, and many other objects of interest on 
this portion of the island. Considering the many and varied attractions at 
Coney Island, perhaps it is not strange, though it certainly appears so at first 
thought, that each summer the railroads alone carry more than 2,000,000 
people to this beautiful resort. 




LONG BRANCH. 

MONG the fashionable seaside resorts of the United States there is 
none which has a higher standing than Long Branch. The great 
popularity of the place is due to numerous causes. Among them 
may be named its beautiful location ; its splendid beach ; the fine drives ; the 
beauty of the adjoining inland region; the elegance of the buildings and 
grounds, upon which vast sums of money have been expended; the excellent 
•facilities for reaching it from New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, and 
from numerous smaller places; and the ample accommodations which are 
provided for all visitors. It long ago became a favorite resort for the 
wealthy and fashionable classes of the eastern portion of the countr)-. It is 
also visited by thousands of people of more limited means. 

Long Branch is situated in Monmouth County, N. J., on the coast of the 
Atlantic Ocean. It lies about thirty miles south of New York City. Its name 
is said to have been derived from a brook upon which the Indians formerly 
had important fisheries. The original settlement was made quite early in the 
history of the country, but it did not become prominent for a long period. 
It was located about a mile from the shore, but the newer and fashionable 
portion of the town has been built upon the bluff, about twenty feet in height, 
which rises almost directly from the beach. This bluff is covered with vege- 
tation and the landscape is very attractive. The presence of many large trees 
adds greatly to the beauty of the scene, and to the comfort of the summer 
residents. The beach which, within the town limits, extends more than four 
miles, is one of the finest in the country, and the bathing is unsurpassed. A 
fine carriage road upon the bluff gives a beautiful drive extending for several 
miles and constantly keeping near the sea. Those who are particular!}- in- 
terested in fast horses will find Monmouth Park a centre of attraction. The 
course, which cost a quarter of a million dollars, is very fine and races are 
frequent and exciting. 

Some of the finest hotels and many of the most elegant and costly summer 
residences in the country, are found at Long Branch. The grounds around 
many of these residences are fitted up in magnificent style. The place is 
divided into several sections, known as North Long Branch, Long Branch, 
Long Branch City, West Long Branch, West End, Deal Beach, and Elberon. 
Each section has post ofifice facilities, but all lie within the corporate limits 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 895 

of Long Branch. Several other famous watering places are only a few miles 
away. Long Branch has churches, banks, and newspapers. Its permanent 
population is about 6,500, and it has a summer population of from 25,000 to 

30,000. 



ASBURY PARK AND OCEAN GROVE. 

LTHOUGH a comparatively new town, Asbury Park has become 
one of the most famous of our sea-side resorts. It is located in 
Monmouth County, New Jersey, fifty-one miles from New York 
City, and five miles south of Long Branch. It is about seventy miles from 
Philadelphia, and is easily reached from all prominent points. 

It seems hard to believe that as lately as 1869 the region now embraced 
within the corporate limits of this celebrated resort was an unbroken wilder- 
ness. But such is the fact. In that year Mr. James A. Bradley, of New York 
City, purchased a tract of land one mile square, for which he paid $90,000. 
Here he determined to found a strictly temperance town. All the deeds 
which he gave prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicants on the 
property thus conveyed. The penalty of violation of this clause was to be 
the reversion of the land to the seller. The strict enforcement of temper- 
ance principles has been continued to the present time. 

In 1872 the place was incorporated as a borough and its government dele- 
gated to seven commissioners, three of whom were to be non-residents. Its 
affairs have been wisely managed, the town has made a rapid growth, and is 
in a prosperous condition. 

Asbury Park has an excellent beach of white sand. There is a fine drive- 
way by the shore and a plank promenade, a mile or more in length, extends 
along the ocean front. It is furnished with seats and has several pavilions 
extending into the water. The surf bathing is good and there is a beautiful 
grove close by. The place is well laid out, with wide streets, has gas works, 
is supplied with excellent water, maintains a good fire department, and has a 
complete system of sewerage. 

The 250 hotels and boarding houses furnish ample accommodations for 
the thousands of visitors who from all parts of the country come to Asbury 
Park every season. Some of these hotels are among the best in the country, 
and there are large numbers of fine private residences. There are churches 
of different denominations, three public halls, good schools, several news- 



896 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

papers, published daily during the season, and two national banks. There, 
are also manufactories of various kinds which do considerable business. 

Within the limits of Asbury Park are several lakes, which are quite pretty 
in themselves and which furnish the best of facilities for boating and fishing. 
It would seem that, as far as outward things are concerned, everything needed 
to make one happy could here be found. The climate is remarkably fine and 
attracts a large fiumber of winter visitors, for whose accommodation some of 
the hotels are kept open during that season. The population numbers about 
3,000 during the winter, and from 25,000 to 30,000 in the summer months. 

Just south of Asbury Park, and separated from it only by a small lake 
over which two pretty iron bridges have been built, lies another, and an 
equally noted, resort named Ocean Grove. A single railroad station accom- 
modates both places, and in the attractions which they present and the prin- 
ciples upon which they are governed the two are very nearly alike. 

Twenty years ago the present site of Ocean Grove was covered with a 
growth of pine trees. Thinking it would be a good place for their out-of- 
door services some Methodists made a small clearing and started a camp- 
meeting. The fine beach and pleasant surroundings attracted many people of 
this and of other denominations, and the place soon became not only a centre 
for great religious meetings, but also a famous pleasure resort. 

Ocean Grove is controlled by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Associa- 
tion. Like its neighbor, Asbury Park, its afTairs are managed upon strictly 
temperance principles. The sale of intoxicants within one mile of the town 
is absolutely prohibited, and there are various other restrictions designed to 
promote the quiet and prosperity of the people. A tabernacle has been 
erected which is said to accommodate 10,000 people, and has additional 
buildings capable of seating about 5,000. Abundant provision is made for 
recreation as well as for devotional exercises, and the place is as truly a plea- 
sure resort, of the highest and best kind, as it is a centre of religious activity. 

There are a large number of hotels and hundreds of cottages, while multi- 
tudes of people live in tents during their stay at this unique resort. The 
streets are wide and at night are lighted by electricity, artesian wells supply 
plenty of water of the purest quality, and the sanitary conditions are excel- 
lent. There is an ocean frontage of a mile, with all facilities for bathing, and 
the beautiful lakes in the vicinity are pleasant resorts for those who delight 
in boating or fishing. The permanent population is about 1,200 and the 
summer visitors number some 20,000 to 30,000. 




ATLANTIC CITY. 

TLANTIC CITY is one of the most popular ocean resorts in the 
United States, and is especially notable as possessing exceptional 
I advantages as a winter resort as well. Many eminent physicians in 
Northern cities who have been in the habit of recommending Florida, Colorado, 
and California to their pulmonary patients for climatic relief, are now urging 
the advantages of Atlantic City during the winter months; and hundreds of 
the leaders and followers of Fashion in New York and Philadelphia run down 
there for a few weeks of rest and recuperation. A number of the hotels are 
kept open the year round, and the rest are the earliest to open and the last to 
close for the strictly summer season. The resort is thus rapidly becoming 
the American Brighton and Margate, and like them its seasons attain a 
*' height " twice a year, during the usual summer weeks of sea-side loitering 
and in the months of March and April. 

Atlantic City is situated in Atlantic County, N. J., on Absecum Beach, a 
sandy island extending from Absecum Inlet on the north to Great Egg 
Harbor Inlet on the south, ten miles long, and nearly one mile wide, and 
separated from the mainland by a strait locally known as "Thoroughfare." 
It is sixty miles southeast of Philadelphia, with which it is connected by three 
railroads, two broad gauge and one narrow gauge, and is reached in ninety 
minutes from the Quaker City, at an ordinary cost of $i for the round trip, 
and of fifty cents for numerous special excursions. The railroads maintain 
several excursion houses at the southern end of the island for trip or day 
tourists, and there are ninety-four hotels, beside many cottages and board- 
ing houses, furnishing an aggregate accommodation for 40,000 time or sea- 
son guests. The city was incorporated 1854, has Roman Catholic, Protestant 
Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Friends' churches, and 
publishes regular and season newspapers. 

The long avenues, named after the different oceans, stretching up and 
down the island, and the cross streets, bearing the names of the various 
States in the American Union, and running down to the water's edge, are all 
delightful drives. The sandy roads are kept well sprinkled, hard as concrete, 
and free from dust; and in the early morning and late afternoon are filled 
with phaetons, victorias, and larger vehicles of the richest style. At low tide 
the beach is a most attractive place for driving, and the horses go prancing 



900 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

and pattering over the hard sand just out of reach of the waves for miles 
along the coast. At low tide, also, the adventurous walk out in the wake of 
the surf to a distance that would surprise them could they accurately measure 
it when the tide was full. The bathing is superb, there are ample facilities 
for the little folks to disport in the sand to their heart's content, and bathing 
and playing are adequately guarded against danger. A striking feature of 
Atlantic City as a seaside resort is the large number of private cottages, 
owned chiefly by the business men of Philadelphia, and occupied by their 
families through and beyond the season. Permanent population, 1870, 
1,043; i88o» 5>477; 1885,7,942; 1889, 10,150. 




CAPE MAY CITY. 

APE MAY CITY, a sea-side rival of Atlantic City, and possessing 
many attractive features of its own, is built upon the extreme point 
of the cape from which it takes its name, the southern end of the 
State of New Jersey. It is eighty-one miles from Philadelphia, and is reached 
therefrom by the West Jersey Railroad, operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad 
company, in a little over two hours, or from Camden, N. J., in one hour and 
fifty minutes. The county, cape and city, derive their name from Cornelius 
Jacobus May, a navigator in the service of the Dutch West India Company, 
who visited Delaware Bay in 1623. The territory embraced in the county 
was purchased from the Indians in 1630 by a company of Dutch colonists, 
whose deed is still preserved in the archives of the State of New York at 
Albany. A local tradition asserts that William Penn, on his voyage to the 
Delaware River in 1682, landed at this point, and was charmed with its attrac- 
tiveness as a bathing place. For more than fifty years it has possessed a 
wide-spread reputation as a summer resort, and within that time has experi- 
enced changes and improvements that only its intrinsic worth could justify. 

Among the attractions peculiar to the place are the drives to Cold Spring 
and Diamond Beach, where thousands of sparkling pebbles, known as Cape 
May diamonds, are found. Cape May Lighthouse stands within the limits of 
the city, and across the waters of Delaware Bay at Cape Henlopen is its twin 
light, the two defining in the darkest night the entrance to the bay and the 
river. The Cape May Athletic Club and the Cape May Driving Club furnish 
exciting and gentlemanly sporting features, to which are added in " the 



902 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

season," regattas, concerts, balls, and the choicest social diversions. Within 
a few minutes' ride by rail is Cape May Point, a delightful suburb of the older 
city. The Point is charmingly situated, and, as its name indicates, is the ex- 
treme southern end of the New Jersey coast. With Delaware Bay on the 
west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east and south, the cape presents what 
is justly considered not only the best but the safest bathing-ground on the 
entire coast of the United States. Thousands of bathers, of all ages and 
both sexes, sport in the waters, while white sails and pufifing steamers glide 
by, in plain sight of the beach, to all parts of the world, A magnificent 
drive, fifty feet wide, extends along the whole sea front, flanked on the ocean 
side by a broad promenade ten feet wide, that sweeps along in graceful curves 
for a distance of nearly two miles, and is as smooth as a ball-room floor. 

The principal avenues of the city are covered with shells from the sea, 
well rolled, sprinkled, and kept free from dust. The hotels and cottages — 
there are thirty-one of the former with accommodations for 6.000 guests — are 
in close proximity to the unsurpassed beach, and the latter are so numerous 
and tasteful as to justify the popular name of " The Summer City by the Sea." 
Though well-known and appreciated long before society demanded sumptu- 
ous ways and means of combining pleasure and recreation at seashore and 
on mountain annually. Cape May City has gradually become a summer suburb 
of Philadelphia, to which the wealth, culture, and refinement of the world are 
made welcome. Permanent population, 1889, 2,000, 



OLD POINT COMFORT. 




LD POINT COMFORT is not only one of the oldest hygienic 
resorts in the United States, but it is one of the very few old ones 
whose popularity has not been suffered to w^ane with time. Its 
climate is unsurpassed for salubrity, and it possesses a marked advantage in its 
equability. The averages in thermometer range during a period of ten years 
were 48°, 52°, and 6t,° in spring; 60°, 74°, and y6° in summer; 70°, 59°, and 46^ 
in autumn ; and 45°, 44°, and 42° in winter. This record shows an absence of 
sudden and depressing changes in temperature which commends the resort to 
the really sick, the invalid, and the convalescent. It is, too, for this reason, 
a favorite stopping-place for invalids seeking recuperation in the balmy 
groves and beside the tropical waters of Florida, as well as those returning 



904 THE GRP:AT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

therefrom with a dread of encountering the weather of northern months. 
Boating, fishing, bathing, and the delights of Lynhaven oysters, may be en- 
joyed there almost the year round, and with the choicest, safest, and most 
pleasurable accompaniments. 

Old Point Comfort, as the place was generally known before the civil war, 
or Fortress Monroe, as it has since been designated, is 14 miles from Norfolk, 
Va., and from the historic Hampton, and may be reached by steamers from 
New York, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, and Yorktown, and from Balti- 
more by steamers connecting with through trains from New York, Philadel- 
phia, and all northern points. It is built on a sandy projection from the main- 
land on the western side of Chesapeake Bay, and its great hotel — the Hygeia 
— stands upon the beach at the head of the broad and substantial landing con- 
structed by the Federal government. The unique defensive work, the only 
fortification in the country denominated a fortress, built in 1816-19 at a cost 
of nearly $3,000,000, and designed by the French engineer, Lieut. -General 
Bernard, for a fortified post like those of European countries rather than a 
fort as Americans understand the word, is close to the hotel, and offers many 
attractions to the tourist. It A\'as the first landing-place in Virginia of the 
famous Army of the Potomac and the point of its departure for home four 
years later. It contains the chief artillery school of the arm)', and a notable 
A\ar museum, and has a grand military band that plays morning and evening 
at guard mount and dress parade. The National Soldiers' Home, the National 
Normal and Agricultural College, and the quaint old town of Hampton, are a 
few miles away by an admirable shell road; and Norfolk, Portsmouth, and 
Newport News, the scene of the momentous fight between the " iron-clads " 
Afojn'to?' {Union) and Alcrriiiiack (Confederate) in 1862, are points of destina- 
tion for pleasant sails. From the balcony of the hotel or its two miles of sun- 
shaded verandas, a grand view of Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay is 
obtained, and in the evening the glimmering lights of the lighthouses on Cape 
Henry and Cape Charles may be discerned. There is a constant panorama 
of vessels of all classes and every maritime nation passing to and fro in the 
offing; and nearly every day brings new scenes to divert the attention and 
relieve the eye. The evenings are one enjoyable round of social festivity. 
Army and navy officers in full or tasteful undress uniform mingle among the 
belles of the North and South, and add a vast charm to the german and other 
popular diversions. Life there seems a dream that, like all happy dreams, 
ends far too soon. 



THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, 




HE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, known also as " The Old 
White," and " The Greenbrier " Springs, are located in Greenbrier 
County, West Virginia. This county is not far from the central 
portion of the State measuring from north to south, and it joins the State of 
Virginia on the east. The Springs are easily reached from Richmond, a dis- 
tance of about 227 miles, by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. They are 
also readily accessible from other large cities, there being excellent railroad 
communication with all principal points throughout the country. 

The town is located in a valley which lies among high and beautiful moun- 
tains which are only a few miles away from the Springs. The valley itself is 
nearly 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. It forms an immense lawn upon 
which the grass grows luxuriantly and which contains hundreds of beautiful 
forest trees. Among the mountains in the vicinity are Kate's, and Alleghany, 
the latter a large and beautiful peak, and the Greenbrier range. The scenery, 
both in the immediat-e region of the Springs and as far as the eye can reach, 
is extremely beautiful. All around Nature has been lavish in the distribution 
of her charms. 

The medicinal spring, which has become famous the world over, was prob- 
ably discovered in 1778. It is certain that its waters have been used with 
most gratifying results ever since that date. For about a century the town 
has been a fashionable resort as well as a sanitarium. Large numbers of cele- 
brated people gather here every summer. They come from various portions 
of the country, but the South, is, as would naturally be expected, the most 
fully represented. On account of the wealth and high position of a large 
part of its patrons, as well as for the medicinal character of the waters, this 
region has been styled "the Saratoga of the South." 

The spring yields about thirty gallons of water per minute and the quan- 
tity is remarkably uniform during all seasons. It is subject to no special 
modification either by excessive rainfall or by long-continued drought. 
Neither does its temperature change, in summer or winter, from 62°. The 
water is used in a large class of diseases and is remarkably efficacious. This 
is especially true in cases of rheumatism, diseases of the liver, dyspepsia and 
malaria. The ex-ternal use of the v/arter is also highly beneficial in the treat- 



9o6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

ment of skin diseases. While the water acts as a cathartic and diuretic, its 
special excellence over the waters of other mineral springs is seen in its im- 
mediate and powerful effects as an alterative. 

The climate in the region of the springs is remarkably fine and does much 
for the restoration to health of the invalids and for preserving the health of 
the well. The mercury seldom rises much above 8o° in the summer, and dur- 
ing the hottest weather the nights are cool. The air is very clear and in- 
vigorating, which, with the moderate temperature, makes out-of-door exercise 
very pleasant as well as highly beneficial. 

The hotel accommodations are ample and there are numerous cottages for 
those who wish to avoid the excitement and fatigue incident to fashionable 
life at a crowded watering place. 

The White Sulphur is located near the centre of a region remarkable for 
the number, variety, and importance of its medicinal springs. The Kot 
Springs, located in the Warm Spring Valley, some thirty miles north, prove 
very beneficial in many diseases. The temperature of the water at some of 
these springs reaches iio°. At only a short distance there are other springs 
in which the temperature of the water is only 50°. A few miles from these 
springs are what are known as the Warm Springs. They lie in a beautiful 
valley, nearly 1,000 feet below the surrounding region. The temperature of 
the water is 98°. The quantity of water yielded by these springs is immense. 
The water is used both for drinking and bathing and has effected many re- 
markable cures. From this point the Healing Springs are only a few miles 
distant. They are four in number and are most beautifully located. The 
temperature of the waters is 85°, and they flow throughout the year. It is 
claimed that both in the constituents revealed by chemical analysis of the 
water and in the effects of its use these springs are equal to some of the most 
famous springs of Germany and of this country. The water is us'ed internally 
and for bathing. 

Some sixteen miles east of the White Sulphur Spri^igs are the Sweet 
Springs, and the Sweet Chalybeate Springs. The water of the Sweet Springs 
has a temperature of 73° and it is strongly impregnated with carbonic acid. 
Its use is said to be eminently beneficial in cases of rheumatism and neural- 
gia. The Sweet Chalybeate Springs are two in number, varying principary 
in the proportions of iron which they contain. The temperature of t'r.e 
water is from 75° to 79°. The quantity of water yielded by these springs is 
very great. Like that of the other springs the waters are used both inter- 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 907 

nally and externally. About forty miles southwest of the White Sulphur 
Springs are the Red Sulphur Springs, also celebrated for the curative effects 
of the waters. They are located in Monroe County, West Virginia, and have 
been famed for half a century, but until recently were not largely visited on 
account of the difficulty of reaching them. This objection has been removed 
by the construction of a fine carriage road from Lowell Station. The springs 
are beautifully located in a valley lying several hundred feet below the road 
by which the traveller winds around the mountains on his journey thither. 
Reaching the valley the visitor finds two springs issuing from marble cisterns, 
some ten feet below the surrounding surface. Descending a series of steps 
he reaches the springs and finds himself under a beautiful pavilion built in 
the shape of a Greek temple. The water contains phosphorus as well as 
sulphur, and is said to be a specific remedy for consumption and diseases of 
a similar nature. With the exception of the Eaux-Bonnes in the Pyrenees, 
no similar spring is known in the world. 

In the same region as those which have been mentioned are numerous 
other springs of lesser note, but many of them having quite a degree of local 
popularity, their waters proving very useful in the treatment of diseases of 
various kinds. The natural scenery around some of these springs is also 
beautiful. Both on account of the number and the valuable character of the 
springs which it contains, this section has been very properly called " The 
Spring Region " of this portion of the United States. 



JEKYL ISLAND. 

LTHOUGH belonging to a private corporation, this new, yet famous, 
resort is entitled to a brief description. Its intrinsic charms and 
the unique principles upon which it is managed, combine to make 
it an object of popular interest. 

Jekyl Island is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, about eight miles from 
Brunswick, Georgia, itself not unknown to fame. The town was laid out in 
1735 by no less a personage than General Oglethorpe, and under one of its 
oak trees, which is still standing, the illustrious preachers John Wesley and 
George Whitefield delivered some of their powerful discourses. The Island, 
too, was noted in " the olden time," not, however, for the eminence of its 
settlers or its visitors, but for the high quality and great value of its cotton 



9o8 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

crop. Here a large quantity of the long-fibre Sea Island cotton was produced 
with great profit to the owners of the soil. The demand for this grade of 
cotton having largely decreased, and the plantations being somewhat difficult 
to manage under the conditions which now prevail, the islands which were 
formerly devoted to this crop have been largely given over to other purposes. 

Early in 1886 an association of wealthy gentlemen purchased Jekyl Island, 
with the house and live stock then upon it, for $125,000, and formed the Jekyl 
Island Club to control the property. A large part of the members were 
Northern men of w^ealth and leisure who wished a winter resort which in every 
respect should be the equal of Newport as a place of residence in summer. 
After the purchase was effected an elegant hotel was built at a cost of about 
$60,000 and various improvements in the appearance and condition of the 
property were made. The number of members of the club is limited to 100, 
and the annual dues of each are $100. In the spring of 1889, there were 
about seventy-five members, and the price of admission had advanced to $4,- 
500. Members are allowed to bring their families, but are obliged to pa}' for 
their board. A number of fine cottages have been erected for members of 
the club, and a large building for their sixty employees. 

The island is about ten miles long and two-and-a-half miles wide. Game 
had been carefully preserved by the former owners for at least a century, and 
quail, woodcock, and snipe, abound. Wild turkeys are also found, and there 
are a few deer, and several hundred wild hogs. The ocean front is of fine, 
white sand. It is quite wide and furnishes an excellent driveway. There are 
also the best of facilities for sea bathing. On the inland shore is a large and 
prolific oyster bed from which bivalves of the finest quality are obtained. 
The fishing is very fine and the opportunities for yachting are unsurpassed. 
Many members of the club are owners of yachts, and numerous fine craft of 
this description may be found here during the season. The island contains 
several ponds, some of which are fresh water, and quite a quantity of oak and 
pine timber, which adds to the beauty of the landscape and furnishes shelter 
for game. 

As the island is farther north than the fever line and receives breezes from 
both the land and sea, its climate is very pleasant and healthful. There is 
none of the lassitude w'hich affects the residents of heated regions, and the' 
place is free from mosquitoes and various other ills which prove serious draw- 
backs to many popular resorts. Grounds have been laid out for the various 
games, including polo; gas has been introduced, and an abundant supply of 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 909 



pure water is obtained from an artesian well. In fact, everything needed for 
the comfort and pleasure of the members of the club seems to have either 
appeared naturally or been added by man, and we can easily believe the 
statement of a visitor who asserts that Jekyl Island " has not its equal, north 
or south." 



ST. JOHN'S RIVER. 




HE ST. JOHN'S RIVER in Florida is in many respects one of 
the most attractive and interesting streams on the entire conti- 
nent. It is in every characteristic a perfect antipode of the roar- 
ing, rushing, city fringed and commerce-ladened St. Lawrence; a river of 
surprising, enchanting beau- 
ty; a river of peace and 
quietness. It has its rise in 
Lake Washington, between 
latitude 28° and 29° north, 
and longitude 80° and 81° 
Avest, and empties into the 
Atlantic Ocean between 
latitude 30° and 31° north 
and longitude 81° and 82° 
west. From its source just 
below the northern bound- 
ary of Brevard County, it 
soon forms and maintains 
for a long distance the 
boundary between Volusia 
and Orange Counties; 
above Lake George it flows 
on the east of Clay and in the heart of the orange region. 

Putnam Counties and on the west of St. Johns and a portion of Duval Coun- 
ties, and finds its outlet in the latter. From source to mouth it passes through 
numerous lakes, among them the cluster of which Lake Monroe is chief, and 
then through Lake George, the largest in the State. Between Palatka on 
the south and Jacksonville on the north, it spreads out over a much greater 
area, and after a considerable narrowing at its turning point near Jackson- 




9IO 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



villc it again widens on its eastward flow to the ocean. At Jacksonville, the 
first city below its mouth, it has a width of 2,390 feet and a mean rise and 
fall of one foot, thence to its source it is irregular in width, depth, and cur- 
rent, but invariably clear and always attractive. 

The steamboat trip up the river begins at Jacksonville. At Picolata a 
stoppage is made to let off passengers who desire to reach St. Augustine by 
the inside route, and such are conveyed across the narrow strip of country in 
stages. The first place of consequence at which the boat stops is Mandarin, 

eleven miles beyond Jack- 
sonville, and famous as 
containing the valuable 
orange grove of Mrs. Har- 
riet Beecher Stowe. Her 
house is surrounded by 
some magnificent live 
oaks, and the grove lies 
just back of it. Between 
Mandarin and Lake 
George are many settle- 
ments, all of exceeding 
beauty and all containing 
orange groves. They con- 
sist, generally, of a long 
wharf, a freight house, a 
hotel or two, a church, 
THE lovers' walk, GREEN COVE SPRING. pcrhaps, aud several pri- 

vate residences, all built of wood and painted white. Among them are Mag- 
nolia, Hibernia, Picolata, Green Cove Springs, and Palatka. The two latter 
are the most important. Green Cove Springs derives its name from a large 
sulphur spring in its midst, and is a most charming place. Numerous paths 
have been cut through its wealth of forest, ever swaying with its parasitic 
drapery, and hither hie the young and romantic sojourners of Jacksonville 
for a season of quiet communion with tropical nature and themselves. Pa- 
latka is the largest town on the river except Jacksonville, and is noted alike 
for its comforts as a winter resort and for its manufactures of moss into stuf- 
fing for mattresses and cushions. Large quantities of vanilla leaves, from a 
ground plant that grows wild in Florida, and when dried emits a delicious 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 911 



perfi::ne, are also prepared here for use as an adulterant and a scent in the 
manufacture of tobacco. Lake George is apparently twenty miles long by 
about twelve broad. Its surface is dappled at the edges by vast irregular 
fields of lilypads. As the steamer passes onward, countless ducks swarm up 
from among these pads and blacken the sky in all directions, and thousands 
more, in no wise alarmed at the passage of the boat, sit like black dots among 
the broad, green leaves as far on every side as the eye can discern. 

After the boat has made the passage of the lake, it enters a portion of the 
river averaging from 50 to 
150 feet in width. The lux- 
uriance of the vegetation is 
3s astonishing to Northern 
eyes as the trees are novel. 
Palmettos spread out their 
immense vivid green, fan- 
like leaves; pines rear their 
lofty deep green heads, 
from the base of which long 
streamers of gray.moss float 
on the wind ; cypresses, 
white and bare, except for 
ball-like clumps of mistle- 
toe or here and there a half 
withered bunch of tiny 
leaves, and the inevitable 
moss between them. Vines 







~%#7^* 



,^'' 
'^^S'^^')^^ 



ST. David's path, green cove spring. 
grow everywhere, and along the banks trail in masses, sweeping the dark 
waters with their leafy fringe. Here are seen the swallow-tailed hawk, a 
rare and beautiful bird, with gray back and wings and snow-white breast, 
the water turkey, the white crane, the blue heron, and, in the warm months, 
any quantity of alligators of all ages sunning themselves on the river bank. 
The long moss which hangs in such profusion from the cypresses and live- 
oaks of the South is an epiphyte; growing' upon trees, but deriving no 
nourishment from them. Having no roots, it hangs in festoons and clus- 
ters as if thrown over the branches by accident. Its flowers are incon- 
spicuous, and their seeds are so light that they are blown easily through 
the foliage, vegetating wherever they fall. The parasite differs from the 



912 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

epiphyte in that it not only grows upon the tree, but derives nourishment 
from it. The cabbage palm or palmetto, so abundant in this locality, has a 
terminal bud somewhat resembling a cabbage. This is edible, but it is death 
to the tree to remove it. The branches of many of the large trees are envel- 
oped with the bright scarlet sprays of the air-plant, a species of tillandsia, 
and of the same family as the long gray moss, though so curiously different 
in general appearance. The scarlet tillandsia looks like a small pineapple 
and has a flower stock composed of branches like heads of rye, of the bright- 
est scarlet ; the stamens are of a rich azure-blue, tipped with golden anthers. 

The dew accumulates 
within the trough-like 
leaves, and thus the plant 
is cared for during the 
dry season. This plant 
sometimes germinates 
upon a rail-fence or a 
dead tree, and fastening 
its t w i n e - 1 i k e roots 
around the wood, seems 
to thrive as well there as 
upon the trunks and 
branches of living trees. 
The mistletoe, which 
grows upon the oaks of 
I::!^ England, is of parasitic 
origin, and also abounds 
in Florida. There are nearly a dozen specimens of the tillandsia family 
growing in this part of the State ; some of them very delicate and wax-like, 
climbing the trunks of trees and drooping in festoons from their branches. 
Flowering plants abound here in the greatest profusion, and frequently old 
friends of the Northern hothouse are met with that seem out of place, yet 
are in their own homes. 

The course of the tourist lies through three more lakes, Dexter, Beresford, 
and Monroe, and stoppages are made at Blue Spring, Volusia, Cabbage Bluff, 
Manhattan, Orange Mound, Sanford, Melonville, Enterprise, and other land- 
ings. As the entire trip is an exceedingly leisurely one, where haste is 
utterly out of the range of possibility, it should not be undertaken on limited 




ON THE OCKLAWAHA. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 913 



time. When one can be unconcerned in this respect, it will be found very 
delightful to lay over a trip at any of the " towns " possessing a hotel, and 
after feasting on the prodigality of nature in her tropical attire in one place, 
re-embark for another. A short distance from the river bank on either side 
will be found the most beautiful parks and gardens, and the great groves of 
oranges for which Florida is famous the world over. One can scarcely tire 
of a tramp here. The trees seem greener, the flowers brighter, their perfume 
sweeter than elsewhere; it is a perfect paradise of bird-life. Here and there 
along the riverbank, be- 



side some tributary 
stream, or in the interior, 
will be found some noble 
live oak or cluster of 
pine, maple, or cypress, 
among whose moss-cov- 
ered branches a wooden 
balcony or observatory 
has been built, where a 
deliciously lazy siesta 
may be spent. The Ock- 
lawaha, which empties pr 
into the St. Johns, is a 
large stream, and a great 
resort for excursion par- 
ties from Palatka and En- 
terprise, who charter a steamboat and run up it several miles for the purpose 
of shooting alligators and wild turkeys, fishing, and having a good time 
generally. 

No trip to this region is properly completed that does not comprise a 
glimpse of a Florida everglade. Beside the great tract in which the Semi- 
nole Indians fought the United States troops and some of their best strate- 
gists so many years, there are patches more accessible to the pleasure-seeker 
of to-day. Formed in a low, yet not absolutely level country, these magnifi- 
cent examples of semi-tropical richness strike the beholder with surprise. 
An experienced European traveller, after revelling among the beautiful open- 
ings which occur in the swampy scenery of the peninsula, wrote that "it 
seems a waste of nature's grandest exhibition to have these carnivals of 




A LIVE OAK OBSERVATORY. 



914 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

splendid vegetation occurring in isolated places, where it is but seldom they 
are seen by the appreciative eye of cultivated and intellectual observers." 
Nature, certainly, is here bountiful to a marvellous extent. Grand towering 
trunks, loaded with strange parasitic plants, and vines of enormous dimen- 
sions, like huge serpents, 
coiling around them, com- 
bined with the singular 
forms of air-plants that 
vie in color with the birds 
and insects that alight 
upon their blossoms, 
comprise a scene more 
frequently expanded in 
the mysterious labyrinths 
of dreamland than on the 
more tangible earth. 

As a permanent win- 
ter resort, Florida is 
without a peer. At St. 
Augustine and Jackson - 
ville will be found some 
of the largest and handsomest hotels in the line of pleasure travel anywhere, 
while the smaller towns on the St. John's River are well provided with 
hostelries that, if not of metropolitan proportions and accommodations, 
afford all necessary comforts, including, in general, good board. 




AN EVKR(.;LADE. 



SCENES IN TEXAS AND THE 
GREAT SOUTHWEST. 




F the tourist chooses to visit the " Sunny South," instead of the far 
West or the still more distant regions at the northwestern corner 
of our national domain, he will be wise if he makes the journey 
during the cold season of the year. While to people who are acclimated, 
the heat of summer in the localities to which we now turn our attention is 
not extremely severe, the Northern man going there in the mid-summer 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 915 

months would find it somewhat enervating. But during other seasons it is 
generally agreeable. And the traveller from the North will at this time 
avoid the rigors of the severe climate which he would experience if he re- 
mained at home. Thus there will be a double gain in making the trip in the 
autumn or winter. The marked contrast, too, between the scenery at home 
and that which will come ,:> __.——— 

under the observation of * ■^'l 
the tourist in the South 
will add a charm to what 
would, aside from this ele 
ment of variety, be really 
delightful. 

The scenery of the re- 
gion we now propose to 
enter is very different from 
that of the Northwest. 
While it is, in its finest lo- 
calities, far from tame, it 
is characterized by beauty 
far more than it is by 
grandeur. There is less 
of the sublime and the 
overpowering. Nature 
presents herself in quiet 
grace rather than in ma- 
jestic form. But pictu- 
resque scenes abound, and 
their lovely images will 
permanently remain upon 
the mind of the beholder. 

For various reasons 
St. Louis will be the best 
point of departure. But before leaving the city and commencing our search 
for natural wonders we shall do well to pay a brief visit to one of the mar- 
vellous works of man, the steel arch bridge across the Mississippi River. 
The end spans of this wonderful structure are each 504 feet in length and 
the centre span measures 522 feet. It was built under the direction of Cap- 




A SCENh ON Ulh. Ml^-^I'^bll 1 1 RIVER, SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS, 
un line oi at. Louis, iron Mountain and Southern Railway. 



9i6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

tain James B. Eads, and is said to be the finest work of the kind in the world. 
Captain Eads had proposed to erect a suspension bridge at this point at an 
estimated expense of $6oo,ooo, but his plan was defeated on the ground that 
it involved too great an outlay. The present structure cost more than ten 
times as much, the exact expense being given as $6,536,729.99. 

Leaving St. Louis by one of the lines of the Missouri Pacific Railroad 
there will be many fine views of towns and cities as well as of rural scenes. 
For quite a distance, too, we shall be near the mighty Mississippi River, 




UN THE MERAMEC — VIEW UK (IRANI) CAKuN, SULPHUR SPRINGS. 
On line of Missouri I'acific Railway. 

whose surface is dotted with sailing craft of numerous, and in many cases, 
very peculiar forms. 

When the Meramec River is reached the land becomes more broken, and 
the scenery far more picturesque and delightful. Not the least element of 
pleasure is found in the frequent changes of outline which are observed. 
Here, all is serenely beautiful. A little farther on the land has a more 
rugged appearance, telling of great convulsions of nature in the distant past. 
Hills of beautiful form are close to the track. The railroad seems, at some 
points, to dispute with them for the possession of the river bank. Pictu- 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 917 

resque valleys lie between the hills. Creeks come down from the higher 
land and through these valleys enter the river, while upon the hills a forest 
growth adds to the general beauty. 

Yet, while there is in general a subdued character to the scenery, there 
are portions of the route upon which we find more that is grand and inspir- 
ing. Rocks rising from near the river bank, and within a few feet of the 
track of the railroad, tower aloft like the spires of some great and desolate 
cathedral. The bold outlines, the rough faces, as though huge rocks had 




rilK MERAMKC — MOUTH OF KKIFKKR CKKEK. 
.On line of Missouri Pacific Railway. 

been piled one upon another by some mighty power, the air of coldness and 
desolation which pervades these great pinnacles relieved slightly by the few 
trees which appear upon their tops, combine to give to these peculiar towers 
a sombre yet majestic appearance. 

After the Meramec River is passed, the country presents a rugged and 
broken appearance. The hills become higher and more numerous and the 
contrasts in the scenery are more sharply defined. Entering the Iron Moun- 
tain region the elevations increase and the wildness of the scenery is intensi- 
fied. This section will also have an element of interest on account of its vast 



9i8 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 




CATHEDRAL SPIKES, ON THE MERAMEC. 
On line of Missouri Pacific Railway. 



mineral wealth. The Iron Moun- 
tain is said to be both the largest 
and the purest body of iron ore yet 
discovered in any portion of the 
world. The peak rises to the height 
of 228 feet and its base has an area 
of 500 acres. The ore is very soft, 
of excellent quality, and yields 
from 55 to 69 per cent of iron. It 
also possesses a strong magnetic 
quality. A number of furnaces 
have been erected, and quite a vil- 
lage has grown up around them, 
and the various manufactories 
which have been established in 
their vicinity. There are several 
other large deposits of iron ore in 
this portion of the State. Of these 
the most important is the Pilot 
Knob Mountain. This is an im- 
mense deposit of ore which contains 
from 53 to 60 per cent of iron and 



with but small proportions of phosphorus, 
sulphur, or other deleterious matters. Dur- 
ing the past forty years about 1,000,000 
tons of ore have been taken from this point, 
and the supply is practically inexhaustible. 
Among the natural curiosities in the vicin- 
ity is the famous Balance Rock, an enor- 
mous stone of which only a small portion 
touches the rocky foundation upon which 
it stands. 

Leaving this interesting region the 
tourist passes to the table land in the I y 
southern portion of the State khown as 
the Ozark Mountain section. The line of 
demarcation betwe n the two resrions is 




BALANCE KUCK, NEAR PlLor KNOB, 
On line of the Iron Mountain Route. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 919 



not very distinct and by some writers the Iron 
Mountains are classed with the Ozark. The 
name, howev^er, is immaterial. The views will 
be numerous and picturesque. 

Near Arcadia, a station only three miles 
beyond Pilot Knob, is a most beautiful "shut 
in " of a creek which is walled by hills and for- 
ests in a picturesque manner. The traveller 
who turns from his course for a few^ hours to 1^ 
visit this scene of beauty will not have cause 
to regret the delay which it has occasioned. 

The line of travel is in the direction of 
Texas and passes entirely through the State 
of Arkansas. The objective point of the 
tourist in this State will be the town of Hot 





THE KLACK RIVER, ARKANSAS. 
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Kaihvay- 



Springs, a locality widely 
famed for its wonderful mec'-i- 
cinal waters, and annually 
vi.sited by many thousands of 
people from this country and 
by considerable numbers from 
foreign lands. But there are 
many other places of interest 
on the route and the tourist 
- will be strongly tempted to 
,,:^ turn from his main course and 
spend a brief period in these 
charming retreats. 

Many beautiful scenes will 
be found on the Black River, 



920 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

sometimes called the Big Black River of Missouri and Arkansas. This beau- 
tiful stream has its rise in Iron County, Missouri, Until it reaches the Arkan- 
sas line its course is nearly south, but after entering the northern portion of 







IN THIi OZARK MOUNTAINS — THE SHUT-IN ON STOUT\s CREEK, NEAR ARCADIA. 
On line of St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. 

the State it takes a southwesterly direction, which it maintains until it 
reaches the White River at Jacksonport, in Arkansas. The course of the 
river measures about 350 miles. Except in time of low water, steamers pass 
up the river to a distance of 100 miles. The scenic attractions are in the 



NATURAL SCENERY AND' CELEBRATED RESORTS. 921 



line of beauty rather than in the direction of grandeur and magnificence. 
About many of the localities there is a quiet and restful charm which causes 
the visitor to linger long in their presence and leave them, at last, with regret. 

Another point of interest, and one which should certainly be visited, is 
Little Rock, the capital of the State and a great railroad centre. It is 
located in the central part of the State, ort the Arkansas River, and some 250 
miles above its mouth. Up to this point the river flows through a low coun- 
try and during more than half the year is navigable for large steamers. Op- 
posite the city the river is about 1,200 feet wide. It soon grows narrower as 
we pass in the direction of 
its source, but for a distance 
of 300 miles it has sufificient 
volume to admit the passage 
of steamers of moderate size. 

The United States arse- 
nal, the State Capitol, and 
other public buildings will 
interest the visitor in his 
trips through the city, but 
the scenic attractions will 
be principally found at the 
bank of the river. The city 
is built upon a clifT, from 
Avhich it takes its name, 
which rises about fifty feet 

above the water. This is _ 

the first rocky formation ribbon falls, molniain va^k, lifile rock, ark. 

and the first high land reached in ascending from the mouth of the river. 
But farther up the stream the surface is broken and many fine views are 
obtained. Only about two miles above the city the Big Rock range rises 
sharply from the river to a height of 400 or 500 feet. Here are massive rocks, 
charming dells, beautiful water-falls, and other features of a pleasant resort. 
As he returns to the city the traveller may be interested to remember that as 
lately as the spring of 181 1, all the region was a wilderness. In that year a 
wanderer from Louisiana located on what is now the site of the city and 
had a corn field on the spot now occupied by the United States government 
buildings. 




922 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



Leaving the capital city the tourist will pass to Malvern at which point 
he will take the Hot Springs Railroad for the city of that name, which lies 
twenty-two miles away. On the last part of the trip the course lies through 
a rough and broken country, and many fine views are obtained from the car 
windows as the train glides along. 

The city of Hot Springs is situated about 65 miles southwest of Little 
Rock. It is located in a narrow valley of the Ozark Mountains on a small 

stream known as Hot Springs 
Creek. This valley is only about 
one and one-half miles in length 
and lies some 1,500 feet above 
the level of the sea. In this 
small area are from 75 to loa 
hot springs, which are noted for 
the medicinal properties of their 
waters. These springs have 
been famous for a long period. 
Before the advent of the white 
man upon these western shores, 
the Indians frequented the 
Springs when suffering from ills 
which their " medicine men " 
were unable to relieve. Many 
who were unable to make the 
journey alone were carried by 
their companions. The whites 
, ,„,^^j, ^^^., , were not slow to test the merits 

I' "'' ""' '^ ': Lool^'ng down the Valley. ^f ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ Springs. The 

efficiency of the waters in the cure of rheumatism, malarial fevers, and numer- 
ous chronic diseases soon gave the locality a widely-spread fame, which has 
seemed to steadily increase with the passing years. Of course, such a pecu- 
liar locality is not without its traditions. Among them is one to the effect 
that this is the place of which the famous Ponce de Leon was in search when, 
early in the sixteenth century, he landed on the coast of Florida and made 
extensive explorations in hope of finding the fabled fountain of eternal youth. 
The temperature of the water of these springs varies from 105° to 160° F. 
The springs issue from the sandstone hills which form the walls of the valley. 




^^^'%f^^^ HOI SPRINGS, ARKANSAS. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 923 



It is claimed that by the use of their waters many thousands of people whose 
diseases had been pronounced incurable have been restored to perfect health. 
In the bed of the creek there are also thermal springs which make the water 
sufificiently warm for bathing even in the coldest weather of winter. 

But great as is the number of invalids who flock to these health-restoring 
springs, this class furnishes only a portion of the visitors who find their way 
to this lovely moun- 
tain retreat. The 
charms of the scen- 
ery, the unique and 
extremely beautiful 
situation of the town, 
the pure and invig- 
orating air, and the 
excellent accommo- 
dations for travellers 
which are furnished 
by many large and 
well-conducted ho- 
tels, have combined 
to bring to this fa- 
vored place multi- 
tudes of people who 
are merely and only 
in search of pleasure. 
So great is the num- 
ber of visitors of 
this class that in win- 
ter Hot Springs pre- 
sents the character- 
istics of a fashionable pleasure resort in almost as strongly marked a degree 
as it bears the impress of a great sanitarium. During a period of seven years 
from 1880, the permanent population of Hot Springs was nearly doubled. 
In 1887 it had reached about 7,000. 

Returning to Malvern by the route by which he came — the only one unless 
he is willing to make a slow and tedious journey by the wagon road — the 
tourist will proceed on his trip to the " Lone Star " State. 




A VIEW OF THE HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS. 
On line of the Iron Mountain Route. 



924 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

The State of Texas will have an interest to the tourist outside of the 
beautiful scenery which it presents to his gaze. Its vast area, sufTficient for 
an empire and much larger than either the German Empire or the French 
Republic, will fill him with amazement. If he explores the region with any 




degree of thoroughness, he will be astonished at the great variations of 
climate. In one portion he will find a temperate range, neither extremely 
cold in winter nor oppressively hot in the summer. In another section he 
will find a sub-tropical climate with the vegetation natural to regions with a 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 925 




rancher's cabin, TEXAS. 
(JnTinetrf international and Great Northern Railway. 



high temperature. Between these points he will find a section of moderate 
warmth and producing the plants of more northern regions in great abundance 
and variety. The character and appearance of the soil also varies greatly 
in different portions of the 
State. There are remark- 
ably fertile sections in which 
an abundance of forage is 
produced and multitudes of 
cattle and sheep are kept at 
very little expense. Many 
of the cattle ranches in this 
region are of immense ex- 
tent. The climate is so warm 
that buildings to shelter the 
animals are not required and 
the mildness of the winters 
also makes it unnecessary to 
provide crops for their sus- 
tenance during this period. In this respect, as well as in the low pric^e of 
land, the Texas cattle grower has an immense, advantage over the Northern 
farmer and stock-raiser. 

The contrasts in elevation are also very strongly marked. Near the Gulf 

coast, and for quite a distance 
I up the large rivers, the land 
is low, and of a marshy na- 
ture. In some parts this low 
region extends inland a dis- 
tance of sixty miles. Still 
farther from the coast are nu- 
merous plains lying about 
1,000 feet above the level of 
the sea, with many bluffs, and 
presenting a somewhat rolling 
surface. Toward the west 
there is a mountainous region 
in which are found many peaks belonging to an extension, or off-shoot, of the 
great Rocky Mountain Range. In the northwestern portion of the State is the 




ON LINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL AND GREAT NORTHERN 
RAILWAY. TEXAS. 



926 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



famous "Staked Plain," This is an elevated region forming a continuation of 
the Great Plains which, beginning in British America, pass down the eastern 

side of the R o c k y^ 
Mountains to the Rio 
Pecos River. It de- 
rives its peculiar name 
from the immense 
number of }' u c c a 
stems which, rising to 
a height of from ten 
to fifteen feet, give the 
plain an appearance 
The plain lies from 2,500 to 




hunters' paradise, HOUSTON, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railway. 



of being thickly covered with upright stakes 
4,000 feet above the sea and 
contains a number of small 
lakes, in some of which the 
water is salt. As the rainfall 
is scanty and there are but 
few streams, the whole region 
was formerly considered worth- 
less cither for cultivation or for 
grazing. But investigation has 
shown that the soil is rich and 
produces a good quality and an 
abundant quantity of grass. It 
has also been found that with 
but little difficulty plenty of water can be 
obtained from wells and from reservoirs. 
Many cattle are now kept in this region 
and it is not improbable that it will in time come 
to be considered a very desirable location for the 
live-stock business. The mildness of the climate, 
together with the healthfulness of the region will 
attract settlers from other States. With the in- 
crease of population the area under cultivation 
will be extended. This will undoubtedly increase 
the rainfall and make a marked improvement in the appearance of the section. 




bHEKl> I'AblUKE ON I HI. 

BIANCO RIVER, TEXAS. 

On line of International and 

C/reat Northern Railway. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 927 



To the sportsman Texas offers a magnificent field for the exercise of his 
-skill. Game and fish of almost numberless kinds abound. The antelope may- 
be found in the northwestern portion of the State, and it is thought that a 
few specimens of the buffalo still remain in this section. In some of the 
forest regions several somewhat ferocious animals are found. Of these the 
most important are the black 
bear, the puma, the lynx, the 
wild-cat and the jaguar. 
There are many districts in 
which deer, foxes, raccoons, 
opossums, and squirrels 
abound. Birds are also found 
in great variety and in im- 
mense flocks. Wild geese, 
wild ducks, quail, snipe, phea- 
sants, and others which are 
valued for their flesh, can be 
obtained in large numbers, 
while hawks, herons, pelicans, 
cranes, flamingoes, and even 
vultures, are easily secured. 
In some cases splendid hunt- 
ing grounds are found at only 
a little distance from a city 
or large town. Fishing is 
also excellent, both as per- 
tains to the quality of the 
fish and the numbers in which 
they can be obtained. In 
this, as in the case of hunt- 
ing, the sportsman does not have to go out of the range of civilization in 
order to obtain the pleasure of which he is in search. 

Viewed from an agricultural standpoint, Texas is also a remarkable State. 
Although it has more cattle than any other State in the Union, it also, accord- 
ing to late returns, ranks first as a cotton-producing State and second in the 
number of sheep maintained. In the production of sugar it is in the second 
rank, and it grows about five and one-half million bushels of wheat, twelve 




COTTON FIELD, HEARNE, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railway 



928 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

million bushels of oats, and seventy-six million bushels of Indian corn each 
year. Notwithstanding this vast production, Texas still has in its public 
domain more than sixty-seven million acres of land. In other words, its un- 
occupied territory is larger than the entire area of any other State except 
California and Nevada. And the vast agricultural development described is 
of quite recent date. We do not have to go back very far to find a time at 
which there was little interest in agricultural affairs. Texas was a compara- 
tively dead country in the early part of the present century, and its progress 
was very slow until quite a period had elapsed after its annexation to the 
United States in 1845. 

In the splendid agricultural region through which the International and 
Great Northern Railroad passes there are almost numberless beautiful scenes. 
At Hearne immense cotton fields will be found, with their naturally pictur- 
esque surroundings. At Austin, the capital of the State, the tourist will find 
many points of interest. The city is located near the centre of the State, 
and is largely built upon a range of hills, about 550 feet in height, which rise 
from the left bank of the Colorado River. It is an important railroad point. 
The streets are wide and some of the avenues measure 120 feet. A public 
park, 23 acres in extent, has been laid out and both park and streets are 
nicely shaded. There are several educational institutions and various manu- 
factories. The new Capitol building is a magnificent structure and ranks 
among the finest public buildings in the country. It is four stories high, 
566^ feet long, 288f feet wide, and surmounted by a dome 311 feet in 
height. It is built of limestone quarried near by and the interior is hand- 
somely finished in various shades of Texas marble. For its erection the con- 
tractors were given 3,000,000 acres of land located in the northwestern por- 
tion of the State — an area nearly as large as that of the entire State of 
Connecticut and more than one-third larger than the combined areas of the 
States of Rhode Island and Delaware. The city was named for Moses Austin, 
the leader of the first American colony which settled in Texas. It was in- 
corporated as a city as early as 1839, and was the capital before, as it has 
been since, Texas was annexed to the United States. The scenery in the 
immediate vicinity is very fine. The tourist should also visit the numerous 
beautiful localities which, at only short distances, are to be found along the 
banks of the Colorado River. 

Farther down the line a stop should be made at San Marcos, the capital 
of Hays County, and a very pretty town. But it is celebrated principally for 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 929 



the great beauty of the river of the same name near which it is located and 
for the boiling spring in the bed of the stream. The spring, which forms the 
source of the river, comes from the base of the mountain which here rises 
from the surrounding plain. Except in the constant flow of the water it 
closely resembles a lake. Its width is about 300 feet and it is nearly a quar- 
ter of a mile in length. The water is perfectly transparent and the scenery 
for quite a distance around is remarkably beautiful. An enthusiastic admirer 
of this river has compared 
the openings between the 
trees which line its banks to 

" Golden paths 
That lead through Eden to Heaven's 
fairer fields." 

San Antonio will also 
prove a picturesque spot 
and the tourist will examine 
with interest the ruins of 
the mission churches estab- 
lished by the Catholics ear- 
ly in the eighteenth cent- 
ury. These churches served 
as places of defence from 
Indian attacks and for 
schools as well as for reli- 
gious purposes. The fa- 
mous Alamo will also be a 
place of interest to every 
one who appreciates hero- 
ism and who values liberty. 

In the growth of her cities and the extension of her commercial and man- 
ufacturing interests, Texas presents an interesting study. The tourist may 
enter a thriving city in which there is abundant evidence of skill and energy 
on the part of the inhabitants and which has all the stability of an ancient 
town and yet he may find on inquiry that the whole city has been built 
within a dozen or fifteen years. The great development of the railroad inter- 
est has had a wonderful effect in bringing settlers to this section of the 
country, while the natural advantages which it offers to merchants, mechanics 




COLORADO RIVER, NEAR AUSTIN, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railroad. 



930 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

or farmers not only draw multitudes of people here, but keep a large pro- 
portion of them as permanent residents. So it occurs that fine towns and 




SAN MARCOS, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railroad. 



prosperous cities have been erected on sites which a few years ago were por- 
tions of a wilderness crossed 



only by the trails of Indians 
who roamed over the country 
at will. 

Still another element of in- 
terest to the tourist, in many 
instances the predominating 
sentiment, will be found in the 
historical associations which are 
connected with so many locali- 
ties in this great land. As early 
as 1683, Texas was visited by 
the great explorer La Salle, 
who afterward built a fort and 
prepared for a permanent set- 
tlement. After an unsuccessful 
attempt to found a colony in 




COLORADO RIVKR, NEAR AUSTIN, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railroad. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 931 



1690, the Spaniards succeeded in 171 5 in establishing several missions. They 
called the country New Philippines. The Indians in the region proved hostile 
and the efforts of the 
tiers met with but 
success. When 
United States obts 
control of Louisiana 
1 803 Texas was 
claimed, but the claim 
, was resisted by Spain. 
Settlements were made 
at various times by 
United States citizens 
and also by Mexicans. 
Within a few 
years Mexico 
claimed the region, 
and to a certain 
extent the Mexi- 
can government 
exercised control 
over its affairs. In 
1833 an effort was 
made to form the 
section into an in- 
dependent Mexi- 
can State, but it 
was defeated, and 
two years later the 
Americans, under 
the leadership of 
their chosen Gen- 
eral, Sam Hous- 
ton, drove the 
Mexicans from 

the country. Then followed the invasion of Texas by the Mexicans, the mas- 
sacre at the Alamo, the usual horrors of war, the defeat of the invaders and 




SAN PEDRO RIVER AND b>PRING, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 
On line of International and Great Northern Railroad. 



932 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

the establishment of an independent republic. In 1845 ^^^ annexation of 
Texas by the United States was made a cause of war by Mexico. After great 
cost and the loss of some thousands of lives peace was declared, and a more 
prosperous era opened upon the new State. 

Near the northeastern part of the State and on the line of the Dallas and 
Greenville branch of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, there are a 
number of very interesting localities. Perhaps the one possessing the great- 
est attractions is the Natural 
Bridge which spans a beauti- 
ful stream in Rockwall Coun- 
ty. The Bridge itself closely 
resembles the famous Nat- 
ural Bridge in Virginia and 
is a rare as well as a beauti- 
ful specimen of Nature's 
architecture. Below the 
bridge the rocky walls rise 
somewhat abruptly from the 
banks of the stream. Be- 
tween the rocks, at various 
I places, trees have grown and 
added their beauty to the 
general effect of the scenery. 
The water is clear and flows 
through a rocky channel in 
which numerous pools are 
formed and from which the 
skilful sportsman is able to secure fish of excellent quality and in large 
numbers. For quite a distance along the stream the scenery is charming, 
and the tourist who is willing to take a long walk will be amply repaid for the 
fatigue which he may sustain. 

In Tarrant County, lying in the northern and, measuring from east to 
west, the central portion of the State, we find Fort Worth, which some of the 
early settlers, with little regard to the then existing state of things, but possi- 
bly with a view of future conditions, named " The Queen City of the Prairies." 
When this somewhat pretentious title was bestowed the settlement was not a 
city and its queenly appearance was wholly imaginary. But there has been 




NATURAL BRUJGE, ROCKWALL COUNTY, TEXAS. 
On line of Missouri, Kansas and Texas Ra.hvay. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 933 

a wonderful change in the character and appearance of the place during the 
past few years. In 1874 it was merely a country hamlet. Then came the 
Texas Pacific Railroad and the population increased. It was predicted that 
the extension of the road would cause a decline, but the fears were not real- 
ized. Business increased, better buildings were erected, and the place had an 
air of progress and prosperity. With the development of the outlying region 




COTTON PLATFORM, FORT WORTH, TEXAS. 
On line of Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway. 

and the increase of railroad facilities it has been making rapid strides. In 
1880 its population was nearly 7,000. Seven years later it was estimated at 
about 25,000. 

In the early history of the place a large court house was erected at an 
expense of $50,000. It was built in the form of a rotunda with four wings. 
Over the rotunda was placed a fine cupola. From this elevation a splendid 
view of the surrounding country is obtained. Fort Worth is the great centre 



934 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



of the live-stock interest in this region and a very important manufacturing 
and commercial city. Its educational facilities are excellent and it offers 
many advantages to people seeking either temporary or permanent homes in 
a mild and healthful climate. 

A few miles west of Fort Worth the train crosses the Brazos River, which 

rises in the tableland at the north- 
western part of the State and 
flows east and southeast until it 
reaches the Gulf of Mexico, Its 
length is about 900 miles. In the 
spring it is navigable for steamers 
of considerable size for a distance 
of about 300 miles from its mouth. 
Near where the river is crossed by 
the Texas and Pacific Railroad 
are many 
beautiful bits 
of landscape. 
It is mainly 
" a high prai- 
rie region, 
but there are 
numerous 
strips of timber and many 
hills of considerable elevation. 
Many trees yielding valuable nuts, as 
the pecan, hickory, and walnut are found, to- 
"■ gether with oak and ash timber trees. Farther 

west the timber becomes smaller, except in 

SCENE ON THE BRAZOS, TEXAS. WCSL Llic Liiiicv,! uv-v-v^i , r 

On line of Texas and Pacific Railway, specially favorablc localitlcs, and the mesquite, 
a peculiar small and thorny tree, becomes abundant. From the numerous 
elevations the landscape presents a wonderfully beautiful appearance. Most 
of the land in sight is uncultivated and its natural features, unchanged by 
man, appear in all their primitive loveliness. 

In the broken region beyond the Brazos River there are numerous pictu- 
resque scenes. At the towns along the route, and at the scattered settlements 
of farmers and cattle-men in the outlying regions, evidence of a comparatively 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 935 

easy form of life will be abundant. Nature has done so much for man that he 
is not obliged to exert himself so constantly and so severely to obtain a liveli- 
hood as he must in less favored regions. At various places the careful observer 
will notice feats of engineering skill on the part of the builders of the railroad 
over which he is travelling. The trestle bridge, near Canyon, is an example 
of skilful and careful construction which deserves special mention, while the 




TRESTLES, NEAR CANV'ON, TEXAS. 
On line of Texas and Pacific Railway 



ascent of the steep grades farther west shows equal skill in the selection and 
preparation of a feasible route. 

In the vicinity of Big Springs the tourist will obtain many charming views* 
If not particular in regard to his accommodations he may pass a few days in 
this region very pleasantly. He will not find large hotels and may not " fare 
sumptuously every day," but he will not suffer for either food or shelter, and 
he cannot help being delighted with the beautiful scenery. 

Passing west a section will soon be reached which is largely devoted to 
grazing. Here great flocks of sheep will be seen feeding upon the luxuriant 



936 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

grass with which the land is covered. On many of the ranches water is ob- 
tained from artesian wells and is pumped to the surface by windmills. In 
other localities ordinary wells from thirty to fifty feet deep supply plenty of 
water. To quite an extent shepherd dogs are employed in protecting the 
sheep and in keeping them from straying. The first development of the 
sheep interest in Texas was in the southern and southwestern portions of the 
State, but since the discovery that water can be readily obtained farther 










BIG SPRINGS, TEXAS. 
On line of Texas and Pacific Railway. 



north the tendency has been in that direction. In 1886 the production of 
wool in the State amounted to more than 23,000,000 pounds. 

Crossing the Rio Pecos River we soon find a great change in the appear- 
ance of the country. Here the comparatively level section is left behnid 
and the outlying region of the Rocky Mountains begins. A marked pecu- 
liarity of the approach to this great range, from this direction, is found in the 
almost entire absence of the usual slope, and in its place a series of elevated 
plains rising abruptly from fifty feet to five hundred feet at each step. The 
plains thus formed range from fifty to one hundred miles in width. The 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 937 

series is continued, in the direction of the northwest, until the great range of 
the Rockies is reached. 

Proceeding toward El Paso the train is drawn up the slope of the Sierra 
Blanca Mountains to a height of five thousand feet above the sea level. The 
ascent brings many picturesque scenes into view, while from the highest ele- 
vation there is a magnificent outlook. The descent of the mountains is also 
replete with charming views, and the scenery continues wonderfully attrac- 




SHEEP RANCH, MIDLAND, TEXAS. 
On line of Texas and Pacific Railway. 



tive until the end of the journey is reached at El Paso, " the gateway to old 
Mexico," and a beautiful and interesting locality. It is the western terminus 
of the Rio Grande division of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, and besides 
being an important railroad centre has various manufacturing interests. Its 
population increased from less than 1,000 in 1880 to more than 10,000 in Jan- 
uary, 1888. 

El Paso is the capital of El Paso County, which lies in the northwestern 
corner of the State. The county is mountainous and within its limits many 



938 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

scenes of rugged grandeur may be found. The plains between these moun- 
tain ranges will also prove of interest to the tourist who takes the time to 
traverse them. But the chief attractions of the region lie in the vicinity of 
the old town. The first settlement was made here by Jesuits about 1620. 
They built near the bank of the Rio Grande River, and though until recently 
the town made but a slow growth it has of late years become an important 
railroad centre and is now a thriving city and claims to be the " chief com- 
mercial point between New Orleans and Los Angeles." 
The valley is from two to six miles in width, the soil is 
fertile and the climate is delightful. The rainfall is slight, 
averaging not more than eight inches per year, but the 
land is easily and cheaply irrigated. Snow seldom falls and 
the mercury hardly ever rises above 100° in mid-summer. 
As a fruit-growing region this valley is remarkable. Pear 
r%^,^^ trees grow to an immense size and yield heavy crops 
%jx:^ of fruit, while other northern fruits, and those belong- 
ing to semi-tropical regions, 
are produced in great abun- 
dance. The grape is particu- 
larly successful, coming into 
bearing very early and yield- 
ing large crops of fruit of an 
excellent quality. Many large 
vineyards have been set and 
wine-making has already be- 
come a thriving industry. The 
mining interests of the region 
are also important. 
A little above the town is El Paso del Norte, "the pass of the North," a 
narrow and fertile valley through which the Rio Grande River finds its way 
on its course to the sea. In this gorge there are many beautiful localities. 
Just across the river, on the Mexican side, lies the old city of El Paso, a 
place of several thousand inhabitants, most of whom are Mexicans. The 
buildings are nearly all made of adobe, or sun-dried bricks. The principal 
building is a church said to be more than 280 years old. It is an adobe 
structure, plastered both inside and outside. The exterior is extremely plain, 
but the interior is nicely finished, with elegant carvings which give it a taste- 




.SIKRKA liLANCA MOI/NTAINS, TEXAS. 
Cin line of Texas and Pacific Railwav. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 939 



ful appearance. In the 
tower are three large 
bells said to be as old 
as the building itself. 

A short distance 
down the river may 
be seen the dilapidat- 
ed form of old Fort 
Bliss. Still farther 
down, some 13 miles 
below El Paso, is the 
ancient Pueblo town 
of Ysleta, formerly 
the capital of El Paso 
County. It is now in- 
habited almost exclu- 
sively by Mexicans 
and Indians. It con- 
tains a Catholic 
Churgh said to have 
been erected more 
than 300 years ago, and 
which is well worthy 
of a visit. There are 
various other settle- 
ments farther down 
the river, but they are 
not places of special 
interest to the average 
tourist. In and around 
El Paso, on. both the 
American and the 
Mexican sides of the 
river, he will find the 
most beautiful scene- 
ry and will come in 
contact with the nu- 







ROAD AT EL PASO AND VIEW OF FORT BLISS, TEXAS. 
On 1 ne of Texas and Pacific Railway. 



940 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

merous and widely differing types of civilization which prevail in all the 
surroundine reeion. 



SCENES IX NEW .MEXICO. 



I Rl-^^:iHE traveller who.strays to New Mexico will go somewhat out of the 

1 principal line of tourist excursions, though he will by no means 
find himself without company in his expedition. Neither will he 
regret his choice of a place in which to spend a few leisure days. The many 
peculiarities of the region, the mildness of the climate and the beauty of the 
scener)-, the almost solemn stillness which prevails at the native villages, with 
the primitive manner of life of the people, combine to make it a most inter- 
esting section to the thoughtful and observant visitor. 

It is claimed b}- some geologists that here the first dry land of the con- 
tinent appeared. The region was certainly the seat of an ancient civilization. 
Even now ancient manners and customs prevail to a marked degree. In 
some of the villages the natives follow the communistic mode of life which, 
hundreds of years ago, their ancestors adopted in order that they might the 
more successfully defend themselves from their numerous enemies. I* vari- 
ous other respects the civilization belongs to a period long since passed away 
and the people remain passively and contentedly in the condition in which 
their predecessors lived. 

One of the peculiar and interesting scenes which this section presents is 
found at the Pueblo de Taos — among the oldest of the ancient adobe forts. 
Leaving the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad at Embudo the tourist will 
make the trip along the Taos valley on horseback. On the route several 
small villages will be passed and a primitive method of agricultural life will 
be observed at the farm-houses, if such they can be called, of the region. 
The valley is fertile and the superficial methods of the natives secure a sufifi- 
cient return from the soil to keep them in comparative comfort. Not far 
from the centre of the valley the town of Fernandez de Taos is located. It 
is inhabited by about 1,500 people. A little to the south is Ranchos de Taos, 
a village in which the houses are of adobe, but which boasts the modern in- 
novation of a flouring m.ill. The buildings known as the Pueblo de Taos lie 
close to the Taos Mountain, about two miles from the village first mentioned, 
and form the home of some 400 Indians. 



942 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The village of Fernandez de Taos was selected as the seat of government 
when the United States came into possession of the territory. Here the 
celebrated Kit Carson spent the last years of his life, and tradition afifirms 
that in this vicinity the famous Mexican ruler Montezuma, was born. 

The Indians living at the fort hold a peculiar festival on the 30th day of 
September of each year. Its design is to honor their patron saint (St. 
Jerome). The ceremonies, which are peculiar, are not often attended, by 
white men, though they attract the Indians, in great numbers, from all the 
surrounding country. 

The two adobe buildings known as the Pueblo de Taos are about 50 feet 
high. They are some 600 feet apart and a stream flows between them. At 
each successive story the size of the building diminishes, so that a rude pyra- 
midal form is assumed. Appearances indicate that these buildings have 
been enlarged in size as the demand for room increased. Access to the in- 
terior is obtained by means of two ladders. By one of these the top of the 
first story is reached while the other, passing through a hole in the roof, leads 
to the room below. 

As he leaves this peculiar people and passes down the valley to the point 
at which the cars are to take the place of the small and slow Mexican ponies 
the tourist, if of an imaginative disposition, can almost persuade himself that 
he has been visiting a foreign land. If of an observing mind he will be con- 
vinced that for some portions of this territory there are great possibilities of 
development. He will have no doubt that the tide of our restless civilization 
will soon set strongly in the direction of these fertile valleys and the valuable 
mining regions in the mountains. The thoughtless, listless idlers who now 
inhabit some of the finest portions of the land will be obliged to change their 
manner of life or they will be crowded out by a more enterprising people. 
Whatever may, in the future, befall the land or its people, the tourist will 
cherish for them the kindest feelings and the quaint pictures of scenery and 
life which he has so keenly enjoyed will linger long and pleasantly in his 
memory. 




HERE AND THERE IN THE GREAT 

WEST. 

OR residents of the central portion of the United States, or for 
visitors to that region, St. Louis is an excellent point from which 
to take a trip for health or pleasure. From this great centre the 
finest railroads branch in all directions and all prominent points are readily 
accessible. Let us now 
take a brief look at a 
few points a little dis- 
tance toward the " set- 
ting sun." 

The tourist who 
crosses the State of 
Missouri by the Mis- 
souri Pacific Railroad 
will find a diversified 
country. There will be 
no startling exhibitions 
of natural scenery, but 
many very pleasant lo- 
calities will be passed. 
There will be many 
places at which, if time 
were unlimited he would 
be glad to remain for 
awhile and for a visit to 
which he would be well 
repaid. Among these bJ 
points of interest is 
Warrensburg, 218 miles 
from St. Louis, a thriving town of some 6,000 inhabitants. There he will find 
several public buildings, Warrensburg being the capital of the county, and 
the State Normal School. There is considerable manufacturing in several 
lines, some large flouring mills, and extensive quarries from which a remark- 




PEkTLE SPRINGS, WARRENSBURG, MO. 
On line of Missouri Pacific Railway. 



944 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



ably fine quality of sandstone is obtained. But the chief interest to the tour- 
ist will centre around the famous Pertle Springs. The beauty of nature has 
here been supplemented by the art of man. The scene presented is so charm- 
ing that it is not a matter for surprise that the resort has become famous 
throughout the region and that it is visited by thousands who have no special 
need of the health-restoring influences for which it is celebrated and by which 
large numbers are attracted. It is an excellent place for enjoyment as well as 
for recuperation. 

In the southwestern portion of Missouri and the southern part of Kansas 
there are a large number of remarkably beautiful views. Of these many are 

near the lines of the various 
railroads which form a net- 
work of iron over these States. 
Others are at some distance 
from the tracks and may be 
reached on horseback, or, in 
many cases, by public convey- 
ance. A coach ride through 
some of the beautiful vales of 
this region will yield no small 
amount of pleasure. To many 
it will have the charm of nov- 
elty as well as present numer- 
ous scenes of beauty. If the 
trip occurs in the summer, the tourist will not only have an opportunity to 
view the natural attractions, but he will also be able to see how agricultural 
operations are conducted in the western country. The great wheat fields and 
the vast areas devoted to corn will amaze him, even though he may have read 
much in regard to them and may be expecting to find large farms and splendid 
crops. If he keeps in mind the fact that a large part of the section in which 
he finds such a wonderful development of the farming interest has been under 
cultivation only a comparatively brief period, he will be ready to admit that 
not only is it a remarkable country, but also that it is inhabited by a very ener- 
getic and progressive class of people. His wonder will be increased almost to 
the point of bewilderment if he remembers that only thirty-five or forty years 
ago this now prolific region was believed, even by men who had carefully ex- 
plored it, to be a veritable desert. It was included in the Great American 




STAGE ROUTE, SCHELL CITY TO EL DORADO SPRINGS, MO. 
On line of Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 945 



Desert of the geographies of that day, and many who visited the section in 
search of homes were so impressed with its forbidding aspect that they 
passed by what has proved to be one of the most productive portions of the 
country. A few of the visitors who were more courageous than the great 
majority resolved to practically test the capacity of the land. They were 
assured that trees could not grow in that soil and that farm crops would prove 
a failure. But trees and crops grew luxuriantly, people from adjoining re- 







^-'■¥tJ^^^"^ 



r>/X 



WHEAT FIELD, SOUTHERN KANSAS. 
On line of Missouri Pacific Railway. 



gions and in still greater numbers from distant points, came flocking in, and 
in a brief period the desert had been converted into a most fruitful field and 
the dreary waste became the seat of a prosperous State. 

The Indian Territory, recently brought prominently to the attention of 
the public by the opening to settlement of Oklahoma, in the central portion 
of the territorial area, has many attractions for the tourist. This is particu- 
larly true of Oklahoma. The name of this region signifies " Beautiful Land " 
and is very appropriate, for the country abounds in scenes of beauty. A 
Spaniard who passed through this section as early as 1662 described it as a 



946 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



land of "pleasing, peaceful, and most pleasant fields, that not in all the Indies 
of Peru and New Spain, nor in Europe, have any such been seen so pleasant 
and delightful." 

But the scenic beauty of the Territory is by no means confined to Okla- 
homa. In various portions of the domain views of remarkable beauty may 
be obtained. In the southern and south-eastern portions we find a continua- 
tion of the Ozark range of 
mountains, with their diversified 
scenery. In the central part 
there is a belt of timber, while 
in the western portion of the 
Territory the land presents a 
rolling appearance and is des- 
titute of trees. This treeless 
plain is the beginning, in this 
latitude, of the long grade which 
reaches to the eastern base of 
the Rocky Mountains. 

A glance at the map and a 
superficial study of its general 
features would indicate that the 
State of Illinois has no special 
attractions for any one seeking 
grandeur or beauty in nature. 
Great enterprise, wonderful 
growth and development, splen- 
did buildings, and amazing in- 
dustrial energy and progress 
are to be expected, and will be 
found on every hand. But on 
account of her location " on the 
prairies," and from the fact that a large portion of her area is not more than 
500 feet above the level of the sea, it would naturally be supposed that the 
scenery would be extremely tame and uninteresting. As regards a consid- 
erable part of the State this supposition would be correct. But there are 
several points within her borders which present scenic attractions of great 
beauty and interest. 




A SCENE IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI. 
On line of Missouri Pacific Railway. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 947 



Partly from their peculiar form, but largely from the strongly marked 
contrast in which they stand to the surrounding landscape, the bluffs on the 
Mississippi River are noticeable features. Some of these rise to a height of 
400 feet above the surrounding region. Fountain Bluff, one of the landmarks 
of Jackson County, is some six miles in circumference, 300 feet high, and has 
upon its summit many peculiar " sink holes " of considerable depth. In 
Hardin County is the Cave in the Rock, which at a little distance looks like 
a. huge pile of stones. On nearer approach a chamber some 80 feet long, 
with an entrance 80 feet wide, and 25 feet high, is found. Here in the time 

of the early settlers bands of 
marauders who operated on 
land and pirates who plun- 
dered the boats passing on the 
Ohio River had their rendez- 
vous. Passing to the north- 
ern portion of the State we 
find several very beautiful lakes and not a little 
scenery that is at once charming and romantic. 
This region, on account of its excellent fishing as 
w^ell as by reason of its other attractions, is a 
favorite resort of sportsmen. 

While there are many interesting places and 
views in other portions of the State, there is noth- 
ing to exceed, and most visitors will probably de- 
scENE MEAR ATuiv^, INDIAN 1 ER- ^^^^^ ^j^^^ thcrc is tto sccncry which in beauty and 

RITORY. 

On line of Missouri, Kan. & Texas R'way. crrandcur Combined Can nearly cqual, that in the 
vicinity of Ottawa, the capital of La Salle County. Even within the city 
limits there are scenes of remarkable beauty, and for a distance of about 
fifteen miles, as we pass toward the west on the banks of the Illinois River, 
the peculiar conformation and unexpected changes of surface and general 
characteristics make a trip in this direction extremely pleasant. If in a 
retrospective frame of mind the visitor can look back to the time, not very 
long ago, w^ien this region was the home of Indian tribes and the field of 
bitter conflict for possession of the soil ; if thought is then allowed to run 
over the brief intervening period which has witnessed the marvellous growth 
of Chicago and the numerous other cities and towns close at hand he will 
.seem to be living in an age in which the amazing deeds recounted in fairy tales 




948 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

are more than accomplished. But to the party in pursuit of pleasure the 
present usually has far greater charms than the past, and the scenes around 
are the ones which may be expected to principally engage the attention. 
Several canons of considerable extent and remarkable beauty are found 




THE nOKSKSHOE, OR TWIN CANON, NEAR OTTAWA, ILL. 



along the river and there are also many glens of les-s magnitude and, because 
comparative!)' unknown, of less popularity, but which are well worthy of a 
visit. The case with which they can be reached by the residents of Chicago 
and other large places not far distant should make them very popular resorts. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 949 



By the " Great Rock Island Route " the tourist goes to Ottawa or to Utica. 
From either of these points he can take an excellent carriage road leading 
through a rich farming section, or if at Ottawa may take a charming trip on 
a fine steam yacht which during the warm season plies between that city and 
the peculiar formation known as Starved Rock. This consists of a hu^e 
mass of limestone rising perpendicularly from the river to a height of 156 
feet above its level. It is 
about eight miles below 
Ottawa, and attractions are 
not wanting all along the 
route. Quite a distance 
above is an immense ledge 
of rocks, lying in rugged 
grandeur, which is called 
Lover's Leap, and nearly 
opposite is the cliff known 
as Buffalo Rock, which rises 
abruptly from the valley in 
w^hich it stands to a height 
of about 60 feet. In the 
vicinity of Starved Rock 
there are excellent places 
for parties who wush to 
" camp out " for a few days 
or weeks. Pedestrian visits 
can be easily made there- 
from to the various canons 
in which the " charms of 
solitude " appear in all their 
perfections. One of the ^M 
most beautiful of these re- bridal veil falls, deer lark glen. 

treats is the Horseshoe or Twin Canon, through which the water flows in a sil- 
very stream under the shade of the beautiful trees which flourish upon its banks. 
Here the visitor may retire from the world with which daily life has made 
him familiar and in the shadowy recesses of the lovely glen find a place of 
rest and peace so widely differing from his usual surroundings as to seem to 
be on another -and distant globe. If of a reverent mind, and one can hardly 




950 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

fail to be reverent here, he can easily imagine himself in one of the great and 
supremely beautiful temples of the Infinite God. 

Another locality of great interest, some three or four miles from the 
steamer landing, three miles from Utica, or fiv^e miles from La Salle, is the 
Deer Park Glen. This can also be reached by carriage from Ottawa, the 
drive of twelve miles being a pleasant prelude to the happy hours which will 
be spent at its termination. The surface rock at this place is sandstone, and 
through it the constant flow of water during the ages past has cut a gorge 
with almost perpendicular walls upon which ferns and flowers, with clinging 
vines and diminutive shrubs, appear in varied hues and rich abundance. At 
the surface of the ground, and reaching close to the edges of the chasm, is a 
vigorous growth of forest trees. This wonderful glen extends a distance of 
one and a half miles. It is divided into two parts, the upper and lower, which 
are, perhaps, equally beautiful. The greatest depth of the gorge is 170 feet. 
In all portions of the glen rocks which have been cut and worn in fantastic 
forms by the marvellous processes of nature are found and a luxuriant and 
diversified plant-growth richly decks the scene. One of the finest views is 
obtained at the pool in the lower glen where is found a beautiful cascade 
called the Bridal Veil Falls. Here the silvery stream makes a plunge of 
forty feet into the deep pool of water lying at the foot of the precipice. An- 
other remarkable feature in this locality is the presence of valuable medicinal 
springs. Of these four are found in the lower portion of the glen. 

Only about a mile distant from the Deer Park Glen is another very pecu- 
liar formation which is of great interest to the geologist as well as to the 
tourist. The place is known as Bailey's Falls, and is located near the junc- 
tion of Bailey's Creek with the Vermilion River. Its name is derived from 
Lewis Bailey, the pioneer settler of Vermilion Township, who located here 
in 1825, after having previously resided in Ohio and Indiana. The Falls 
were then largely visited by Indians, with whom Bailey seems to have been 
on friendly terms. Here he remained until 1844, when ^^'^ restless disposition 
again asserted itself and with his family he removed to the Northwest. 
About two miles away is Lowell, one of the oldest towns in La Salle County, 
with quite attractive scenery and a coal mine of considerable value. But the 
greatest interest of the localit}' centres around the Falls. Here the surface 
rock is limestone which is underlaid by sandstone. By the force of the water 
or by some convulsion of nature a great number of huge boulders have been 
broken from the limestone crust and piled in a confined mass below the Falls, 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 951 

making the view wild and picturesque in the extreme. Another feature 
which will excite both curiosity and interest is found in the numerous holes, 
or wells, which have been worn into the limestone, in some cases to the depth 
of 20 or 30 feet, by boulders which the constant flow of the water has kept 
moving from side to side. The other features of the region are full of inter- 
est and the visitor will find new surprises and added charms on every hand. 
Moving westward from the scenes just described we come to Iowa, a State 




bailey's falls, la SALLE COUNTY, ILL. 

entirely destitute of mountains, but by no means wanting in natural attrac- 
tions. There are forests as well as prairies, and many bluffs rise boldly from 
the large rivers which course through its territory. Beautiful ravines are 
found, while at a distance from the large streams the undulating surface of 
the prairies presents a mild yet picturesque aspect. But by far the most 
beautiful scenery of the State is found in the vicinity of the numerous lakes 
which dot its northern portion, and which have become deservedly popular 
with a large number of pleasure seekers. 

Probably the best known, and perhaps the most charming of the lakes 



952 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

which beautify the upper part of the State, is Spirit Lake, which lies in Dick- 
inson County, 1,650 feet above the sea, and at the highest point in Iowa. It 
is the largest, and lies the farthest north, of a group of beautiful lakes within 
a short distance of each other. It covers an area of about 5,600 acres and 
presents a shore line of more than 13 miles. Along its eastern side are several 
lesser lakes divided from it by small ridges of land upon some of which good 
roads have been constructed. On the south shore of the lake, in a most 
beautiful situation, the large and splendidly equipped Hotel Orleans has 
been built. From this point the East Okoboji Lake is also in view, and the 
scenery in every direction is noted for its quiet beauty. This section is di- 
rectly reached by the celebrated "Albert Lea " route. 

The region of Spirit Lake also possesses an historical interest — an inter- 
est, however, not unmixed with deepest sadness. As lately as 1857 it was the 
scene of a terrible massacre by the Indians, in which a number of the early 
white settlers lost their lives and the remainder were driven in terror from 
their homes. A few, who were perhaps more unfortunate than their neigh- 
bors who were killed, were carried away by the Indians to suffer the horrors 
of captivity and the most atrocious treatment by their savage foes. This 
Indian raid extended to many settlements and a large section of country 
was devastated. So great was the excitement, and so terrible the fear, that 
multitudes of settlers left their homes long before the attacking party reached 
them and fled in confusion over the prairie. At this time there were six 
houses at the Lake and but few of their occupants escaped. With the ex- 
pulsion of the Indians the settlement and . development of the region com- 
menced anew and there was opened a period of permanent prosperity, in 
happy contrast with the troublous times of its early history. 

Little Spirit Lake, separated from Spirit Lake by a narrow bit of land, is 
a beautiful sheet of water with most inviting surroundings. Some enthusias- 
tic tourists have asserted that this region is the most attractive summer resort 
in the whole Northwest. Admirers of other localities may think this an ex- 
travagant claim, but only a brief visit will he required to convince the traveller 
that if it is not absolutely the first in point of beauty, it is certainly " in the 
first line" of charming scenes. The beach is clean and sandy, with a gentle 
slope from the shore, and offers an excellent place for bathing. The fishing 
in this, and the adjacent lakes, is unexcelled. The waters have been liberally 
stocked with fish of excellent varieties, and California salmon and Mackinaw 
trout, as well as whitefish, pickerel, bass, muskalonge, and perch abound. 



954 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

The hunting in the immediate vicinity is as fine in its way as the fishing at 
the lakes. 

About four miles from Spirit Lake is the celebrated West Okoboji Lake, 
covering an area of about 4,000 acres but with so many bays and capes that 
its shore line measures 18 miles. The beach sand is perfectly white and clean 
and the water of the lake is so clear that at a depth of 25 feet the movements 
of fishes can be readily seen. East Okoboji is also a beautiful sheet of water 
closel)' resembling a wide and peaceful river. A peculiar feature of this lake 




VIEW (.'N LllTLE SPIRIT LAKE, lUWA. 



is seen in its position, lying, as it does, some four feet lower that the level of 
another body of water from which it is separated by only a narrow strip of 
ground. 

Turning our course toward the north we enter Minnesota, another State 
devoid of mountains, but widely celebrated for the number and extent of its 
lakes and the extreme beauty of their scenery. Within its bounds there are 
from 7,000 to 10,000 lakes, not one of which covers a less area than 30 acres. 
Of these the most widely known, the most popular with tourists, and in some 
particulars the most charming, is Lake Minnetonka. Situated only a few 
miles from St. Paul it is, from that point, or from Minneapolis, easily reached 



956 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



by the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, which runs frequent 
trains directly to the lake. 

In the irregularity of its form Lake Minnetonka is one of the most pecu- 
liar bodies of water ever discovered. It is about 15 miles in length, follow- 
ing an air line, but the indentations are so numerous and so extensive as to 
give it a coast line of not less than 250 miles. The effect of this wonderful 
contour is heightened by the character of the shores, which 
present numerous elevations and in many portions are 
covered with a large and beautiful forest growth. 

The visitor will find that while nature has been lavish 
with her beauties, presenting charming scenes from every 
point of view, man has also made abundant provision for 
his comfort. Upon the beach he will find the Hotel La- 
fayette, 1,100 feet in length by 100 feet in width, with wide 
piazzas, and in all its exterior construction beautified and 
adorned by the architect's skill. The interior is also beau- 
tiful, is furnished in a luxurious manner, and the guest 
can here find all the comforts and conveniences which it 
is possible to supply. At various other locations along 
the shore many quiet retreats can be found for those who 
desire a more secluded life than that at the fashionable 
resorts. The climate is almost perfect. Even during 
mid-summer the days and nights are delightfully cool and 
HUNTING SCENE. t^g brcczcs fresh and invigorating. 

The numerous points of interest along the shores of the lake are easily 
reached by the fine side-wheel steamers which ply upon its waters. Some of 
these boats are large enough to carry 1,500 or 2,000 people, and all are fitted 
up in an elegant manner. They leave Wayzata, on Wayzata Bay, and pass 
to the little village of Excelsior, which was one of the earlier settlements in 
the region and is now a quiet but popular summer resort. Touching at other 
places of interest the boat passes through the Narrows to the upper lake, 
where Spring Park is located, islands covered with forests abound, and nu- 
merous exceedingly beautiful views are presented. As there are nearly fifty 
steamers, one hundred sail boats, and numberless row boats, no visitor who 
desires a sail on the lake need be disappointed. The fishing is also very fine. 
Some of the best varieties of bass are here obtained as well as many other 
kinds of fish which the sportsman delights to secure. On account of its 




958 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

many attractions, both as regards natural scenery and what man has done to 
supply the comforts of civilization, it is not strange that Lake Minnetonka 
has received the appellation of " the Saratoga of the Northwest." It is in- 
teresting to remember that the Falls of Minnehaha, to which Longfellow 
attracted wide attention by one of his famous poems, are on one of the out- 
lets of this lake and only a short distance from Minneapolis. 

Leaving St. Paul by the Northern Pacific Railroad the traveller will also 
pass through a magnificent lake region. Arriving at Detroit City, the capi- 
tal of Becker County, he should remain for a few days at least, and enjo}- 
the scene here presented to view. He will find himself in the midst of a very 
rich agricultural section. The State of Minnesota is justly celebrated for the 
excellent quality of its wheat, and Becker is the leading county in the pro- 
duction of this cereal. The visitor is also in what is known as the Lake Park 
region of the State, a region containing a large number of most beautiful 
lakes and remarkably rich and diversified scenery. 

The city of Detroit is 227 miles distant from St. Paul and has a charming 
location. Looking eastward a beautiful timbered country is seen. Turning 
toward the west the prairie stretches away as far as the eye can reach. Only 
half a mile away is Detroit Lake, famed, even in this region of magnificent 
lakes, for its wonderful beauty. Near by are beautiful bluffs w'ith cool and 
quiet glens, game is plenty, fishing is excellent, the air is clear, and the 
natural surroundings are delightful. The tourist also finds excellent hotel 
accommodations. Only 25 miles distant, on the north, is the Reservation of 
the Chippewa or Ojibway Indians, to which a very pleasant visit may be 
easily made. The tribe numbers about 1,500. Visitors are kindly received 
and find an intelligent, civilized, and to a good degree, Christianized people. 

Again taking the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad and resum- 
ing our journey toward the west we come to the new State of North Dakota, 
which, with its sister State of South Dakota, until the spring of 1889 formed 
the great Territory of Dakota. In point of size it was the largest Territory 
in the Union, and was equalled in area by only two States, Texas and Cali- 
fornia. On account of the beauty of much of its scenery, and of the sharply 
marked contrasts which it presents, it has been styled the "Wonderland." 
The State lies mostly in the region known as the " Great Plains," but at a 
somewhat lower altitude than the southern portion of- the plateau thus desig- 
nated. Among its numerous interesting features its large lakes are worthy 
of special mention. To one of these we will now turn our attention. 



960 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

Lake Minnevvakan, or, as it is popularly called," Devil's Lake," is the larg- 
est body of water in the State and is also the most peculiar. It is located in 
Ramsey County, in the northeastern portion of the State. In a charming 
location upon its northern shore is the capital of the county, Devil's Lake 
City, the western terminus of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Rail- 
road, and quite a business centre. Here will be found ample accommodations 
for visitors, while parties who prefer to " camp out " will have no difificulty in 
securing everything needed for their comfort. On the route the traveller will 
pass through the Red River Valley, famous throughout the country for its 
immense production of wheat and for containing the largest cultivated farms 
in the world. 

Arrived at the lake the tourist will wonder how it came by a name of 
such ill omen. For he will find that the appearance of this remarkable sheet 
of water does not at all correspond with its title. Instead of the forbidding 
aspect and frowning appearance for which, if knowing nothing of its charac- 
ter, he will be prepared, there will come to his view a sheet of limpid water 
and shores of exquisite loveliness, while the more distant surroundings are 
also full of beauty tinged very strongly with romance. How, then, came this 
name, which is suggestive of every evil, to be fastened upon the lake ? The 
answer is easy. It was due to an error of the early travellers through this 
section. They designed to use an Indian expression meaning "Spirit water," 
but unfortunately adopted a somewhat similar one signifying utter worthless- 
ness for quenching thirst. The town which grew up upon its shore received 
the same opprobrious title, and the effort made to change the name of the 
lake to Minnewakan has met with little success. 

In outline the lake is extremely irregular and presents a very extended 
and remarkably beautiful shore line. There are various elevations from 
which extensive views of the surrounding country may be obtained. From 
the northern shore there is a good view of a military post named Fort Totten, 
and of a mountain peak called Devil's Heart, which can be seen forty miles 
away. Although so clear and beautiful in appearance the water of the lake 
is strongly impregnated with salt. It also contains other matters, as soda, 
lime, magnesium, and iron, in small proportions, and has proved quite effica- 
cious in the treatment of various diseases. On account of the saline charac- 
ter of the water and the form of the beach the lake furnishes an excellent 
place for bathing. Many visitors have claimed that there is no finer surf- 
bathing on the shore of the Atlantic than can be found in this inland lake. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 961 

The attractions of the locality are heightened by the dry, pure air, the cool 
temperature in summer, and the frequent and refreshing breezes which pre- 
vail. The fishing is excellent, there is plenty of game in the vicinity for the 
hunter, there are good roads leading to various points of interest,- and three 
steamers on the lake by which any locality upon its shores may be easily 
reached. Altogether, Devil's Lake presents many attractions and will prove 
a pleasant place in which to pass a summer vacation. 



THE ROCKIES AND BEYOND. 




N and beyond the Rocky Mountain region the scenes of interest to 
the tourist are practically innumerable. In whatever direction he 
may turn, or to whatever locality he may go, he can be sure that 
he will find Nature majestic and magnificent. The tame and the common- 
place have no represen- 
tation here. Every- 
thing is on a splendid 
scale. The wonder ex- 
cited by one series of 
views will change to 
amazement as he be- 
holds, a little farther 
on, scenery still more 
grand and inspiring. 
The constant change, 
yet unbroken grandeur, 
will seem to be little 
less than miraculous. 

In this sketch we 
shall briefly note a few 
of the wonders of the 
region and call atten- 
tion to a still smaller 
number of the cities ^ western contrast — nature and civilization. 

and towns which have sprung up, as if by magic, amid these sublime scenes. 
We shall not attempt to make a single tour which will include a visit to 




962 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

each place described, but shall treat them somewhat independently. This 
will be necessary as we wish to notice several places which, though not far 
distant from each other, are reached by different routes and could not well 
be included in a continuous trip. 

In this magnificent region we shall find cities and towns, villages, mining 
camps, and scattered farm-houses. All these are of comparatively recent 
date, yet some of them already have historic associations and are of interest 
to the general reader as well as to the tourist. The opening of the new 
country, the conflicts with the savage tribes which claimed the land, the 
building of towns and cities in this wild region then far distant from civilized 
localities, and the development of the agricultural resources, required a 
degree of courage, energy, perseverance, and skill which people in older set- 
tled sections seldom realize and still more rarely appreciate. The debt which 
the residents of the other sections of the country own to the pioneers of the 
Great West can never be paid. 

Perhaps in no locality can the vast changes which man has wrought within 
a brief period be more clearly seen than they are at Leadville, Colorado. 
Thirty years ago it lay in an almost unknown region and was without an in- 
habitant. A multitude of men had been drawn to Pike's Peak by the mining 
excitement of 1859 ^'^<^ were disappointed. A few, disgusted with the results 
of their efforts there, determined to go farther into the mountainous region 
and search for gold. Reaching the Arkansas River they turned their course 
and passed up the valley, making many searches -for gold but finding none. 
It was in the year i860, and the season was half gone, when they reached a 
small stream which they followed quite a distance and soon discovered placer 
mines of gold. Three gulches, California, Stray Horse, and Iowa, were 
quickly found. Before winter set in the locality had a population of over 
S,000, and two and a half millions of dollars worth of gold had been obtained. 
In 1874 the mines seemed exhausted and the place was practically abandoned. 

Three years later about twenty shanties were all the occupied buildings 
standing in Leadville. The next year, 1878, it was found that the carbonates, 
which had been regarded as worse than useless and which had been thrown 
anywhere to get them out of the way, contained large quantities of silver. 
The tide of population quickly turned and within a year the residents of 
Leadville numbered from 12,000 to 15,000. Smelting furnaces were erected 
and vast quantities of ore were obtained. Millions of dollars' worth of silver 
and lead have been secured, as well as considerable quantities of gold, and 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 963 

mining is still vigorously pursued. The present permanent residents number 
over 10,000, and there is also a large floating population. 

In the manner of reaching the place, as well as in the character and de- 
velopment of the place itself, there has been an almost miraculous change. 
In the spring of 1878 stages, each drawn by six horses, were run from Denver 
and other railroad centres. Many eager men walked through the snow and 
mud, and multitudes were carried by private teams. Vast numbers of mules 




A SCENE ON THE LEADVILL ROUIE. 



and oxen were used to haul supplies and mining machinery to the new town. 
Freight rates were enormous and a long time was required to make the 
journey. The discomforts of the trip, at any season of the year, were numer- 
ous and trying. In winter the cold was intense and progress slow. In sum- 
mer the dust was stifling. In spring and autumn it was difficult travelling on 
account of the mud, and a ride over the rough roads in the conveyances of 
that period was tiresome in the extreme. Now all is changed. The trip 
is quickly made in the luxurious cars of a well-equipped railroad and is 



964 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

an occasion of the greatest pleasure instead of a cause of weariness and 
annoyance. 

Arriving at our destination the change in conditions is equally great. 
Instead of having to sleep upon the floor of a saloon, in a canvas tent, or 
even upon bales of hay, as great numbers had to do in the early days of 
Leadville, the traveller now finds ample accommodations in the numerous and 
well furnished hotels and boarding houses which are ready to supply him 
with every comfort. 

While in this vicinity a" visit should be paid to the Mountain of the Holy 
Cross. This celebrated formation of nature is a peak of the Saguache range 
of mountains, is situated on the Great Divide of Colorado, in Summit County, 
just above the line separating it from Lake County, eighteen miles north of 
Massive Mountain and twenty miles north of the city of Leadville, directly 
south of Mount Powell, and between Roan and the Rocky Mountains, and 
has a height of 14,176 feet above sea level. Its geological structure is of 
gneiss, and it has a vertical face of nearly 3,000 feet on the side. Notwith- 
standing the multiplicity of wonders in this region of continual amazement, 
it invariably attracts the deepest attention of the tourist because of the enor- 
mous white cross that seems to have been laid on its very crest. There are 
numerous lines of whiteness on the mountains in this section, but none save 
this present the outline of a complete and familiar figure. The cause of the 
irregular lines of white are the outcroppings of the rock and the presence of 
eternal snow. In this particular instance, the trunk of the cross is formed by 
a fissure in the rock, estimated to be 1,500 feet long, and the arms or crosspiece 
by a steppe or ledge in the rock on which snow remains all the year. In clear 
weather the cross can be discerned at a distance of from fifty to eighty miles. 
In 1 87 1, Thomas Moran, the distinguished artist, accompanied the United 
States exploring expedition to the Yellowstone country, and in 1873 made 
a second visit and took sketches for his famous painting of "The Grand 
Canon of the Yellowstone " and the " Chasm of the Colorado," which were 
purchased by Congress for $10,000 each, and are now in the Capitol at Wash- 
ington. He also brought "The Mountain of the Holy Cross" to the atten- 
tion of the public by making a grand painting of it, which was exhibited at 
the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and took a medal and 
diploma. The mountain received its name from the early stage drivers and 
prospectors for the precious metals, and was so apposite that no change has 
ever been suggested. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 965 



Another point of interest not far distant is Georgetown, also in Colorado, 
and in the central part of the Rocky Mountain district. It is about 50 miles 
west of Denver 
and is noted for 
the beauty of its 
location as well 
as for the valua- 
ble mining inter- 
ests which centre 
there. The val- 
ley, or rather the 
canon, for it lies 
in the celebrated 
Clear Creek Ca- 
non, in which it 
is built, is exceed- 
ingly beautiful 
and the views of 
the mountain 
peaks, which on 
three sides wall 
it in, are simply 
magnificent. The 

town lies about 8,500 feet above the 
sea, is nicely laid out, and contains 
many handsome residences. 

A visit to the silver mines and 
the extensive reduction works will 
be full of interest. Many charm- 
ing walks can be taken along the banks of the beautiful 
stieams which flow through the place and which combine 
with others to form the water-course known as Clear 
Creek — the river from which Clear Creek County, of 
which Georgetown is the capital, derives its name. A very pleasant trip 
may also be made to Green Lake, a most peculiar as well as beautiful sheet 
of water. It is about two miles from the town and lies away up on the 
mountain side some two thousand feet higher than the town itself. It was 




966 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

once a valley covered with trees, which still remain erect. The sand at 
the bottom, the banks of the lake and the moss which heavily drapes them, 
are all green and from this fact the name of Green Lake was chosen. How 
the lake was formed, and where the springs which supply it are located, no 
one can tell. The water is remarkably clear and in some portions of the 
lake is very deep. At one end of the lake is the Cave of the Winds, where 
huge rocks are piled in confuised forms and through which the breezes pass 




GEORGETOWN, COLORADO. 

with a melancholy sound. The Indians have a legend that at this spot certain 
opposing gods had their battle ground and that these great boulders are the 
weapons with which their warfare was waged. 

Tourists who are not burdened with wealth may be interested to know 
that, if not rich themselves, they have, while in Georgetown, very rich sur- 
roundings. From the county of which it is the capital more than twenty-five 
million dollars' worth of the precious metals have been taken, while the value 
of the minerals still remaining is altogether beyon i human calculation. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 967 

Leaving Georgetown the railroad winds along the edge of the gorge and 
slowly climbs the mountain side. The road-bed has been cut and blasted out 
of the solid rock. We soon pass the Devil's Gate, a curious chasm through 
which the creek finds its way, and pursue our upward course. There are 
numerous curves and the grade is sharp. Coming to the Bow Knot Loop we 
see a very peculiar and expensive, but in such localities a necessary, form of 
railroad engineering. Looking upward a track is seen overhead on an iron 
bridge which was built in a crescent form. Continuing to ascend, and follow- 
ing a short curve, this iron bridge is crossed and the tourist looks down upon 
the track immediately below 



but over which the train has 
just passed. The bridge is 
300 feet long and 86 feet 
high. The loop of which it 
forms a part is said to be the 
most complex in form of any 
railroad loop in the world. 

About nine miles beyond 
Georgetown lies Graymont, 
the terminus of the Colorado 
Central branch of the Union 
Pacific Railroad. This is the 
point from which to make ex- 
cursions to Gray's Peak. The 
ascent is not very difificult M 

and the views along the route, devils gate. 

and from the summit, give unbounded pleasure. The mountain is 14,441 
feet high. This is nearly 300 feet higher than Pike's Peak and only 23 feet 
less in height than Mount Blanco. The latter is believed to be the highest 
peak in the United States exclusive of Alaska. 

Though not distant from Graymont the peak is shut out from view by 
other and nearer mountains. Ascent must be made on horseback. For a 
mile or two the road is good. Then it changes to a path, narrow, but not 
difficult to follow. The grade soon becomes quite sharp and the route is cir- 
cuitous. After a ride of a few miles the massive form of Gray's Peak, with 
its beautiful and eternal crown of snow, comes fully into view. It looms up 
in enormous proportions, silent, and awful in its majestic greatness. As we 




968 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

ascend, the air becomes rarefied and the temperature is rsduced. As the 
snow line is approached many flowers will be noticed upon the sunny slopes. 
But long before the summit is attained the line of vegetation is passed. 
Looking backward the winding trail over which we have come may be dis- 
cerned. Hills and mountains, with narrow valleys, are seen far below. But 
it is from the summit of the peak that the " unapproachable view " is obtained. 
From this point all the great parks in the State may be seen. Looking 
toward the east vast plains are in view with many towns. Rivers appear like 

ribbons of light extend- 
ing for hundreds of miles. 
Mountains are seen on 
every hand. Ten or 
twelve of the peaks in 
sight are each more than 
14,000 feet high. The 
spectacle is sublime. In 
describing it one writer 
remarks as follows : 
" They who have tra- 
versed the globe say that 
it affords but one such 
prospect. A pictured 
landscape so mighty in 
conception that it over- 
powers, yet harmonious 
as an anthem in all its in- 
finite diffusion of color 
and form, framed only 
by the limit of the eye's vision —a picture where the lakes gleam and the 
rivers flow — where the trees nod and the cloud-ships clash in mystic collision 
with the peaks that have invaded their realm, while the moving sun floods it 
with real life and warmth." 

No description of the mountain, or of the view from its summit, can ade- 
quately set forth the solemn and majestic grandeur of the scene itself. No 
painting, with words or with colors, can fully portray the magnificent sur- 
roundings. Wherever else he may go in this wonderful State, or whatever 
marvels he may behold, the tourist who has looked from this lofty height will 




gray's I'EAK. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 969 



yield ready assent to the as- 
sertion that " Gray's Peak is 
Colorado's finest attraction." 

In the great caiions of 
Colorado the tourist will find 
innumerable scenes of grand- 
eur. The paths wind around 
and over the rocks, among 
the tall pines which skirt the 
banks of the roaring and 
foaming stream. The mas- 
sive walls rise high in the air. 
Deep gorges appear in which 
the rays of the sun find their 
way only at midday. In 
many of the deep recesses 
snow may be found at all 
times of the year. While 
examining these immense 
gorges, the mind is filled with 
amazement at the sublime 
scenes which appear on every 
hand. 

Among the most beauti- 
ful of the scenes in this re- 
gion, or even in the world, 
may be named the Cheyenne 
Canons and the Seven Falls, 
which are reached by the 
main line of the Denver and 
Rio Grande Railroad. They 
are located in the Cheyenne 
Mountain, itself an object of 
beauty which is admired by 
all who obtain a view of its 
magnificent form, about two 
miles south of Colorado Springs 




CHKYICNNK FALLS. 

To many thousands of people who 



have 



970 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



read her beautiful poems and entertaining stories this mountain will have a 
deep interest as the burial place of " H. H.," Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson. 

Of the two canons in this vicinity the South Cheyenne is the most widely 
known. The stream is crossed eleven times before the head of the gorge is 
gained. Then a series of seven beautiful falls is reached. Looking upward 
the mountain peaks seem to touch the sky. Looking downward we see a 

deep and narrow chasm 
through which the stream 
rushes in its w i n d i n g 
course over a rough and 
rocky bed. 

The North Chej-enne 
Cafion is less wild and 
rugged in its appearance. 
Possibly it is somewhat 
less romantic. But it is 
not wanting in grandeur. 
Were it not for compari- 
son with the magnificent 
gorges of the surround- 
ing region it would be 
considered sublime. The 
walls rise to grand heights 
and their pinnacles re- 
flect in beauty the light 
of the sun as it strikes 
them at various angles. 
The stream flows more 
smoothly than it does in 
the South Canon and the 
walls are not as regular 
in their outlines, though very beautiful in form. There is a vigorous growth 
of shrubs and vines interspersed with the pines. All that is lost in wildness 
is more than made up in a loveliness which no pen can adequately describe 
and which only those who have seen it can appreciate. 

In the same vicinity, only five miles from Colorado Springs, are the cele- 
brated Manitou Springs, which every tourist to Colorado should be sure to 




IN NORTH CHEYENNE CANON. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 971 



visit. The point of departure will be Colorado Springs, from which place the 
trip can be made by carriage or by a train on the Manitou branch of the 
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, which will take us, by a winding course and 
through picturesque scenes, to Manitou. This place has many and varied 
attractions. Before it was settled by white men the Indians had learned 
something of the medicinal value of the Springs and frequently brought their 

sick here to be healed by ^^ .m imium— 1 1 — --- --^^ 

the apparently magical 
power of the waters. 
Then the miners who had 
lost health and strength 
by the exposure, toil, and 
privations to which, for 
many years, they had 
been subjected, began to 
test the waters and found 
them remarkably eflficient 
in restoring health and 
vigor. The fame of the 
waters spread and visitors 
from abroad were at- 
tracted. Invalids were 
benefited. The well were 
delighted. The magnifi- 
cence of the scenery com- 
bined with the medicinal 
qualities of the waters to 
render the region alluring 
to travellers, and it soon 
became known as the 
" Saratoga of Colorado." 
During the warm season multitudes of people, including representatives from 
many foreign lands, visit these Springs. Many come for health ; more come 
for pleasure. All find a beautiful locality and everything that is necessary 
for promoting their comfort and happiness. 

The important springs, of which there are six, vary somewhat in the 
character of their waters, but all contain carbonic acid in considerable quanti- 




A GLIMPSE OK MANITOU AND PIKE S PEAK. 



972 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



ties. The lowest in temperature is 43°, the highest 56°. All are effervescent, 
but some have this quality in a much higher degree than others. Some are 
strongly impregnated with soda, lime, and magnesia, while others contain iron 
in a marked degree. Of part of these springs the water is used for bathing 
as well as for drinking purposes. The pure, dry air undoubtedly adds greatly 
to the ef^ciency of the waters, while the pleasant surroundings strongly tend 
to make the invalid " feel better " at once. 

As for the village, it is attractively located on the sides of the valley in 
which the springs are found. A beautiful stream, filled with water formed 
by the melted snow from the adjacent mountains, flows through the place. 

There are pretty 



groves of trees of 
various kinds, and 
the shrubs and 
plants natural to 
high altitudes here 
abound. Excellent 
hotels provide for 
the comfort of the 
tourist, who may 
here find not mere- 
ly the conveniences 
but the luxuries of 




THE MINERAL Sl'RINGS, MANITOU, COLORADO. 



the most advanced civilization. The views from the piazzas of these hotels 
are extensive and magnificent, as indeed they are from any point which 
one can reach in this vicinity. 

While itself a splendid centre of attraction, many points in the region sur- 
rounding Manitou should also be visited. It is claimed that no other resort 
in the world has so many objects of interest In its immediate vicinity. How- 
ever that may be, and we have no inclination to dispute the claim, it is certain 
that magnificent scenes abound and that there is abundant variety as well as 
marvellous beauty and grandeur in the whole region. 

The ascent of Pike's Peak, though difficult, is to be made if possible. It 
will open numberless magnificent scenes, and from the summit, which is the 
highest inhabited point in North America, a glorious view, which will never 
be forgotten, will be obtained. All along the trail there are changes of scene, 
and varied forms of beauty appear. There are gorges clothed in luxuriant 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 973 



green, beautiful streams rushing down their rocky beds and faUing in grace- 
ful cascades over precipices of varying heights but constant charms. Enor- 
mous boulders lie all around. Elevation after elevation is climbed but still 
the great Peak toward which we move apparently recedes. But each increase 
in height opens a wider field of observation than had previously been secured. 
The horses — for excur- 
sions in this region must 
be made on horseback — 
pick their way careful!)- 
along the narrow ledgee, 
under the overhanging 
rocks, and up the steep as- 
cents. As greater heights 
are gained frequent inter- 
vals for rest are needed. 
The rarefied air makes 
continuous exertion im- 
possible. But we lose 
nothing by the delay. For 
it gives us time to look 
backward over the vast 
area now open to view. 
We see widely extended 
plains, look downward 
upon the valley which we 
recently left, gaze upon 
the trees which line the 
banks of streams too small 
and too far away to be 
distinguished without 
their aid, and then looking upward and forward we see the majestic peak 
upon which we hope and expect ere long to stand. 

When about half the distance has been passed we come to a level spot 
which forms a natural park and furnishes an excellent and much-needed op- 
portunity to take a longer rest than we have yet secured. Here the surface 
is smooth and reminds one of a meadow on some river bank. But when we 
pass on we soon come to a steep and rocky path which we must climb for 




I'IKK S I'KAK TRAU,. 



974 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



tliree miles. This will prove a difficult and exhausting feat. The tempera- 
ture has been rapidly falling and as we climb these precipitous ledges the 
cold becomes severe. But while we suffer from the cold the great exertion 
and the rarefied air cause the horses to pant as from mid-summer heat. At 
length the summit is gained and we stand upon the magnificent peak which 
has charmed us with its beauty from afar. 

The top of the mountain has an area of about seventy acres, not of land 
but of stones and rocks. From any and every point of the compass there 
are splendid views. The prairies in the far east stretch away to an almost 
-=^"^) limitless distance. In all directions the moun- 
^-| tains in the vicinity rise in beauty and grandeur. 
As the sun goes down, the changing lights and 
fleeting shadows make a picture to be forever re- 
membered but never described. In the house 
erected for the officer of the Government signal 
service we remain until morning. The air is 
sharp and cold and is so rare that it gives a feel- 
ing strongly akin to sea-sickness. But in the 
morning when we behold the glories of the rising 
sun discomforts are, for a time, forgotten. The 
return trip to Manitou, though not without its 
annoyances, is less difficult than the ascent. The 
tourist is glad to reach the warmer region of the 
Springs and while he will never regret the trip 
he will not care to go over the route again — at 
least, not until another summer. 
KAiNHow KAi.Ls. j\ mucli shortcr, but very pleasant trip, is up 

the Ute Pass to Rainbow Falls and beyond. The Falls are in a narrow 
canon through which the Fountain Creek rushes with impetuous force, for 
many hundred feet, to the valley below. At the Falls it passes over a pre 
cipice forming a beautiful cascade. The name of the Falls is derived from 
the fact that at certain hours, when the sun is in the right position to pro- 
duce such an effect, a beautiful rainbow may be seen. 

The Garden of the Gods will, of course, be visited. Here massive rocks, 
of a bright red color, rise from a level, grass-covered plain to a height of 330 
feet and form a rude but magnificent gateway to the open field beyond, where 
the finest views of Pike's Peak and many other points of interest are obtained. 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 975 

Here one seems to stand in the presence of the supernatural in its greatest 
majesty. The wildness and grandeur are indescribable. The grotesque 
figures which seem to be carved upon these massive walls, the immense rocks 
of all conceivable forms, the numerous pillars rising like monuments toward 
the sky, the grand, almost awful surroundings, make a picture which language 
is powerless to portray. 

Toltec Gorge, on the Silverton branch of the Denver and Rio Grande 
Railroad and a little more than 300 miles from Denver, is another, and an 
important, point of interest in this land of wonderful views. For miles before 
this point is reached the scenery is sublime. There is a gradual increase of 

wildness, a steady rising to greater heights, ^^^ — ^— ™ ^ .> — -^-■- -^ 

the chasms sink to more appalling depths, ( 
the mountains present a more rugged ap- ^^S 
pearance. Near Toltec station the road M 
passes through a tunnel cut through the 
massive clifT. At one end of this tunnel a 
bridge spans the fearful chasm, here, by 
actual measurement, 1,100 feet in depth. At v^ 
some points, where the road runs near the 
€dge, the gorge is said to be 1,500 feet deep. 
When these spots are safely passed, as they 
always have been, even the most experi- 
enced traveller feels a sense of relief. 

A short distance west of this tunnel, 
and only a few feet from the track, stands 
a massive granite monument erected by garfield memorial. 

members of the National Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents 
of the railroads of the United States in memory of the late President Gar- 
field. .Representatives of this Association held memorial services here on 
the day of his burial, September 26th, 1881. Excursionists from many differ- 
ent States participated with them in the mournful and impressive exercises. 

Among the grandest of the natural phenomena of the region is the Grand 
Canon of the Arkansas. This is a marvellous gorge, eight miles in length, 
through which the Arkansas River finds its way on its journey of more than 
2,000 miles to the' point at which it enters the Mississippi. It is traversed 
by the main line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, lies between Canon 
City and Parkdale, the former station being 161 miles from Denver. A few 




9/6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



miles beyond Canon City the opening of the gorge appears. Vast piles of 
sandstone and Hmestone rocks rise abruptly from the river banks. A narrow 
defile is entered. Precipitous walls arise on either side. They rapidly in- 
crease in height. The effect of this increasing altitude upon the traveller is 
peculiar. He seems to be going downward. Instead of the mountains only 
becoming higher from their bases the road-bed also seems to be settling into 
the depths of the earth.- The roar of the river mingles with the noise of the 

train and the sound is 
thrown back by the mas- 
sive walls. Both sights 
and sounds soon become 
almost oppressive. 

At length the train 
swings around a long 
curve, by which it avoids 
the mountain wall which 
lay directly in its path, 
and heads in quite a dif- 
ferent direction. Here 
we come to the mighty 
cliffs of the Royal Gorge. 
The best view is secured 
from the celebrated 
hanging bridge. Here 
the walls of the chasm 
rise in inconceivable 
grandeur 2,600 feet above 
the track and seem to 
almost pierce the sky. 
The fearful heights, the 
tremendous depths, the sunlight and the shadows, the rush of the river and 
the sweep of the train as it passes through this terrific chasm, make a picture 
which will remain in the mind forever, but which it is an utterly hopeless 
task to attempt to describe. What fearful convulsions of nature must have 
been required to throw up these ponderous walls thousands of feet toward 
the heavens and cleave this miraculous gorge for many miles through the 
very heart of the mountain range ! The first view of these sublime scenes is 




c;ram) canon of iiii': Arkansas. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 977 



almost overpowering. There is something terrible in their majestic grandeur. 
Familiarity with the region relieves this impression in some degree, but th.e 
feeling of amazement is never effaced. However frequently the scenes may 
be viewed, or memory may bring them to mind, the emotion <>f ^vonder 
remains constant and undi- 
minished. 

The canon does not end 
with the gorge but continue- 
for miles beyond. The river 
plunges over precipices or 
rushes madly down steep de- 
scents. It flows for most of 
the distance between rocky 
walls which rise in vast piles 
and irregular outline, but 
near the western portion 
there is an opening through 
which beautiful views an 
obtained. 

A branch railroad runs 
up to some iron mines a few 
miles away. This road is 
said to have the steepest 
ascent in the world of any 
road on which the engines 
do not have cog-wheels. The 
grade is 406 feet per mile. 
The ascent with empty cars 
is difficult. The descent 
with cars loaded with ore is 
not only difficult but dan- 

„, . ^ , THE ROYAL GORGE. 

gerous. 1 he ore is ot excel- 
lent quality and is easily secured. While the branch road was built to accom- 
modate the mining business it is also used to quite an extent in transporting 
marble and lumber to the main line. 

In the western portion of Colorado, the capital of the county, and the 
principal town in the section, is Gunnison, a place which the tourist in this 




978 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

region should certainly visit. It is beautifully located in the midst of a large 
park lying about 8,000 feet above the level of the sea. Abundance of pure 
water flows from the streams which pass near by and which just below the 
town unite to form the Gunnison River. 

The region of which Gunnison forms the business centre was not opened 
r — ~^: — ~~r-'—r-—--^--;^-:^'-~- — — r— — — — — — ~ for settlement until 1872. 

Various parties had made 

j partial explorations, and 

1 J a few had attempted min- 

1 ' ;i ing, but Indian outrages 

[ - ^ j::!^!-^;^^^ and massacres were so 

' a;fe!Ka^ii-^^ frequent that the section 

;, ^ " _- =. was practically abandoned 

t by white men. About 

p ^: ' that time a party from 

Denver commenced min 
ing near Rock Creek and 
were so successful that 
others soon came to 
search for gold. An agri- 
cultural colony located in 
the region in 1874. On 
account of the great in- 
terest in the Leadville 
mines, and the difificulty 
of reaching the new set- 
tlement, the mining inter- 
ests in the Gunnison dis- 
trict were not developed 
to any great extent for 
' - . ^=^^.-S5r'i several years. But dur- 
gunnison's BUTTE. i„g ^hc past dccade they 

have attracted more attention and the town has been growing in size and 
increasing in business importance. 

From Gunnison a branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad runs 
northward about twenty miles to Crested Butte, a peculiar peak of gray 
stone rising to a considerable height from a base covered with trees and 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 979 

plants and forming an attractive and prominent feature of the landscape even 
in this region of attractions. Near this point the first permanent settlement 
in the region was made. There is now a good hotel and quite a smart little 
village. The chief mines, in fact the only ones at this particular point, are 
of coal. These are of considerable extent and, as the quality of the coal is 
excellent, they are also of great value. 

One of the peculiar features of the Rocky Mountain region is the marked 




^rill.W KIUK. 



resemblance in form and appearance of rocks to objects of almost every 
kind. This is not characteristic of any one place in particular, but is seen 
in the various canons, upon the faces of cliffs, in masses of rocks rising from 
the bank of a river or piled on some lofty tableland — in fact this remarkable, 
and in frequent instances grotesque, feature is quite prominent throughout 
the whole section. 

At one point the tourist beholds an outline clearly cut upon a mountain 



98o THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

side which reminds him of the Egyptian Sphinx, the riddle and the wonder 
of the ages. 

A still more sharply defined outline is that of a face, almost human in its 
appearance, which projects from an immense clifT rising abruptly from the 
side of the track which the face overhangs. This peculiar formation has been 
named Mother Grundy. While it is far from beautiful it is so odd that it 
attracts the attention of all tourists who have the opportunity of seeing it. 
It was of formations of this class that a recent writer said, in a somewhat 

sarcastic vein, that " the 
multitude " are attract- 
ed largely by curiosity 
and while allowing 
views of exquisite beau- 
ty to pass unnoticed or 
uncared for "will go 
into ecstasies in the 
contemplation of a bi- 
zarre rock with a 
strange likeness to some 
familiar object." While 
this seems altogether 
too sweeping a state- 
ment as applied to the 
great majority of tour- 
ists, there are many of 
whom it gives a very 
accurate description, 
and it points out one of 
the strong tendencies of the mind which has not had the advantages of culture 
and of refined surroundings. It is not strange that these peculiar outlines and 
eccentric forms attract attention. They are " vagaries of Nature," it is true, 
and are very far below the order of her beautiful manifestations, but still 
there is something wonderful about them and they have a certain and a 
legitimate interest to every observer. 

Among the peculiar formations of the class just noticed Finger Rock is 
well worthy of an illustration. Tilted against a massive and ragged rock, 
above which it rises to a considerable height, it appears like an enormous 




MOTHER GRUNDY. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 981 



finger pointing over the railroad track and the mountain peak just beyond, 
toward the sky. How it came in this form or in this position is a question 
which no one can solve. Here it is and here it has evidently been for ages. 
Here, too, it is likely to remain for ages to come. 

The Giant's Tea Kettle is a rugged mass of rock, nearly square in form, 
rising from the comparatively level surface of an ordinary butte. It received 
its name on account of its immense size and a resemblance, not very close 
but sufficient to be suggestive, to a tea kettle. The number of these rude 
imitations of ordinary objects which the observing tourist will notice in a 
trip through this region is 
very great. Many of them 
have received names which 
have been accepted by the 
public and by which they 
are generally known. 
Others have, as yet, no 
names, but are merely the 
subjects of curiosity and 
conjecture. 

The tourist in Colorado 
should' not fail to visit the 
justly celebrated resort 
called Idaho Springs. As 
far as fitting it for the pur- 
poses of a resort for plea- 
sure and also for those of 
a sanitarium, it is claimed that Nature has done more for this locality than she 
has for any other in the whole region of the Rocky Mountains. Man has 
also done his part and the result is a combination of attractions seldom found. 

Another point, greatly in favor of this locality, is that it is easily accessi- 
ble. It is only thirty-seven miles from Denver, a city which is called " the 
social and commercial centre " of Colorado and the surrounding region, and 
which certainly is a beautiful and famous resort. It is laid out in an attractive 
manner and has a magnificent location more than 5,000 feet above the sea. 
It is said that from this point there is a clear view of the Rocky Mountains 
for a distance of almost 300 miles. The climate is unsurpassed and the city is 
well abreast of the times in the varied lines of conveniences and luxuries. 




FINGER ROCK. 



982 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



Yet, desirable as Denver is for a place of residence at all seasons of the 
year, the attractions of Idaho Springs are so great that numbers of the in- 
habitants of the former city spend more or less of the summer season at the 
latter resort. Here can be obtained all needed comforts. There are good 
hotels, pleasant cottages, and plenty of places where the traveller, whether 
he be poor or rich, can find excellent accommodations. The town lies in 
Clear Creek Caiion 7,543 feet above the sea, and is sheltered by the walls 
which rise in beauty around it, their sides covered with trees which add 
greatly to the scenic attractions. There are many excellent roads and beau- 
tiful walks which lead to 



quiet glens and peaceful 
retreats only a little dis- 
tance from the Sprinrs. 
The surrounding scener}- 
is magnificent. Tl.e 
mountains lying close 
around are beautiful, and 
many more distant peaks 
raise their towering heads 
in grandeur toward the 
heavens. 

The present location 
of Idaho Springs was a 
small mining camp as re. 
cently as i860. At about 
that time gold was found 
in considerable quantities, and though the methods at first employed in ob- 
taining it were necessarily superficial, the results were so satisfactory that 
machinery was soon introduced and improved processes adopted. Some of 
the mines are very near the town and may easily be reached on foot. Others 
are to be reached on horseback. The paths are good and the ride in the 
pure mountain air will prove both invigorating and delightful. Some of these 
mines yield a remarkably rich ore. As high as sixty per cent of gold, it is 
said, has been obtained from ore mined near the town. As they are freely 
open to the inspection of visitors, these mines form popular places of resort 
for parties not familiar with life in the mining regions. 

But while Idaho Springs, as a town, owes its existence to the mines, they 




ciANi s riv\ Ki'.ri IJ', 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 983 

are very far from constituting its chief attraction at the present time. The 
waters of the numerous mineral springs have proved wonderfully efficacious 
in the treatment of various forms of disease. They were discovered by pro- 
spectors in search for gold and soon became popular. There are both hot 
and cold springs, and in the side of one of the mountains, there is a boiling 
spring, close by which a house has been erected in which vapor baths are 
given. There are also a number of bath houses near other springs. In the 




CHICAr.O LAKE. 



pools at these places thousands of people bathe every year. Among them 
are large numbers of invalids, many of whom receive speedy and permanent 
relief from their physical ailments. The baths at the hot springs are kept 
open during the winter and the others are open nearly all the year. 

The waters of many of the springs are used for drinking as well as bath- 
ing. Analyses have shown their chemical elements to be very nearly the 
same as are those of the world-famed Carlsbad Springs in Bohemia, and their 
effects in the treatment of disease seem to be equally prompt and permanent. 



984 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

The purity of the air, the freedom from dampness and from cold winds, and 
the almost continual sunshine during the day followed by delightfully cool 
nights, are also important aids in the restoration of health to invalids, and in 
promoting the comfort of the well. It is claimed that there is no other town 
in the Rocky Mountain region which is favored with so many cloudless days 
as are enjoyed at Idaho Springs. 

A short but very pleasant trip from Idaho Springs may be made to 
the Chicago Lakes— a distance of some twelve or fifteen miles. The trip can 
be made on horseback, or, most of the way, by carriage. There are four lakes 
in the group. In the vicinity of the lower ones, the famous painter Bierstadt 
made the sketches for his wonderful picture of a " Storm in the Rocky 
Mountains." The lower lake is extremely beautiful. It receives its water 
from the upper lake which is near by. There is a rapid descent for quite a 
distance, which is followed by an abrupt fall of about fifty feet. This lake 
covers an area of about eighty acres. Dead Man's Lake, also one of the 
group, is very pretty in spite of its unpleasant name. In each of these lakes 
the water is clear and deep. Trout are abundant and the tourist will find at 
either of the three an excellent place either for a boat ride or for fishing. 

It is around the fourth lake, however, that the deepest interest centres. 
This lake is about 11,000 feet above the sea, and has the greatest altitude of 
any lake in North America. It lies almost at the top of Mount Rosalie, a 
pretty peak, from which a fine view may be obtained. The surface of the 
lake is covered, even in summer, with ice five feet in thickness. Lying in its 
frozen splendor the lake forms a natural gem as beautiful as it is unique. 

Another pleasant trip, of about nine miles, from Idaho Springs, may be 
made to Echo Lake, a pretty sheet of water covering an area of fifty acres 
and lying about 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. It is in a region 
largely covered by a dense pine forest. Upon one side there is a mountain 
wall about 1,500 feet in height. On the other sides there is a fine beach with 
clear sand. For the fisherman this is one of the best resorts in the whole sec- 
tion. The lake has been freely and repeatedly stocked with trout during the 
past few years. They have grown rapidly, and fishes of large size and the 
finest quality are now obtained in great numbers, and with little difificulty. 
On the shore of the lake a house has been erected, boats and tackle have 
been provided, and ample accommodations for fishing parties may be found 
at all times. 

On the elevated plains and the mountain peaks of this section are some of 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 985 

the finest hunting grounds in the world. Game of various kinds, from the 
rabbit to the grizzly bear and the mountain lion, may be found in abundance. 
The more ferocious animals inhabit the higher points in the rugged mountain 
ranges. The elk and the black-tailed deer are found along the streams and 
at a high altitude. The mountain sheep, one of the prizes dearest to the 
hunter, is also found in elevated localities. The antelope, which is almost as 




FEEDING GROUND OF THE ANTELOPE. 

popular with the hunter, is found in the ravines which are common in the 
high plains of this mountainous region. 

Colorado has several elevated points which are surrounded by high moun- 
tain peaks. These beautiful valleys are called parks and are among the most 
attractive portions of the State. The North Park, lying near the northern 
boundary of the State, is reached by stage from Fort Collins, a station on the 
Colorado Central Railroad. The principal points are Mason City, and Tyner. 



986 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 



The former is 8o miles and the latter 125 miles from Fort Collins. This 
Park is celebrated for the immense numbers of the antelope and elk which 
it sustains. It is one of the finest hunting grounds, for this kind of game, 
which the world affords. The park is about seventy-five miles long and fifty 

miles wide, is 
surrounded 
by the rug- 
ged peaks of 
the Rocky 
Mountains, 
and contains 
many scenes 
of beauty and 
grandeur. 
The average 
altitude is 
about 9,000 
feet. Many 
beautiful 
springs, some 
of them 
strongly im- 
pregnated 
with mineral 
substances, 
are found within its limits. Even 
if we leave out of view the splen- 
did opportunities for hunting and 
fishing, we have a remarkably at- 
tractive locality. For " camping 
out " it is one of the finest places 
which can be found. Whether he 




SNOW RANGE, FROM JAMES TRAIL. 



seeks rest or recreation, or both 



combined, the tourist will here be able to gratify his taste and to spend 
his time pleasantly and profitably. 

Just south of this beautiful locality, and separated from it by a chain of 
mountains, is Middle Park. This is nearly as large as North Park, being 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 987 

seventy miles long by fifty miles wide, and is also a popular resort for sports- 
men. There are immense forests, between which are broad tracts of open 
land covered with luxuriant grass and with wild flowers of many varieties and 
of almost every conceivable color. There are also some Hot Sulphur Springs 
which are reached by stage from Georgetown, a distance of forty-five miles, 
and which are quite popular with tourists. The mountain scenery, like that 
of all this region, is simply magnificent. 

Still farther south is the South Park of Colorado, which, thou£fh smaller, 
is called more beautiful than any of the other parks in the State. It is sixty 
miles long by thirty miles wide, and is easily accessible from Denver by the 
South Park division of the Union Pacific Railroad, which connects Denver 
with Leadville and passes directly through the park. The chief town is Fair- 
play, from which point excursions are made to Mount Lincoln, the highest 
peak in the Colorado group of mountains. From the summit of this peak a 
beautiful and extensive view is obtained. The ascent can be made without 
difficulty. Another popular excursion is to the Twin Lakes, which lie thirty- 
five miles from Fairplay. In the southern part of the State is the largest 
of the four principal parks embraced within its area. It is known as the San 
Luis Park and lies 7,000 feet above the sea level, while the surrounding moun- 
tains rise to from 4,000 to 7,000 feet above the park itself. Its area is about 
twice as large as that of the State of Massachusetts. The soil is fertile, the 
pasturage rich, and the climate is so mild ,that cattle can live through the 
winter without shelter. In some portions of the park there are immense for- 
' ests. Near the centre of the park is the San Luis Lake, which receives the 
water of nineteen streams which flow from the snow-crowned mountains by 
which the valley is walled. The scenery is very fine and the region is easily 
reached by the Silverton branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. 
The distance from Denver is about 250 miles. 

While most of the places to which we have referred are either settled or 
are points within easy reach of cities or towns, there are almost innumerable 
localites in the vast region of the Rocky Mountains which are drear and 
desolate. Enormous mountains seem thrown together in irregular masses. 
Their sides for many hundred feet are covered with snow to a great depth 
and white and glistening crowns always cover their heads. They are beauti- 
ful in their wildness, magnificent in their rugged outlines. Their silent 
grandeur is impressive and fills the thoughtful mind with wonder and with 
awe. 



988 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



Along the banks of the Green River, and also near the town of that name 
in Wyoming Territory, many fine scenes appear. The clay buttes around the 
town are peculiar both in form and color. A few miles away are mines from 
which a fine quality of coal is obtained. The town is small but the station of 
the Union Pacific Railroad is an important one, as here the trains which are to 
diverge from the main line at Granger, a little farther west, and run to Port- 
land, Oregon, are made up. 

Not far from Evanston, a smart little town in Wyoming, which is perched 
on the mountain 6,759 ^^^^ above the sea and has a population numbering 

about 3,000, the road be- 
gins to descend toward 
the west and enters one 
of the most attractive re- 
gions on the continent. 
The town itself has many 
features of interest, in- 
cluding mineral springs 
which flow from a lime- 
stone formation. 

But the principal in- 
terest of the region cen- 
tres in Echo Caiion, at 
the extreme eastern por- 
tion of Utah Territory. 
While somewhat resem- 
GiANT's CLUB, GREEN RIVER. bHug the othcrs, it is in 

some respects the most wonderful of all the magnificent gorges in this wild 
section. A celebrated traveller asserts that he found nothing equal to it, 
even in the great Himalaya Range of Asia, and declares that " Echo Caflon 
is one of the masterpieces of Nature." The testimony of other travel- 
lers whose opportunities for observation have been extensive is uniformly 
to the effect that this caiion is one of the most wonderful works of Nature 
Avhich they ever beheld. The canon extends about thirty miles, and though 
there are many changes of scene, there is never a loss of interest on the 
part of the observer. 

Soon after entering the caiion the train passes through a tunnel 900 feet 
in length — a somewhat difificult and a v^ery expensive portion of the road to 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 989 



construct. Numerous bridges will also be noticed in this vicinity. These 
are made necessary by the fact that the railroad crosses Echo Creek thirty- 
one times in a distance of only twenty-six miles. 

One of the noticeable features along this route is the presence of numer- 
ous pillars of rock which have, by the action of the elements, been carved 
into most peculiar forms. For how many ages these massive pillars have 
been wearing away under the corroding action of sunshine, wind, rain, and 
frost, no one can tell. Geologists, however, are of the opinion that this por- 
tion of the continent was one of the first to emerge from the water which had 
previously covered the 
globe, and it is highly prob- 
able that the "tooth of 
time " has here been work- 
ing much longer than it 
has in other sections of the 
country. 

One of the first of the 
special features of the 
canon which will attract the 
attention of the tourist will 
be Castle Rock, a large and 
peculiar mass of rock which 
has a strongly marked re- 
semblance to a castle. 
This is one of the most per- 
fect of these peculiar for- to^'^'^ '^^^'^' '^^"^ '^^^°^- 
mations, and but for its immense size might well pass for a construction of 
man instead of a phenomenon of nature. In this region are numerous fossil 
remains which are of great interest to scientists. Skeletons of several species 
of animals long since extinct have been unearthed. Among them are part 
of the bones of a six-horned rhinoceros, an animal of enormous size, which 
must have disappeared from this region thousands of years ago. The cliffs 
at the opening of the canon are of a grayish tinge, but as we proceed they 
become nearly red. Upon the lower ones, which are nearest the open land, 
trees of various kinds appear. But farther along the caflon the cliffs are 
higher, more rugged in outline, and more barren in appearance. 

Upon these cliffs the Mormons erected a number of fortifications in 1857, 




990 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR R'EPUBLIC: 

when they were in conflict with the Government of the United States, and 
the remains of their rude constructions may still be seen. Another reminder 
of the Mormon settlement of the region is seen at Pulpit Rock, a massive pile 
of stone which has been often described. Its name is said to be due to the 
fact that in form it somewhat resembles a pulpit, and to the tradition that 
from its heights Brigham Young preached the first sermon which he delivered 
in Utah. The canon was the line of the old wagon road through this section. 
Freight was carried in wagons drawn by large teams of oxen, while passengers 
and baggage were taken by horses or mules. While it was by far the best 

route in the section, prog- 



ress was necessarily slow 
and toilsome. But now all 
is changed. The trip is 
made in luxurious cars 
which are drawn rapidly,, 
even over the sharpest 
grades, by the tireless loco- 
motive. 

Leaving Echo Caflon we 
pass into a more open re- 
gion which extends for sev- 
eral miles. This is the 
Weber Valley, fresh and 
fair, with a peaceful river 
flowing through it, and 
with numerous trees dot- 




CASTLE ROCK. 



ting its surface. The massive peaks which, at no great distance, rise from 
the plain show the traveller that the elevated region is not yet passed, but 
that this level spot is only a little intervale in the midst of the mountains. 
Beautiful in itself, it becomes doubly attractive by reason of its peculiar loca- 
tion. The valley is soon left behind and Weber Canon, a close rival of Echo 
Canon, is entered. 

The entrance to the canon from the east is termed Wilhelmina Pass. It 
forms a natural gateway between the hills or bluffs and furnishes just room 
enough for the wagon-road, the railroad, and the stream, to pass through. 
At a short distance to the west we come to The Devil's Slide, said to be the 
"most singular object of all the sportive creations of Nature in the West." 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 991 

AVhile it can neither be termed grand nor beautiful, it is certainly unique and 
presents a wonderfully fantastic appearance. The mountain upon which it 
appears is about 800 feet in height, and is composed, principally, of sand- 
stone, which is of a dark-red color. Its side is covered with sage brush in- 
terspersed with bunches of scrub oak, and a few tall pine trees. From the 
side of this red mountain, two walls, so gray as to be almost white, run from 
the bank of the river to the top of the peak. These walls are from twenty to 
forty feet high, are parallel with each other, and lie some twenty feet apart. 
This curious freak of the natural world is clearly reflected in the waters of 

the stream and attracts more 

attention than almost any ^^^^- ^J^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-^^^^^^^^^ ^ , ^■■^ 'J^Wl^^''' ^'jt ' \ 
■other feature of the whole ^ 

region. ^ " ^=^' - , • ^^''•' '.'s''i'^^,M''^-^^W^~~''/y<'^''% 

Only about a mile from ^^'== ^ ^^'^f^'w'^^^^*' ^~'mF' / M.^Wi '"' *>'''^, '' 
the curiosity just noted is a 
large tree which stands by 
itself quite near the track. 
Although there is nothing 
peculiar about the appear- 
ance of the tree it receives 
a great deal of notice from 
the fact that it stands just 
1,000 miles from Omaha. A 
painted sign has been placed 
upon one of the limbs so W^^^^%j^^ 
that the tree may be readily 
identified. 

The train passes through two tunnels of considerable extent, and crosses 
the stream several times within the limits of this canon. The wagon road is 
also crossed at many points as it winds around among the cliffs in search of 
the easiest grade. Both roads were constructed under circumstances of 
great difificulty and the railroad was built at an enormous expense. 

The number of interesting objects to be seen in passing through the caiion 
is quite large, and the tourist who has once made the survey will be ready to 
pronounce it a region of wonders. When we come to the western end the 
beautiful Salt Lake Valley opens into view. Ogden, with its bustle and 
■energy, its railroad and mining interests, and its surrounding agricultural 




IHE DEVIL S SLIDE. 




udAmi 



APrKOACHIMG THE SIERRAS. 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



993 



region, is close at hand, and will attract attention. Farther on lies the 
famous lake, and in the still more distant west several ranges of mountains 
rear their vast yet beautiful forms. Along the streams we have traversed, 
and in those which are too far distant from the railroad for the traveller on a 
through train to observe, are many beautiful cascades, and numberless quiet 
glens. All through the various canons, ^^ 
in all the open land, upon the elevated 
plains, in the valleys lying thousands 
of feet below the surrounding mount- 
ains, and upon the massive peaks which 
almost pierce the sky, scenes of beauty 
abound. Their forms are diverse. 
Their variety is almost infinite. But in 
some of its manifestations beauty ap- 
pears on every hand. 

In the region of the Rockies, and 
beyond their massive forms, are found 
some of the greatest scenic attractions, 
not merely of this country, but of the 
world. Beauty, grandeur, sublimity, 
magnificence — all abound. The travel- 
ler is both delighted and amazed. 
Though the scene is constantly being 
shifted and changed as the train rolls 
along, it never grows tame or uninter- 
esting. The region is wonderful in the 

number, as well as in the character of its charms. Peo- 
ple who have travelled extensively in other lands, and who 
have observed closely, assert that they have seen nothing 
abroad which, all things considered, can equal this section 
of the United States. Foreigners seem fully as enthusiastic 
as our own people in describing the natural scenery of this remarkable region. 

It is a matter for deep regret, as well as for great surprise, that large 
numbers of the people of this country go abroad every year to behold the 
famous scenery of Europe who have never enjoyed a visit to the magnificent 
regions in the western portion of their native land, many features of which 
are well illustrated in the following gallery of full-page engravings. 





!2i 

o 

o 

M 
o 
< 

n 

w 

H 
O 

w 

c 

a, 
p- 

<1. 




o 
o 




DEVIL 8 GATE, WEBER CANON. 




CUERECANTI NEEDLE, BLACK CANON. 




IMAKBLE PINNACLE, COLORADO EIVER 




PULPIT KOCK, ECHO CANON. 




TOLTKC GOKGE. 






i^uAi-.iMliiltWJ ' Jm ^Wl^w)U*^^JM g 



>>a«a 



■ M 




BLACK CANON OF THE GUNNISON. 




TIIK I'ALI.SADES, WEST «>F ALl'INE 11 NNEL 




PALACE BUTTE. 



f'fiHivfi M"i|fi {mvmnmi'm ' m 





I 








GRAJ^D CAfJOJSr. FROM TO-RO-WASP. 



THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC, ion 

The foregoing sketches and accompanying illustrations of the striking 
wonders and magnificent natural scenery of the Rocky Mountains should 
inspire every reader, particularly every American, with an ardent desire to 
make a tour through this far-famed and really marvellous region. 




UTAH AND THE GREAT SALT LAKE 

HE Territory of Utah is more widely known in foreign lands, and 
is probably the centre of a deeper interest at home, than any other 
Territory in the United States. This interest is largely due to the 
peculiar views and methods of life of a large portion of its inhabitants. But 
aside from its singular 
social and political con- 
dition, the tourist to this 
region will find many at- 
tractions. 

The Rocky Mount- 
ain range lies away to 
the east, the Sierra Ne- 
vada to the west, while 
the Wasatch Range pas- 
ses through the Terri- 
tory from north to south. 
There are many elevated 
peaks, some of them ris- 
ing to a height of 13,000 
feet, and several mount- 
ain chains distinct from 
and having a less eleva- 
tion than the Wasatch. dead man's falls, little cottonwood canon, utah. 

The plateaus vary greatly in the quality of their soil, some of them being 
entirely barren, while others are very productive. Rivers abound, and sev- 
eral canons from 2,000 to 5,000 feet in depth are found. To a great ex- 
tent it is a wild country. Game abounds and less desirable animals, as the 
bear, panther, wolf, and California lion, are numerous in some portions of 
the Territory. There are very sharp contrasts in scenery, in climate, in so- 




IOI4 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



ciety^in fact, in everything pertaining either to the natural conditions or to 
the character of the civilization of the region. 

The tourist who enters Utah will certainly want to visit a few of the 
natural curiosities of the section and also the seat of the Mormon power at 
Salt Lake City. Many of the former will be seen on his trip to this remark- 
able city, and numerous others will come into view as he continues his jour- 
ney. The time will prove too limited to enable him to see all the wonders 
and curiosities which the region presents, but he should not fail to visit the 

Great Salt Lake and the 
famous Salt Lake City. 
The latter is reached 
by the Denver and Rio 
Grande Railroad, by the 
Utah Central, branching 
from the Union Pacific 
at Ogden, thirty-six 
miles distant, and by 
various other lines. 

The city need not be 
described at length in 
this connection. Per- 
haps it is hardly neces- 
sar}', but it may be well 
to remind the tourist 
th t he should take a 
look at the house long 
occupied by Brigham 
Young, a man whose zeal and skill in the management of a great social and 
religious organization wrought wonderful results. It is a neat and not at 
all a pretentious structure, pleasantly located and with very pretty surround- 
ings. The Tabernacle and the Temple will, of course, be visited. In look- 
ing over that portion of the community which holds the doctrines promul- 
gated by Young and his predecessors the visitor will find on every hand evi- 
dences of energy, industry, thrift, and general prosperity. The devotion of 
the people to the church and to the distinctive principles of their belief is 
remarkably strong and is well worthy of imitation, while the progress and 
development of the theory and the practical results of their system furnish a 




NEAR HIGH BKHiUK, AMERICAN FORK CANON, UTAH. 



ioi6 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

wide and fruitful field of inquiry for the student of sociology, as well as an 
interesting subject of thought for every intelligent person. 

The Great Salt Lake, on the main line of the Denver and Rio Grande 
Railroad, is one of the marvellous natural features in this region of wonders 
and surprises. L}-ing in the great Fremont Basin at the foot of the Wasatch 
Mountains and eleven miles from Salt Lake City, it is easily reached and the 
trip, in open cars, is very pleasant. 

In marked contrast with most of the lakes thus far described, the shores 
are destitute of trees. As the soil contains a large proportion of salt, and as 
fresh water cannot be obtained, it seems to be impossible to secure their 
growth. But while the shores are not as inviting as those of many other 
lakes, the fact is almost forgotten w^hen one looks upon the beautiful and 
brilliant surface and then gazes upon the mighty mountain peaks which, at 
no great distance, stand as silent and tireless sentinels on every hand. 

As the name indicates, the water of this lake is strongly impregnated with 
salt. It also contains, in small proportions, the sulphates of soda and potash, 
chloride of magnesium, and sulphate of lime. Consequently, it is very dense 
and extremely bitter. Swimming is somewhat difificult on account of the 
density of the water, but it is perfectly easy to float upon it for an indefinite 
time. On account of the mineral matters which it contains, great care must be 
taken not to swallow the water. Neglect of this precaution will make the 
throat and lungs very sore, and if any considerable quantity of the fluid is 
swallowed the consequences are likely to be serious, and may possibly prove 
fatal. 

The density of the water is about the same as that of the Dead Sea. 
While no animal life is found in the latter, it is, in certain forms, quite abun- 
dant in the Great Salt Lake. An effort has recently been made by the 
United States Fish Commissioners to introduce food-fishes, but it is uncertain 
as yet whether it will be successful. As the water contains more than twenty 
per cent of common salt, this lake is likely to become one of the chief sources 
of supply of this important article to the whole western region. Already, by 
the primitive method of merely inclosing the water in small arms of the lake 
and allowing the 'process of evaporation to remove the liquid portion, thou- 
sands of tons of a very fair quality of salt are obtained every year. With 
improved methods vast quantities might be easil}- and profitably secured. 

The area of the lake is about 2,000 square miles. It is seventy miles in 
length and more than forty miles in breadth, and lies more than 4,000 feet 



I 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1017 

above the sea level. The depth of the water varies from ten feet in some 
portions to fifty or sixty feet in others, and is thought to be steadily increas- 
ing. It has a large number of rocky islands. A few of them are of consider- 
able size and are used for sheep and cattle pastures. At the upper part of 
the lake, gulls and pelicans breed in large numbers. A line of steamers runs 
to and from various points on the shores and is liberally patronized by 
tourists. 

If not closely pressed for time, the tourist will hardly fail to visit the mag- 
nificent caiions for which this Territory is famed. And even if his visit must 
be hurried and his stay limited, it will pay him well to make a brief stop at 
one or two of the leading gorges. Here he will see nature in beauty, glory, 
and majesty combined. And whether his call is brief or is extended to many 
days, he will enjoy himself greatly while there, and will leave the vicinity 
with sincere regret. 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 

OME portions of the wonderful region of the Yellowstone were vis- 
ited by a few travellers previous to 1863, but the reports which 
they made were so wonderful that they were generally disbelieved. 
During the next few years other visitors returned with equally marvellous 
tales. But it was not until 1870 that any organized expedition was attempted 
and not until the following year that a scientific exploration of the region 
was made. Upon the return of the latter expedition Prof. F. V. Hayden, 
who had directed its work, made an interesting report of the discoveries 
which had been made. In this report the facts were set forth that the region 
explored contained little mineral wealth, that on account of the low tempera- 
ture in summer and the extreme cold of winter, the land would be useless for 
agricultural purposes and stock raising, and that because of its high altitude 
it was unfit for permanent settlement. It was further stated that because of 
the numerous and magnificent natural wonders which it contained the region 
should be withdrawn from private use and occupancy and reserved as a 
national park for the people at large. In February, 1872, the United States 
Congress passed an act by which the region which had been specified in the 
report was set apart " as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit 



ioi8 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 



and enjoyment of the people." This reservation is known as the Yellow- 
stone National Park. 

The Park is very nearly in the form of a rectangle. It measures 61.8 
miles in length, from north to south, and 53.6 miles in width. Its area is 
3,312 square miles and its average elevation above the sea is more than one 
and a half miles. Most of this reservation is located in Wyoming, but the 

northern portion, for 
a width of about two 
^^, miles, lies in Montana. 
The extreme western 
portion, for a width 
of about five miles, 
lies in Montana and 
Idaho. A" number of 
mountain peaks rise 
to a height of 11,000 
feet above the sea, 
and the average ele- 
vation of the various 
ranges is from 9,000 
to 10,000 feet. Many 
streams of moderate 
size flow upon the ele- 
vated plateau, some 
8,000 feet above the 
sea, but the large rivers 
flow in deep gorges 
rent through the 
mountain chains by 
some terrific convulsion of Nature, or worn by the ceaseless flow of the 
water during countless ages of time. 

The completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883 made a more 
direct railroad route to the National Park than had before existed, and it has 
been well patronized, though the Union Pacific road seems to have lost 
none of its custom or its popularity. The former road passes through Living- 
ston, Montana. From this point a branch line, - the standard gauge, has 
been built to Cinnabar, in the same State, a distance of fifty-one miles. This 




HUT SPRINGS, EDGE OF VEl.LOWSl ONE PARK. 




THE "giant" geyser. 



I020 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC 



is only about six miles from the Yellowstone National Park Hotel located at 
the Mammoth Hot Springs. Between these places travellers are conveyed by 
coaches. On arriving at the hotel they find themselves in a wonderful portion 




nificent regions on 

the globe. Indeed, 

with the exception 

of the " Southern 

Wonderland " in 

New Zealand, 

there is probably 

no extensive area 

in the world which 

can be fairly com- mammuth hot springs, Yellowstone park. 

pared with this famous Park, which has been aptly termed the " Northern 

Wonderland." 

The Mammoth Hot Springs are located at the northern edge, and in the 
western portion of the Park. In point of grandeur they are said to be un- 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1021 



equalled in the world. The famous springs in New Zealand, and the still 
more widely-known geysers of Iceland, are far inferior in various respects, as 
well as very different in the character of the material which they deposit. 
Many of the springs are now inactive, some are exhibiting a marked decline 
in power, while a large number show no signs of failure. There are abun- 
dant evidences of great volcanic activity at a geological period not very far 
removed. The deposits from these springs are of a calcareous nature and 




PULPIT TERRACE, MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 



cover an area of from two to 
three square miles. The lower 
ones of the active springs are 
near the bank of Gardiner's 
River, 5,845 feet above the sea, 
while' the others lie along the 
mountain side to nearly 1,000 
feet greater elevation. Thus 
the whole side of the mountain is covered with semicircular basins, with 
their edges raised from a few inches to eight feet in height, on which in 
bead-work form is a wealth of most beautiful tracery. The background is 
white as snow, and the adornments are traced in almost numberless colors 
and shades. These basins are from a few inches to several feet in diameter. 
The water flowing from a spring at the top down the side of the mountain 
passes from one basin to another, gradually parting with its heat and de- 
positing the calcareous matter which it contains. Near the top of the ridge 
the largest of the active springs in this locality is found. It is near the edge 



I022 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

of a broad terrace upon which are the ruins of a large number of basins. 
The spring measures twenty-five by forty feet across the top. Its water is so 
transparent that the bottom of the basin can be clearly seen and the sides 
show the most beautiful ornamentation with calcareous deposits in an almost 
infinite variety of forms and numerous and diverse tints and colors. The 
ebullition of the springs in this neighborhood is continuous, but compared 
with that of many of those in other parts of the Park is slight in degree. The 
water here rises only a few inches above the surface. But the basins make 
up in beauty all that the springs lack in power. The dead springs, which are 
quite numerous, are also of great interest. One, called the " Liberty Cap," 




CRATER OF EXTINCT GEYSEK. 



from the form of its cone, is forty-two feet high and at its base is about thirty 
feet in diameter. Within the limits of the Park there are from 5,000 to 
10,000 hot springs. In the region noted, the temperature of the springs is 
from 160° to 170°. At this elevation water boils at 198° to 199°. 

The Geysers, or Spouting Springs, are even more wonderful than the hot 
springs which have been described. A large proportion of them are found in 
the vicinity of the Fire-Hole River, where they are divided into two groups 
and cover an area of some thirty square miles. The deposit from the waters 
of these springs is white, but differs from that of the other springs in that it 
is composed of silica instead of calcareous matter. In the lower group is a 
spring from which the water rises to a height of sixty feet and many other 




UPPER YELLOW-STONE FALLS. 



I024 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

springs of less power. The boiling springs in this vicinity number nearly 
700. Between this and the upper group are the Half-way Springs, one of 
which has a diameter of 250 feet with walls nearly twenty feet high. The 
water from this immense caldron constantly overflows, and the air is filled 
with steam which rises from its surface. Near by is the Excelsior Geyser, 
which is intermittent, but at the time of its outbreaks is very powerful. 

The upper group, located in what is known as the Great Geyser Basin, 
ranks as the most powerful and magnificent collection of spouting springs in 
the world. It occupies a strip of land on the river banks, varying in width 
from half a mile to a mile, and extending several miles in length. The total 
area occupied by the group is about three square miles. It contains more 
than 400 boiling springs and numerous springs of lower temperature and less 
activity. Of these springs twenty-six are large and powerful geysers. 

The Giant Geyser has a crater about ten feet in height, but one side has 
been broken down. The water is thrown from an orifice about five feet in 
diameter to a height of from 150 to 200 feet. Its eruptions occur at distant 
and irregular intervals and but few have been noted. The Castle Geyser is 
also very powerful, sometimes throwing a column of water more than 200 
feet high and continuing in action more than a quarter of an hour. Near 
by is the famous hot spring called Circe's Boudoir. The basin is as white as 
marble, while the water is of an intensely blue color, and perfectly trans- 
parent. The Giantess is a strong geyser with irregular but remarkably pow- 
erful action. The basin is twenty-three by thirty-two feet and an immense 
volume of water is thrown from 60 to 200 feet in the air. The Grand Geyser 
differs from most of the others in having a depressed instead of an elevated 
basin. The orifice is four feet by two feet. An eruption occurs every 
twenty-four hours and the column of water is sometimes thrown to a height 
of 250 feet. The geyser which attracts the most attention is probably Old 
Faithful, which stands at the head of the valley and received its name from 
the regularity of its eruptions, which occur about once an hour. A column 
of water about six feet in diameter is thrown from 100 to. 150 feet in the air. 
The period of activity is about five minutes. There are also many other 
interesting and important geysers in this vicinity, and several large groups 
in other portions of the Park, including a very beautiful collection near 
Shoshone Lake. Closely allied to them is the celebrated Mud Volcano, the 
most powerful of a large number of mud springs which appear near the 
Yellowstone River. The crater of this peculiar volcano is about twenty-five 




VIEWS OF ''old faithful geysek. 



I026 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

feet across. From the boiling mud, lying some thirty feet below the surface, 
dense clouds of steam constantly ascend. Occasionally there is a violent 
outburst and large quantities of mud are thrown high in the air. 

The largest river in the domain, and one of the most remarkable in the 

country, is the Yellowstone. It rises in a lake 
of the same name which lies in the south-east 
ern portion of the Park. The stream called the 
Upper Yellowstone, which supplies the lake, flows 
only a short distance, but the main river has a 
course of 1,300 miles, when it empties into the 
Missouri. The Yellowstone is navigable for about 
300 miles. Along its entire course are beautiful 
scenes, and for long distances the views are mag- 




YELLOWSTONE RIVER, NATIONAL PARK. 



nificent beyond description. The falls and the Grand Canon easily rank 
among the sublimest scenes of the world. 

The famous falls of the Yellowstone are some fifteen miles below the lake. 
The river is about 150 feet wide at this point and flows quietly through a 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1027 

beautiful valley until it almost reaches the brink of a precipice, down which it 
drops 112 feet. This cataract is known as the Upper Falls, and is remarka- 
bly beautiful. But the Lower Falls, a quarter of a mile beyond, are far 
more majestic. Between these falls the river becomes much wider and flows 
rapidly over a rocky bed until near the Lower Falls, when the channel is con- 
tracted and the water makes a terrific plunge of more than 300 feet. Al- 
though the body of water is much smaller and there is far less of the grand 
and overpowering in the scene, these falls are said, in point of beauty, to 




FERRY ON THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER. 



greatly surpass those of Niagara. The foot of the falls is always covered 
with a heavy mist and the massive wall at the west is clothed with green and 
luxuriant vegetation for its entire height. 

The Yellowstone Lake is a beautiful, and in point of outline, a very pecu- 
liar sheet of water. It is about twenty-two miles in length by twelve or 
fifteen miles in width and lies 7,738 feet above the sea level. With the ex- 
ception of two in South America, and two in Asia, no other lake of equal size 
is known to lie at so great an altitude. At a short distance from the lake, on 
the eastern side, are mountains whose tops are covered with perpetual snow. 



I028 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

The water of the lake is clear and cold, and in some places is 300 feet in 
depth. On account of Its qreat irreq-ularity. havino- many projections and 

indentations, this 
lake has a shore line 
of more than 300 
miles. There are 
many springs in the 
vicinity, and in some 
portions dense for- 
ests of pine appear. 
The Grand Canon 
furnishes some of 
the sublimest scen- 
ery of the continent. 
Though not equal 
in dimensions to 
that of Colorado, it 
IS not surpassed in 
grandeur by that 
magnificent gorge, 
and in some respects 
is not equalled by 
its greatest rival. 
is about thirty miles long, and dur- 
ing its course the river descends some 
3,000 feet. The massive rocks through 
which this tremendous cleft has been 
made are of volcanic origin. The mate- 
rials of which they are composed have 
g been thown out at various periods and 
are of very different degrees of hard- 
ness. Consequently, the wearing away 
of the surfaces by water, and the dis- 
integration of exposed portions by the 

FALLS OF THE VKLLOWSTONK. ,• C C 4. 1 • J t, • J 

action of frost and wind, sunshine and 
storm, has been very irregular, and has left innumerable points and pinna- 
cles, and many fantastic forms and outlines. Yet in some portions vast pil- 




NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1029 

lars which remain are so regular in their form and so perfect in their pro- 
portions, that were it not for their gigantic dimensions and brilliant hues, 
they would seem more like the work of some skilful human architect, than 
like the carvings of Nature. 

But aside from their size these pillars far surpass the highest work of man. 
No human art could have given them their gorgeous coloring. Indeed, the 
whole chasm glows with an indescribable wealth of the richest colors blended 
with the softest shades. An able writer has said, " It is as though rainbows 
had fallen out of the sky and hung themselves there like glorious banners. 
... It is impossible that even the pen of an artist can tell it. What you 
would call, accustomed to the softer tints of nature, a great exaggeration, 
would be the utmost tameness compared with the reality. It is as though 
the most glorious sunset you ever saw had been caught and held upon that 
resplendent, awful gorge." The greatest artists admit that here are " the 
most brilliant colors that the human eye ever saw " and that the beauty of 
their tints is far beyond the skill of human art to attain. These magnifi- 
cently colored walls of rock, rising almost perpendicularly to a height of 
from 800 to 1,200 feet, present a scene of grandeur and beauty combined 
which never has been, and never can be, adequately described. 

At the lower portion of the Grand Canon a stream called Tower Creek 
empties into the Yellowstone River. Its name is due to the fact that near 
the falls, for which it is also noted, are large numbers of massive columns. 
The falls are only about 200 yards from the junction of the creek with the 
river. The water has a direct fall of 156 feet, and the falls and their sur- 
roundings are remarkably beautiful and picturesque. The gigantic pillars 
rise from the foot of the falls to a height of fifty feet above the top of the 
precipice. There are also several rows of massive columns, arranged in reg- 
ular order along the walls of the caiion only a short distance from the falls. 

Among the other places of interest are the Gibbon Canon and Falls, both 
remarkable for their beauty and grandeur. At the falls a considerable body 
of water plunges over a precipice 160 feet in height. 

Only a few of the almost numberless attractions of the great National 
Park have been named. For anything approaching an exhaustive descrip- 
tion volumes would be required. But enough has been said to show that it 
is a marvellous region both in the character and the profusion of its natural 
curiosities. Within its comparatively small area are to be found a larger 
number of hot springs and geysers than in all the remainder of the world, 



I030 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

and it is doubtless within the limits of the truth to assert that " in its special 
range of phenomena it has no rival upon the earth." 




It is extremely fortunate that 
the United States Government 
promptly took possession of this 
marvellous region, thus saving it 
from the hands of vandals who would 
^ have defaced its curiosities, and from 
^S the grasp of speculators who would 
CLIFF IN (iRAN'D CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE, have chargcd cnomious prices for 
permission to view its principal attractions. It is now the property of the 
people, held for their use, and free to all. It is also a matter for rejoicing 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1031 



that the Pacific Railroads have been completed and that thus a way of 
reaching the Park quickly, easily, and economically, has been provided. 
While the commercial benefits conferred by these roads are beyond compu- 
tation, they are also rendering an invaluable service in making accessible to 




the people the most 'r^l 
magnificent pleasure 
ground in the world. 

The Park is under 
governmental supervi- 
sion. Leases of land for the erection of suitable buildings are issued where 
structures are required for the pubHc accommodation, roads and bridle paths 
are constructed, and fish and game are preserved frorn wanton destruction. 



FALLS OF THE GIBBON RIVER, NATIONAL PARK. 



I032 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

For " camping out " no better place can be found, while for those who prefer 
a different mode of life, there are hotels which supply everything necessary 
for their accommodation and comfort. A trip to the Park involves much 
less expense than one to foreign lands; it has fewer annoyances, and gives 
grander scenes and sublimer views than can there be obtained. So, while a 
foreign trip is desirable, the wise tourist will form an acquaintance with the 
wonders of his native land before seeking the great, but still inferior, attrac- 
tions of the beautiful countries across the sea. 



THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. 




HE famous Yosemite, which for scenic attractions is "matchless 
among the valleys of the world," is situated in Mariposa County, 
California. It lies west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and, 
measuring from north to south, in about the centre of the State. It is about 
150 miles from San Francisco, but is reached from that city by a circuitous 
route of 220 miles. The direction is slightly south of east. It had long been 
the refuge of predatory bands of Indians, and was discovered, in 185 1, by 
white men in pursuit of some of the plunderers of their settlements near the 
mining camps in the Mariposa region. From the report which these dis- 
covers gave of the wonders of the region, many people were induced to visit 
it, and in a few years it became a famous resort. In 1864 the Congress of 
the United States donated to the State of California this wonderful valley 
to be held as a place of public resort, and to be " inalienable for all time." 
The property is controlled by commissioners appointed by the governor of 
the State. They have power to lease portions of the valley and expend the 
money thus obtained in making desirable improvements and rendering the 
attractions more easily accessible. Private parties have also done a great 
deal in the way of building wagon roads and in making trails up some of the 
principal elevations in the vicinity. In 1886 a branch railroad, twenty-two 
miles in length, was opened from Berenda, on the Central Pacific line, to 
Raymond, from which point there is a stage line direct to the valley. 

The Yosemite Valley is about six miles in length and from one-half mile 
to almost two miles in \\'idth. Its granite walls rise almost vertically to a 
height of from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. On account of the narrowness of the 
valley this enormous elevation of the walls appears much greater than it 




BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, YOSEMITE VALLEY. 



1034 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

would if they were more widely separated. The walls, too, have a clean rise 
from the bottom of the valley instead of being piled to quite a height with 
fragments which have been separated from them by the action of the ele- 
ments, as is the case with many high cliffs in other localities. 

Among the principal attractions of the valley is the massive rock, EI 
Capitan. This is not nearly as high as some of the other clifTs, though it 
reaches an altitude of 3,300 feet. But its sides are entirely bare and smooth, 
and it forms one of the most imposing rocks in the world. Just across the 
valley is the Bridal Veil Fall, one of the most beautiful cascades ever seen. 
The water of a creek of the same name has a clear fall of 630 feet, striking a 
pile of debris and then falling about 300 feet additional, making a total fall of 
more than 900 feet. Its name is due to the fact that sometimes the wind causes 
the stream of water to flutter like a white veil. Just below El Capitan, and on 
the same side of the valley, is a fall of more than 1,000 feet which is beautiful 
in the spring, but the stream which feeds it is entirely dry in the summer. 
This is known as the Virgin's Tears Fall. Near the Bridal Veil Fall are the 
famous Cathedral Rocks. They are formed by an enormous, and almost 
vertical clifT, rising to the height of 2,660 feet and divided by a clear cut 
notch. Farther up the valley may be seen the Three Brothers, a group of 
enormous pillars, the highest of which reaches an altitude of 3,830 feet. 
From the summit of this great rock a magnificent view of the valley is ob- 
tained. Almost opposite this group is a mighty clifT from which towers a 
granite obelisk which resembles a watch tower, and is called the Sentinel 
Rock. From the foot of this rock to the summit is more than 3,000 feet. 

The Yosemite Falls, regarded by many visitors as the chief attraction of 
the valley, are opposite the Sentinel 'Rock. Here the water of the Yosemite 
Creek passes over the northern wall of the valley. The descent is by two 
magnificent falls and a series of cascades, and measures 2,600 feet. The first 
descent is a vertical fall of 1,500 feet, then comes a series of cascades by 
which a level 626 feet lower is reached, from which point the water takes its 
final fall of over 400 feet. At the head of the falls the water is, in the early 
summer, about two feet deep and the stream is from twenty feet to twenty- 
five feet wide. Late in the season, however, the volume of water is greatly 
decreased. It has been asserted that " no other cataract in the world can 
compare with this in height and romantic beauty." 

The falls of the Merced River are also remarkable. The upper one, 
known as the Nevada Fall, has a descent of about 600 feet. The lower, or 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1035 

Vernal Fall, is about 400 feet in height. Between these falls is a series of 
rapids of the greatest beauty and interest. These falls are far more uniform 
than those on the smaller creeks. As the river is fed by the melting snow 
on the mountains the flow of water is but slightly diminished during the 
summer when some of the other streams are entirely dry. Along the gorge 
called Tenaya Canon are a number of imposing cliffs which rise to a great 
height. The Washington Column and the Royal Arches are on the northern 
side, while above them towers the North Dome. The latter reaches an alti- 
tude of 3,568 feet. Opposite this, on the southern side of the gorge, the 
wonderful granite peak known as the Half Dome appears. This vast cliff 
rises 4,737 feet, and is the highest point in the vicinity. A path has been 
made by which tourists can reach the summit. From this lofty elevation, 
almost a mile above the surface of the valley, the view is indescribably 
beautiful. 

There are various points from which excellent views of the valley may 
be obtained without the long and toilsome ascent of the highest cliffs. In- 
spiration Point is at the very entrance of the valley, where the Merced River 
leaves its canon, and offers a splendid view of the enchanting region. 
Moran's Point, nearly across from the mouth of Tenaya Canon, lies at an 
elevation of about 2,000 feet, and is an excellent place of observation. A 
little farther east is Glacier Point, about 3,000 feet above the valley, which 
affords an almost unobstructed view of all its prominent features. 

The beauty of the valley is greatly enhanced by the numerous trees which 
have flourished here for centuries and which still maintain all the vigor of 
youth. The Merced River, with its clear and cold stream, flowing through 
the centre of the valley also adds a picturesque feature to the scene, while 
the flowers of many varieties and numberless shades and colors which in 
their season cover the ground, add an indescribable charm to a magnificent 
scene. 

Only about sixteen miles from the Yosemite Valley, and in the same 
county, is the famous Mariposa grove of trees of enormous size. This 
should, by all means, be visited by the tourist who has reached the Yosemite 
region. Like the Yosemite Valley, this grove is a government reservation 
and is under official supervision. The trees are in two groups. In the upper 
group there are 365 trees which are thirty-three feet in circumference and a 
large number of smaller ones which if standing outside of this marvellous 
region would be considered of enormous size. The lower group, which is 



1036 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

5,500 feet above the sea, has about 125 trees, each of which measures more 
than forty feet in circumference. The one named Grizzly Giant has a cir- 
cumference of more than ninety-three feet at the base and of more than 
sixty-four feet at a distance of eleven feet from the ground. The first branch 
is about six feet in diameter, and almost 200 feet from the ground. The 
tallest tree of this group, now standing, measures 272 feet. Some of these 
trees are believed by scientists to be 2,000 years old. In the Calaveras 
County groves, lying farther north, are several trees much taller than any in 
the Mariposa region. One, called the Key-Stone State, is 325 feet in height, 
while there are three others which exceed 300 feet. But the Mariposa grove, 
lying near the Yosemite Valley, is more easily reached by tourists to that 
region. 

So far as is known the first tree of this species ever seen by a white man 
was discovered in the Calaveras grove by a hunter named Dowd, in 1852. 
After considerable difificulty Sequoia gigantea was fixed upon as the scientific 
name of this " unquestioned giant of the vegetable world." It is confined to 
a very limited area, being found only on the western side of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains, while its range of latitude is less than three degrees. It 
does not appear at a lower elevation than 4,760 feet, nor at a greater height 
than about 7,000 feet. But it is the king of trees for the whole world, far 
surpassing in bulk the taller Eucalyptus of which Australia boasts. No visit 
to the Yosemite region can be considered complete which does not include 
a trip to at least one of the districts in which these gigantic trees are found. 




THE COLUMBIA RIVER REGION. 

ASSING toward that portion of our territory which, with the excep- 
tion of Alaska, a land widely separated from the main part of 
the United States, forms the northwestern section of the Union, 
we enter the region of the Columbia River. This river is the largest which 
enters the Pacific Ocean from the American side and was long known as the 
Oregon River. It follows an extremely tortuous course and varies greatly 
in all its essential features in different portions of the territory which it 
traverses. Rising in British Columbia, away up on the western side of the 
Rocky Mountains, it flows toward the northwest for about 150 miles. It then 
turns southward and enters Washington. Here Clark's River unites with it 




HALLEt's hades, COLUIMBIA EIVEB, 



I038 TPIE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

and its southern direction is kept until it reaches Oregon. From this pointy 
a distance of about 300 miles, it forms the boundary between the two States 
of Washington and Oregon. Its course is toward the west, but deviates 
greatly from a straight line, deflecting toward the south in the central portion 
of the State and making a sharp turn toward the north when near the 
western side. After another curve toward the west it soon enters the 
Pacific Ocean. 

During its course the Columbia receives several rivers of considerable size. 
Among them is the Willamette, which enters the Columbia more than 100 
miles from the ocean. The total length of the Columbia is about 1,400 
miles, its flow is rapid, and its volume of water is immense. With the ex- 
ception of two points it is navigable for about 400 miles, and by improve- 
ments of the channel it is expected that the principal obstacles to continu- 
ous navigation which now exist, will eventually be removed. 

But the fame of the Columbia River is principally due to the magnificent 
scenery which it presents throughout a large part of its course. It is not 
merely an enormous stream flowing majestically through a devious way, but 
it is a great river set in a framework of glorious surroundings. In point of 
grand environment it has no successful rival on the American continent. 
Along its shores Nature appears in many and varied forms of grandeur. At 
various places its walls are literally " mountain high " and in many portions 
of its course its current has an impetuous flow. Cataracts abound. At some 
points its shores are near, at others they lie far apart. Where the Willamette 
is received it spreads to such a width as to appear like a lake rather than 
river, and many beautiful little islands dot its surface. New beauties are 
almost constantly appearing to the traveller along its course, and some of the 
changes of scene are as sudden and unexpected as they are enchanting. 

The traveller by the Northern Pacific Railroad will pass through the Walla 
Walla Country, in Washington, celebrated for its excellent farming land, its 
heavy yield of grain, and extensive production of fruit, and in which many 
pleasant views are to be obtained. Soon afterward he will enter Oregon and 
ere long reach the shore of the great Columbia. For a while there will be 
nothing startling, or even particularly interesting, in the scenery. The river 
flows quietly through a nearly level country. But this condition lasts only a 
short time. The shores become higher, there is something bold and even rug- 
ged in their appearance, and the flow of the water becomes much more rapid 
and impetuous. A great lava bed is reached and the railroad passes over a 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1039 

surface formed from matter thrown, perhaps countless ages ago, from some 
volcano which, happily for the tourist, is now extinct. The bluffs here rise 
sharply, at only a little distance from the river, and their discolored sides pre 
sent anything but an inviting appearance. It is said, however, that on the 
heights the land is fertile and is under cultivation. 

At Celilo, nearly 130 miles from the confluence of the Snake River with 
the Columbia, the shore is sandy on the Oregon side while on the opposite 
shore of the river frowning bluffs arise. Here too is a strongly marked change 




MOUNT HOOD, FROM TIIK HEART OF THE DALLES, COLUMRL'V RIVER, OREGON. 

in the current and in the character of the bed of the river. The water flows 
more swiftly and the channel is rocky. Except in time of high water, when 
the snow on the mountains melts under the summer heat, steamers do not pass 
this point. Even at the most favorable time the trip is not entirely safe. 
From a station above this spot steamers go without difificulty for a long 
distance. After a turbulent course of thirteen miles the river again becomes 
calm and is easily navigable. Various objects of interest come into view in 
this vicinity. A huge cliff around which the track is laid, and the Little 
Dalles, will attract attention. But grander scenes are near at hand and 



I042 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

these, though beautiful and impressive in themselves, will sink into insignifi- 
cance when compared with the falls and cliffs a little farther down the river. 

The Great Dalles will fill the beholder with wonder and admiration. 
Here the river passes through a channel only about sixty yards wide. Basal- 
tic rocks rising sharply from its bed wall it in. The water rushes madly on 
through this narrow course. Its depth is unknown. It boils and foams in 
fury, but cannot burst its bounds. The rapids continue for more than two 
miles. Then the river assumes a more peaceful character, but occasional 
waterfalls occur, and the shores are broken and rugged. From the head of 
the Dalles and looking away from the immediate vicinity many beautiful 
mountain peaks may be seen, with Dalles City lying in the foreground. 

One of the most imposing views from this vicinity is that of Mount Hood, 
a majestic peak which is beautiful in outline as well as massive in form. 
Many travellers by the Union Pacific Railroad make a trip to this mountain, 
which lies some twenty-five miles from the nearest station. Stages run to 
the foot of the mountain. The scenery along the route is magnificent, and 
from the summit the view is indescribably grand and inspiring. Mountain 
peaks covered with snow rise from near and from distant points. Forests 
and rivers, beautiful valleys, the great Puget Sound, together with towns and 
villages in the open land, make a picture of wonderful beauty and sublimity. 
For mountain scenery, it is claimed, there is no other point of view in the 
country equal to the summit of Mount Hood. 

The Cascades, at which point the river cuts through the Cascade Range, 
both the Upper and the Lower, are wonderfully beautiful in themselves and 
in the majestic walls and massive pillars which stand like eternal sentinels to 
watch the tumultuous flow of the great river which they inclose. On the 
westward way the scenery becomes still wilder and more majestic. Mountains 
are grouped in curious forms. Rocky terraces rising to sublime heights 
appear. Cliff rises above cliff, crag is piled on crag. In ever-varying forms 
and differing arrangements these great features constantly appear. Falling 
over these cliffs innumerable cascades are seen, and at various points we 
have falls which cannot be adequately described. Of these perhaps the most 
beautiful is the Multnomah Falls. Here the water has an unbroken fall of 
several hundred feet and almost immediately makes another plunge to the 
depths below. The total fall is 800 feet. Oneonta Falls closely rival the 
Multnomah and have about the same height. 

The Pillars of Hercules, between which the Northern Pacific Railroad 




CAPE HOEX, COLUMBIA EIVER. 



I044 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

passes, fill the mind with wonder and awe. Raising their massive forms 
toward the sky they seem like miracles of nature in a land of wonders. 
Passing these colossal towers we come to a somewhat more open country 
from which wider views are obtained. Soon after leaving this point the rail- 
road continues west to Portland, while the river pursues its winding course 
toward the northwest. 

Of the magnificent views, the grand and peculiar features of the natural 
scenery of the Columbia River, only a few have been noted. To describe 
them all would require a volume, even to name them would require more 
space than we have at command. But among the towering and frowning 
cliffs which rise almost perpendicularly from the river bank and close to which 
the railroad track is laid, Gibraltar and Hallets Hades, deserve to be specially 
mentioned. Cape Horn, too, rising to a height of 700 feet and standing like 
an outpost at a bend of the river, presents a magnificent view either from 
the cars or from the steamers which run close to its base. 

Neither is all the splendid scenery of this wonderful region to be found 
in the narrow belt of country to a view of which the traveller who makes a 
continuous journey by rail is necessarily confined. There are magnificent 
mountains and beautiful lakes in other regions of Washington and Oregon. 
There are peaks covered with perpetual snow and streams winding through 
rocky glens and falling in beautiful cascades. Beautiful and fertile valleys 
in which are located thriving towns and, at but little distance therefrom, dense 
forests of large and valuable trees, may also be found. In the Grande Ronde 
Valley are fertile fields and plenty of fish and game. Its distinguishing 
feature, however, may be seen in the medicinal springs which here abound. 
In one, which is known as " Hot Lake," the water is at a boiling temperature 
when it rises from the ground. It flows in quite a volume and spreads over 
an area of some three acres in extent. 

Oregon City, on the Willamette River and near the Willamette Falls, is 
the oldest city in the State of Oregon and was for a number of years the 
capital. It is about twelve miles from Portland, has a magnificent water 
power, several important industrial interests, and is destined to become a 
great manufacturing centre. The Falls are about forty feet in height and 
are remarkably beautiful. Up to this point the river is navigable for large 
boats, and during a large part of the year small steamers can pass 130 miles 
above the Falls. A canal has recently been completed by means of which 
boats can pass the Falls. There are four lift locks, each of which changes the 




MULT.XOMAir FALLS, COLUMBIA KIVEU. 



1046 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

level ten feet, and above these is a large guard lock. This great work was 
completed at a cost of more than half a million dollars, of which part was 
paid by the construction company, and the remainder contributed by the 
State. Throughout the Willamette Valley the scenery is fine, and the tourist 
will find it a delightful region in which to spend a portion of his leisure time. 
Portland, the western terminus of the line of the Oregon Railway and 
Navigation Co., is also a city in which the traveller in search of either pleasure 
or knowledge will find much to interest him. It is a city of wonderful growth 
and prosperity. Although nearly 120 miles from the ocean, it is practically 
a seaport to which ships come from all parts of the globe. It is located on 




FLOATING FISH WHEEL ON THE COLUMBIA RIVE 
OREGON. 



the Willamette River, twelve miles from its union with the Columbia, and is 
destined to become one of the great cities of the West. Astoria, on the 
Columbia River and. near its mouth, should also receive a visit. In point of 
population it is second in the State and is rapidly growing. Its manufactur- 
ing interests are important, but the great commercial interest centres in the 
fisheries. Nearly two-thirds of the canneries of the Columbia River are 
located at this point, and about $3,000,000 worth of salmon are canned here 
every year. The fish are not only caught in nets and seines, but also in 
various forms of traps and by means of floating wheels which take the fish in 
shoals and land them in the boats upon which the wheels are placed. In this 
region the salmon fisher}' attains its greatest development. With the excep- 




PILLARS OF HERCrLES, COLUMBIA WVEK. 



1048 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

tion ot Alaska no portion of the world can be compared with it for the 
abundance and value of this important variety of fish. The view of the bay 
is very fine, and there are many very pretty places within easy reach. A 
large and excellent hotel faces the ocean and there are various other houses 
at which visitors are well entertained. 

The tourist who desires to go still farther can make a pleasant trip of 
nearly 150 miles from Astoria to Tacoma, located on the famous Puget Sound. 
Thirty-eight miles from Portland, by the Northern Pacific Railroad, at 
Hunter's Point, the train is ferried across the Columbia River by a boat built 
for this road, capable of taking thirty cars at a trip, and said to be the finest 
boat of the kind ever built. The adjacent country is pleasant and the 
mountain scenery is magnificent. The Cascade Range rises in blue and white 
tints and in beautiful form, and for a long distance Mount Hood, with its snowy 
crown, though now far away, is in full view. This usually attracts a large 
share of the tourists' attention. The beauty of the mountain itself, though 
an excellent one, is not the only reason for this close observation. Another 
cause is found in the fact that when viewed from a distant point, under vary- 
ing atmospheric conditions, the appearance is widely different from that 
presented when the observer is in its immediate vicinity. The traveller who 
has an eye to natural beauty is fairly entranced by the " changing splendors " 
which this glorious peak presents. Other great mountains also come in view 
as the journey is continu.ed. 

When the traveller reaches a point within about forty miles of its base the 
lofty snow-crowned Tacoma comes into view for a brief period through an 
opening in the dense forest which during quite a portion of the way inter- 
venes. A little farther on the traveller beholds the great inland sea known 
as Puget Sound, and at Tacoma, located at the head of Commencement Ba)-, 
he will find sailing craft of various descriptions, including large ocean vessels. 
This is the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Here are 
manufactories and fisheries, and evidences of commercial activity and pros- 
perity appear on every hand. The tourist will find much to interest him, 
good accommodations, bracing air and, except in winter, when it is very moist 
as well as mild, a fine climate. 

From this point the tourist should make a visit to Mount Tacoma, which 
is the loftiest and the most beautiful peak in the vicinity. Recent measure- 
ments have shown its summit to be 14,444 feet above the sea. This is more 
than 650 feet higher than Mount Adams, and is the same height as Mount 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1049 

Shasta in California. Its base is said to be forty miles in circumference. An 
elevation of about 11,000 feet may be reached on the northern side with com- 
parative ease, but climbing to the summit is an almost impossible feat which 
up to 1885 only two men were known to have accomplished. Of the fifteen 
glaciers which flow from this mountain three are within easy reach and are 
said to be more magnificent than the famous glaciers of Switzerland. If the 
tourist wishes to loiter on the way he will find during the last half of the 
route, which is traversed on horseback, frequent camps in which he will be 
well entertained, and in the vicinity of which he will find excellent fishing and 
hunting. 

Returning to Tacoma the tourist will probably feel the need of rest for a 
day or two from his mountain trip. He will then determine whether to take 
a homeward course or push on to our great Territory of Alaska at the 
extreme northwestern portion of the continent. If the former course is 
■chosen he will carry with him the memory of numberless magnificent scenes. 
If the latter is followed, he can be sure that new beauties and glories await 
him in the distant land toward which he sails. 



ALASKA. 



O a great extent Alaska is an unknown land. Only a small portion 
of its vast territory has been carefully explored, and with the ex- 
ception of some circumscribed regions we have but meagre 
accounts of its character and resources. But enough has been done in the 
way of travel and description to assure us that it is a land of wonders, and 
that it presents to the visitor unnumbered scenes of picturesque beauty and 
grandeur. 

Lying away in the north-western portion of the continent and covering 
an area of 577,390 square miles, an area more than ten times as large as that 
of the great' State of Illinois and larger than the combined area of Great 
Britain, France, and Germany, it is, indeed, as its name signifies, " a large 
country." Its length, from extreme points of east to west, is 2,200 miles; 
from north to south it measures 1,400 miles; and, owing to its extremely ir- 
regular form, its shore line exceeds 8,000 miles. If the adjacent islands are 
included in the measurement we find a coast line of more than 25,000 miles. 
Though far away from our great centres of civilization, the country is easily 



I052 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

reached by either of the Pacific Railroads to the Pacific coast and thence by 
large and elegant steamers. All along the western portion of the continent 
the traveller is surrounded by natural wonders. The trip by steamer, cover- 
ing a distance of some 2,000 miles, is hardly less astonishing and delightful. 
Keeping near the shore the wave-motion of the open sea is entirely avoided, 
the climate is mild, and the magnificent scenery of the coast is in full and 
constant view. 

Arriving at Alaska we find the highest mountains in North America, one 
of them, Mount Saint Elias, of the Coast Range, reaching a height of about 
19,500 feet. Besides this great range there are the Rocky Mountains, and 
the Alaskan Range, each of which has many towering peaks. The country 
also contains sixty-one volcanoes, ten of which are active. Mount Edge- 
cumbe, an extinct volcano, has a crater nearly 400 feet deep and 2,000 feet 
across the top. Among these mountain ranges we also find some of the 
greatest glaciers in the world. One of these, extending from Mount Fair- 
weather to the sea, a distance of fifty miles, is eight miles wide and breaks 
in a massive wall of ice 300 feet high. Another, above Fort Wrangel, is 
forty miles long, four or five miles wide, and about 1,000 feet deep, while 
only a little distance from this vast mass of moving ice, boiling springs are 
constantly active. In quite a large section of the country hot mineral springs 
are numerous, and it is neither impossible nor improbable that at no very 
remote period this distant region will become a noted resort for invalids. 
Some of these springs are of immense size and strongly impregnated with 
mineral substances. 

The rivers of Alaska are as wonderful in their way as the mountains or 
any other of the natural phenomena. The largest is the Yukon, which in 
point of size is the fifth river of North America and the fourth of the United 
States, draining an extensive area and from its various outlets discharging 
an immense quantity of water. It has its source in a very small lake, flows 
through five other lakes, and by a remarkably circuitous course reaches the 
Behring Sea. The whole course of the river is about 2,044 miles, about 783 
of which are in British America. Its waters are discharged from five or more 
mouths, the two outer ones being not less than sixty miles apart. So great 
is the volume of water from one of these mouths that for a distance of ten 
miles after it reaches the sea, the water is still fresh. A vast quantity of sedi- 
ment is carried down the river by its strong and rapid flow and deposited far 
out in the sea. Some of the shoals thus formed are more than sixty miles 



1054 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC. 

from the shore. At a point i,ooo miles from the sea the river, with the 
numerous islands in its channel, is seven miles wide and it is supposed to 
reach twice that width at other places. It maintains an immense width for 
a distance of about 300 miles. In the course of the river, more than i,8co 
miles from the northern mouth, there is a magnificent canon a mile in length. 
The rapid flow of the water continues four miles farther and ends in a beauti- 
ful cascade, the even course of the water being then resumed. To this point 
the river is navigable for light-draught steamers, and for 1,000 or 1,200 miles 
it can be traversed by much larger vessels. There are several other rivers of 
large size, some of which have not been fully explored. 

The forests of the country are on the same scale of magnificence as its 
other features and add greatly to the beauty and impressiveness of the 
scenery. Not only the mainland along the coast, but the multitude of islands, 
in the vicinity, are heavily covered with pine, spruce, hemlock, and a variety 
of cedar trees, which are valuable as well as ornamental. 

As would be expected from their high latitude, the central and northern 
portions of Alaska are inhospitable, but in the south-western section the 
climate is comparatively mild, being tempered by the warm current of the 
Pacific Ocean in its course from the East Indies. This current, which closely 
resembles the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, causes the excessive rainfall for 
which some portions of the country are noted. In Sitka the mean tempera- 
ture is very nearly forty-three degrees, and the annual rainfall is about eighty 
inches. In the valley of the Yukon, in some other districts, and upon some 
of the islands, several of the vegetables of the temperate regions are grown. 

In the northern portion of the country, where the sinking of a shaft has 
proved that the ground is frozen to a depth of seventy-five feet, considerable 
vegetation grows in the summer, when the days are almost twenty-four hours 
in length, and the sun shining almost constantly thaws the surface soil. The 
ground being wet, the grasses and plants produced are large and coarse, but 
they furnish an excellent cover for migratory birds, which flock to the region 
in vast numbers, making it one of the best of fields for the sportsman. Then, 
too, there are immense hunting-grounds in which elk, deer, and fur-bearing 
animals abound. The fishing in several sections is also very fine, whether 
viewed from a commercial standpoint or from that of the pleasure-seeker. 
The number of salmon is immense and they grow to a large size. The whale 
fisheries and the seal hunting are also objects of interest to the tourist as well 
as important industrial pursuits. A view of the mines cannot fail to please 



1056 THE GREAT WONDERLANDS OF OUR REPUBLIC: 

even the experienced sight-seer. A visit to the one about ten miles from 
Sitka, will also furnish a pleasant trip across Silver Bay, and bring the tourist 
to what is said to be the largest quartz mill in the world. 

The largest settlement of Alaska, and the only one in which the traveller 
for pleasure will care to spend much time, is Sitka, the capital of the Territory 
and place of residence of the United States collector of customs. It is 
located on Baranov Island, near the Pacific coast, and commands a magnifi- 
cent view of both sea and shore. The " Thousand Islands " here present a 
scene of picturesque beauty hardly excelled by that of the world-famed Bay 
of Naples in the sunny clime of Italy. 

The population numbers from 1,000 to 1,500. The Indian residents have 
to a great extent adopted the dress and manners of civilized nations, and 
their children attend schools which are maintained by various religious de- 
nominations in the United States. In common with the Indians of other 
portions of North America, Northern Asia, and other countries, each import- 
ant family, or band, has its distinguishing totem, or badge, which consists of 
a figure carved or marked on its housss, clothing, and other property. At 
their burial places, and in front of some of their best houses, these Indians 
erect large totem poles on which the figure adopted as the family or tribal 
symbol is rudely carved. Many of these poles are of great size and quite ex- 
pensive. They range from two to five feet in diameter and some are not less 
than sixty feet high. 

To, the tourist, one of the chief objects of interest in Sitka is the cathedral 
of the Greek Church, which was built when the country was one of the 
Russian possessions. It is constructed in the form of a Greek cross. A 
cupola caps the tower in which the bell is hung, and above the centre of the 
building is a dome of emerald-green. The chapel, located in one of the 
wings, has a magnificent painting of the Virgin and Child, copied from the 
original at Moscow, and heavily draped in silver with a beautiful halo of 
gold. The doors to the chancel are beautifully carved and heavily gilded. 
Here, also, are exquisite paintings of the Last Supper, the Madonna, and of 
other subjects, all heavily adorned with silver. This room women are never 
allowed to enter. The general ornamentation of the building is rich and 
elegant, while the crown and vestments of the Bishop, which are freely 
shown to visitors, are of costly material and magnificent appearance. 

The fortifications and the United States signal service of^ce are also 
places of interest — the latter largely on account of its historical associations. 



NATURAL SCENERY AND CELEBRATED RESORTS. 1057 

It is located in a building which was erected by the Russians, destroyed by 
fire, afterward rebuilt, and then demolished by an earthquake. Once more 
it was erected, in massive proportions, and it now seems likely to successfully 
defy for ages the power of the elements and the destructive agencies of 
time. There is also a sad story of a beautiful orphan girl whose tragic death 
occurred within these walls. She had promised herself to a young lieutenant 
connected with the household, but her uncle and guardian, the Russian gover- 
nor, desired her to marry a prince who was at that time his honored guest. 
In order to accomplish his purpose the Governor professed a deep interest 
in the lieutenant and sent him away for a few days. Then, against her will 
and in spite of her tearful protests, the young lady was compelled to marry 
the prince. Soon after the ceremony was performed, and while the festivi- 
ties were at their height, the first lover returned. Entering the hall he took 
the unfortunate girl by the hand and without speaking thrust a dagger 
through her heart. Then, in wild despair, he rushed from the castle and 
drowned himself in the sea. According to a widely accepted legend the spirit 
of the murdered girl always appears on the anniversary of that fearful night, 
and sometimes when a storm is raging she keeps a light in a deserted tower 
in order to guide the course of her lover, whom she believes is still at sea. 

The return trip by steamer will be equally interesting with the one which 
brought the tourist to this w^onderful land. The scenes then beheld will 
re-appear, but, being viewed from a different direction, will present new 
beauties and varying attractions. And while he may rejoice to be " home- 
Avard bound," the happiness will be tinged with regret at leaving the marvel- 
lous region with which he has just become acquainted. As Alaska is now 
United States territory, our people should take a patriotic interest in its 
magnificent scenic attractions as well as rejoice in its growing commercial 
importance. This vast and distant portion of our country should no longer 
be allowed to remain as it has been in the past, an almost unnoticed and 
unknown land. 




H18T0KICAL SPOTS IN THK CITY OF QUEBEC. 



BEYOND THE STATES. 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

Her Provinces and Principal Cities. 




HE great confederation of British American provinces occupied in 
1889 the whole of the enormous territory of the North American 
continent lying between the Arctic Ocean on the north, the Atlan- 
tic on the east, the United States on the south, and the Pacific on the west, 
excepting Alaska, Greenland, and Newfoundland. It is almost equal to the 
whole of Europe in extent, having a length of 120° and a breadth of 90° of 
longitude. Its area has been variously estimated at from 3,515,324 to 3,580,- 
310 square miles, but as about 3,000,000 square miles are practically uninhab- 
ited and very little known, the area can only be approximated. It is the most 
important British possession on the American continent, and according to the 
census of 1881, had an aggregate population of 4,350,933, a gain of 680,858 in 
ten years. The Dominion is composed of the former provinces of Ontario, pre- 
viously known as Canada West, Quebec, formerly Canada East, Nova Scotia, 
New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, and the 
Northwest Territories. Newfoundland, though not at present (1889) a political 
part of the Dominion, is naturally and intimately associated with it. It has 
its own provincial government, wholly distinct from that of the Dominion. 

The government and constitution of the Dominion are modeled after 
those of Great Britain and the United States. The supreme authority is 
vested in the sovereign of Great Britain, who is officially represented by a 
viceroy, styled the Governor-general. He is aided in the administration of 
his great trust by a privy council, composed similarly to that of the home 
government. The executive authority descends from the sovereign through 
the Governor-general to a Lieutenant-governor for each province, who has 
the aid of an executive council, a legislative council, and a legislative assem- 
bly chosen by popular vote. The supreme legislative authority is vested in 



io6o THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

a parliament, composed of a senate and house of commons, corresponding 
Avith the EngHsh house of lords and house of commons, excepting that the 
senate is more democratic, and that membership therein is not a prerogative 
of a titled class of citizens, nor a hereditary possession. The senate is com- 
posed of seventy-seven members, who are appointed for Hfe by the Governor- 
general, and the House of Commons (1889) of 206 members who are elected 
by popular vote. The latter body, like the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives will increase in membership with the growth of population. In 
the provinces the forms of government are independent of the parliament, 
save that their actions must conform to the supreme laws, just as the acts 
of the State governments and legislatures in the American Union must har- 
monize with the federal constitution, the decisions of the United States Su- 
preme Court, and the legislation of Congress. The provinces are subdivided 
into districts and counties, each with its own subordinate form of administra- 
tion. Every male British subject, 21 years of age, and possessing a small 
property qualification, has the right of suiTrage. 

There is no state religion in the Dominion, nor is any interference with 
the forms of worship which its citizens wish to observe permitted. The 
census of 1881 reported the following denominational adherents: Roman 
Catholics, 1,791,982; Methodists of all forms, 742,981 ; Presbyterians of all 
forms, 686,165 ; Anglicans, 574,818; Baptists all forms, 296,525 ; Lutherans, 
46,350; Congregational churches, 26,900; Disciples of Christ, 20,193 ; Brethren, 
all forms, 8,831; Adventists, all forms, 7,211; Friends, 6,553; Universalists, 
4,517; acknowledged pagans, 4,478; Reformed Episcopal, 2,596; Jews, 2,393; 
Unitarians, 2,126; and "no creed" and "creed not given," 136,323; total, 
4,350,933. The Roman Catholics were the most numerous in the province of 
Quebec, and also constituted a plurality in that of New Brunswick ; the 
Methodists were the most numerous in Ontario, and the Presbyterians in 
Nova Scotia. 

From the establishment of the Dominion in 1867 till 1887, the government 
expended the following sums on public works: railroads, $97,056,423; canals, 
$39,876,800;, lighthouses and navigation, $8,284,580; acquisition and govern- 
ment of the Northwest Territories, $5,356,035; government buildings and 
miscellaneous works, $13,680,829; total, $154,254,667. The increase in the 
public debt has been as follows: 1868, $96,896,666; 1872, $122,400,179; 1876, 
$161,204,687; 1880, $199,125,323; 1886, gross, $273,164,341, net, $223,159,107; 
1888, gross, $284,513,841, net, $234,513,358. The ordinary revenue in il 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 



1061 



amounted to $33,177,040, and the expenditures to $39,011,612. The move- 
ment of trade was — Exports: 1868, $57,567,888; 1872, $82,639,663; 1876, 
$80,966,435; 1880, $87,91 1,454; i886,$85,25i,3i4. Imports: 1868, $73,457,644; 
1872, $111,430,527; 1876, $93,210,346, 1880, $86,489,747; 1886, $104,424,561. 
During this period the highest exports were in 1873, $89,789,922, the lowest, 

1868, $57,567,888; and the highest imports, 1874, $128,213,582, the lowest 

1869, $70,415,165. The distribution of this trade among the chief countries 
and its relation to the United States are shown in the following table of the 
transactions during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886: 



Countries. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


United States .... 


$50,475,418 


$36,578,769 


Great Britain 






40,589,500 


41,542,629 


Germany 






2,139,426 


253,298 


France .... 






1,866,392 


534,363 


British West Indies 






995,422 


1,256,549 


Other West Indies 






1,511,412 


865,021 


Other British Possessions 






583,839 


253,290 


Japan .... 






1,485,932 


1,708 


South America 






1,052,496 


1,012,806 


China . . .- . 






903,439 


61,415 


Newfoundland and Labrador 




388,171 


1,752,048 



The imports of iron and steel and manufactures thereof into the Dominion 
for home consumption amounted in value to (1884) $14,790,727; (1885) $11, - 
415,713; and (1886) $11,053,365. In the fiscal years 1887-8 the value of the 
fishery catch fell considerably below the figures of the preceding year. Of 
the total value of the catch, only 37 per cent, was exported, 63 per cent, 
being retained for home consumption ; and of the total exports of pickled 
mackerel — which fell off 61 per cent. — the United States took 87 per cent., 
but only 15^ per cent, of the total shipments of dry-salted cod. The total 
value of fish of all kinds exported to the United States was $2,717,000, or 40 
per cent, of total export. 

Canada was discovered by John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497, but the 
French were the first to profit by the discovery. Records are extant that 
show that Frenchmen were engaged in cod-fishing off Newfoundland very 
early in the sixteenth century: a Frenchman, Denys by name, is said to have 
made a map of a portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 1506; and in 
1508 a French rnerchant captain visited the shores of the gulf, and, fearing 
lest his story might be discredited on his return, carried with him living evi- 



io62 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

dence in the form of several natives. Furthermore, the King of France sent 
Verazani, a Florentine navigator, with four ships, to take possession of the 
country and prosecute further discoveries in 1524. He made three voyages, 
and on the last perished with all his crew. Again, in April, 1534, the king 
commissioned Jacques Cartier to carry out his instructions to Verazani, and 
gave him two ships and 122 men. He came in sight of Newfoundland in 
May, but, being deterred from landing by the enormous quantity of snow, 
sailed to the 51st degree of latitude in the vain hope of realizing the dream 
of the navigators — a direct passage to China — and then returned home. In 
the following year with three ships he was more successful. He entered the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence on St. Lawrence's day (whence the name of the gulf 
and river), took possession of the country in the name- of the King of F" ranee, 
explored the river a distance of 300 leagues, built a fort, and wintered there. 

In the reign of Henry VII. of England, Bartholomew Columbus presented 
to the king some new maps of the world and charts for navigation, which 
up to that time had not been employed. He also laid before the king the 
views of his brother, Christopher Columbus, respecting the existence of a 
vast continent across the Atlantic, and a proposition to enter the royal service 
and prosecute further discoveries of the comparatively unknown country. 
No substantial effort could have been made by the king to promote the en- 
terprise, otherwise Columbus would never have struggled so long at the court 
of Spain for the royal command. It was, therefore, due either to the indiffer- 
ence or preoccupation of the King of England that France took possession 
of an extreme northern portion of the American continent, and Spain ac- 
quired domination over the greater and richer portion with its numerous 
islands. Had he supported the enterprising Cabots and acceded to the 
modest proposal of Columbus, he would have achieved the glory of adding 
an entire continent to his realm. 

Though Cartier made his discovery and took possession of it in 1535, it 
was not till 1608 that a permanent settlement was made on the river he dedi- 
cated to St. Lawrence, though a few scattering and short-lived settlements 
Avere made near St. Croix River under grants of Henry IV. of France in 1604. 
This first settlement was made by a body of Frenchmen under Champlain, 
on the spot now occupied by the city of Quebec. The French made a treaty 
of peace with the Indians, and by the time the settlement was getting into a 
prosperous condition, war broke out between England and France, and an 
English expedition was sent against Quebec. The city surrendered to the 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1063 

English in 1629, after peace had been signed by the belligerents, though the 
fact was not known in Canada; and consequently the territory had to be re- 
turned to France. Canada continued to be a possession of France till 1759, 
when Quebec was taken by General Wolfe, and the province was ceded in 
full sovereignty to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Local 
affairs were then regulated by the ordinances of the governor alone till 1774, 
when under an act of parliament a legislative council of twenty-three mem- 
bers was appointed by the king. This form of government was changed in 
1791, and the country was divided into an upper and a lower province, each 
of which was provided with a governor, an executive council appointed by 
the crown, similar to the privy council of England, a legislative council, the 
members of which were appointed for life by the king, and a representative 
council elected for four years. 

A long course of violent dissensions between the provincial houses of 
assembly and the executive governments reached their climax in 1837, when 
insurrections occurred in both provinces. In 1838 the Earl of Durham was 
appointed governor-general and high commissioner for the adjustment of in- 
ternal difificulties, and upon his report the English parliament passed an act 
for the reunion of the provinces in 1840, which was consummated 1841. In 
1844 the seat of government was transferred from Kingston to Toronto; in 
1858 Ottawa was made the capital; in 1865 the Canadian parliament con- 
sented to a federal union ; and in 1867 the Dominion of Canada was estab- 
lished by the union of Upper and Lower Canada, or Canada East and Canada 
West, with the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The vast 
Northwest Territories were purchased by the Dominion government from 
the Hudson Bay Company and incorporated in the Union 1870; the province 
of Manitoba, formerly known as Assiniboia and as the Red River Settlement, 
was admitted the same year; British Columbia, established as a province in 
1-858, joined the confederation in 1871 ; and Prince Edward Island united 
with it in 1873. 



CITY OF OTTAWA. 

TTAWA is the capital of the Dominion of Canada. It is situated 
in the Province of Ontario, 88 miles above the junction of the 
Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence, 450 miles from New York, 
126 miles from Montreal, and 95 miles from the city of Kingston. It was 




1064 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 



incorporated as a city in 1854. Prior to this it was called Bytown, in honor 
of Colonel By, who constructed the Rideau Canal in 1827. The scenery in 
the vicinity is very beautiful, and not surpassed by any in Canada. In the 
neighborhood are three magnificent cataracts. The first of these is the 




Chaudiere Falls, on the Ottawa River, at the west end of the city. The falls 
at this point are spanned by a suspension bridge, connecting Upper and 
Lower Canada. Its great industry is lumber, its immense water-power being 
made use of in numerous saw-mills. The imports are about $2,500,000, and 

the exports nearly $5,000,000, annually. 
In 1858 Ottawa was selected by Queen 
Victoria as the capital of Canada. The 
erection of magnificent Government 
buildings was commenced in i860, the 
Prince of Wales laying the foundation. 
The Parliament buildings are probably 
as fine as any in America. The princi- 
pal railroads are the Canada Central 
lines and the St. Lawrence & Ottawa. 
The city is connected by steamer on the 
Ottawa River with Montreal ; the Rideau 
PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, OTTAWA. Canal connccts it with Lake Ontario at 

Kingston. While the city derives its chief importance from being the seat of 
the government, the natural beauty of its surroundings and its fine architect- 
ural structures attract the attention of the tourist. Population, 1889, 48,750. 




PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 




HE most populous province of the Dominion is situated between 
latitude 41° 30' and 50° 30' north, and longitude 74° 25' and 90° 
30' west. It formed a part of the province of Quebec up to 1791, 
thence to 1840 was known as Upper Canada, and then re-united with Quebec. 
The census of 1881 gave it an area of 101,733 square miles, and a population 
of 1,923,228, of whom 976,- 
461 were males and 946,- 
j^j females. Of the face 
of the country 19,259,909 
acres were occupied, 11,- 
294,109 improved, 8,370,- 
266 under crops, 2,619,038 
in pasture, and 304,805 in 
orchards and gardens. 

The surface of the 
country is generally undu- 
lating, with several ridges 
or hills over 2,000 feet 
high in the Lake Superior 
region. In the south and 
west are the St. Lawrence 
River and Lakes Ontario, 
Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and 
a part of Superior, with 
many connecting rivers, 
affording a vast extent of great south falls, muskoka river, in the muskoka re- 
lake coast and an abun- ^^°^' ''''°^'' ^' ™^ "highlands of Ontario." 

dant ocean outlet. The principal rivers are the Ottawa, Madawaska, Thames, 
and Trent, all of which are navigable by large boats for a considerable dis- 
tance. Its water-front of 3,000 miles is provided with numerous bays and 
harbors, notably those of the Georgian in the west. Pigeon on Lake Erie, 
and Burlington and Quinta on Lake Ontario. The mineral wealth is varied 
in character and considerable in quantity, though as yet comparatively un- 




io66 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 



developed. Iron is found in large quantities, and lead, copper, antimony, 
arsenic, gypsum, marble, building-stones, gold, and salt are known to exist 
in numerous localities, while silver is abundant along the shores of Lake 
Superior. There are numerous large forests of valuable timber, particularly 
red and white pine. White fish, trout, and herring are plentiful; fur animals 
are still trapped by hunters, but strictly wild animals have almost entirely 
disappeared. But little manufacturing is carried on in the province. 

The chief industry of 
the population is agricult- 
ure, for w^hich the soil 
and climate are well adap- 
ted. The official returns 
of 1 88 1 embraced the fol- 
lowing figures in this line:, 
wheat, 27,406,091 bushels; 
barley, 14,279,841 ; oats, 
40,209,929; rye, 1,598,871 ; 
peas and beans, 9,434,872 ; 
corn, 8,096,782 ; potatoes, 
18,994,559; turnips, 33,- 
856,721; hay, 2,038,659 
tons; tobacco, 160,251 
pounds ; and hops, 61 5,967 
pounds. Other farm prod- 
ucts were: butter, 54,862,- 
365 pounds; cheese, i,- 
701,721; wool, 6,013,216; 
maple sugar, 4,169,706; 
honey, 1,197,628; and flax 
and hemp, 1,073,197. The farm animals numbered 590,298 horses, 25,263 
oxen, 1,678,904 milch cows and other cattle, 1,359,178 sheep, and 700,922 
swine. The extent and value of the timber supply are shown by the fol- 
lowing productions in the above census year: white pine, 12,262,570 cubic 
feet; red, 1,848,927; oak, 8,448,263; tamarack, i,5i5»36o; elm, 2,925,382; 
walnut, 741,431 ; all other timber, 27,190,629; number of pine logs, 14,945,670; 
other logs, 7,621,610. The share of the province in the fishery catch of the 
Dominion was represented by five steam vessels with fourteen men, and 1,129 




SOUTH FALLS, MUSKOKA RIVER, IN THE MUSKOKA REGION, 
KNOWN AS "the HIGHLANDS OF ONTARIO." 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 



1067 



boats with 2,101 men, and 928,008 fathoms of net, engaged in 681 fisheries. 
The product was 15,605 barrels of herring, 38,301 of white fish, 55,497 of 
trout, and 18,817 of other fish, and 1,629 gallons of fish oil. The orchard 
products were 11,400,517 bushels of apples, 3,697,555 pounds of grapes, and 
644,707 bushels of other fruits. 

The executive authority, like that of all the provinces, is vested in a Lieu- 
tenant-Governor ; the legislative in an assembly composed of one member 
from each of the eighty 



two districts into which the 
province is subdivided, 
elected. for four years; and 
the judicial in the courts of 
Queen's bench, common 
pleas, and appeal, each with 
a chief justice and three 
judges, beside whom there 
are one chancellor and two 
vice-chancellors. The prin- 
cipal cities are Ottawa, the 
capital of the Dominion; 
Toronto, the capital of the 
province; Hamilton, Lon- 
don, and Kingston. The 
province has an excellent 
system of free public 
schools, beside many Ro- 
man Catholic educational 
institutions. All children 
between the ages of seven 




HIGH FALLS IN THE LAKE MUSKOKA REGION, KNOWN AS THE 
"highlands of ONTARIO." 



and twelve years of age are required to attend some school during a specified 
portion of each year. The public schools are under the control of a min- 
ister of education, who is aided by a chief superintendent. The school popu- 
lation in 1881 was 405,857, for whom there were 410 high schools and 5,313 
elementary schools. There were also seventeen colleges and universities and 
forty-four boarding schools. In the same year there were 5,075 churches, of 
which number the Methodists had 2,375, the Presbyterians 852, the Church 
of England 680, the Baptists 389, and the Roman Catholics 367. The chari- 



io68 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 



table institutions included twenty-one hospitals and twenty-two orphanages. 
The province had 5,223 miles of railroad in operation. 




CITY OF TORONTO. 

ORONTO, a port of entry and the capital city of the Province of 
Ontario, is situated on the north shore of Lake Ontario, 165 miles 
Wi\ from Kingston, and 320 miles southwest of Montreal. It is con- 
nected with Canada and the United States by the Grand Trunk Railway and 
numerous other lines. Its industries are extensive, and consist of iron foun 

dries, rolling-mills, car- 
shops, breweries, distill- 
eries, machine-shops, car- 
riage factories, soap- 
works, tanneries, boot 
and shoe factories, flour- 
mills, and cabinet-ware 
factories. It is over two 
miles in length from east 
to west, is bounded on 
the south by the Bay of 
Toronto, a spacious inlet 
of Lake Ontario, and is 
one and a half miles broad 
from south to north. The 
situation of the town is 
low and flat. The most 
elevated q u a r t e r — the 
Queen's Park in the west, 
containing the University, 
Observatory, and hand- 
some private residences — 
is only from 100 to 200 feet above the level of the lake. The harbor or 
bay is a beautiful sheet of water, about five miles long and one mile in 
width. It is separated from the lake by a long, narrow strip of land, except 
at its entrance. It is capable of accommodating the largest vessels that 




THE KKIHAI, VEIL KALES IN lliE LAKE Ml'SKOKA KECION, 
KNOWN AS THE "HIGHLANDS OK ONTARIO." 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 



1069 



navigate the lakes and is defended at the entrance by a fort, mounted with 
the most ef^cient modern ordnance. 

Toronto has much the appearance of an EngHsh town, and is distinguished 
for the number and beauty of its churches, many of which are surmounted 
by handsome spires. The principal are St. James' Cathedral (Anglican), a 
noble edifice in early English, erected in 1852; St. Michael's Cathedral 
(Roman Catholic); Knox's Church and St. Andrew's (Presbyterian); the 
Metropolitan (Methodist); and the Unitarian Chapel. Toronto is the foun- 
tain-head of the Canada school system, and its educational institutions are 
numerous and well-appointed. The University, charmingly situated in the 




TORONTO UNIVERSITY. 



well-wooded Queen's Park, was inaugurated in 1843. Trinity College and 
the Upper Canada College have numerous students. Knox's College, re- 
cently built, is the Presbyterian theological hall. The University Park, with 
its beautiful monument to the volunteers who fell at Ridgeway, and the 
Horticultural Gardens, are frequented by all classes of the community. 
There are also the Normal and Model schools, in the first of which teachers 
exclusively are trained. Attached to the University is the Observatory. 
There are many benevolent institutions and handsome official buildings. It 
is the seat of the Supreme Courts of the Province, and contains the Legisla- 
tive buildings, the Government house, the Custom-house, and the Post-office. 
There are two large theatres in Toronto. During open navigation magnifi- 



I070 THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

cent steamers ply in all directions on the lake. The exports are manufact- 
ured lumber, flour, wheat, and other grain. 

The name Toronto is supposed to be of Indian origin. The town was 
founded in 1794 by Governor Simcoe. It was incorporated in 1834, was 
burned by the Americans in 18 13, and suffered severely in the insurrection 
of 1837, on which occasion it was the headquarters of the rebellion, as also 
from fire in 1849. Population in 1870, 56,000; 1886, 80,000; 1889, 166,809. 



CITY OF HAMILTON. 




AMILTON is a city in the Province of Ontario. It is situated on 
Hamilton Bay, formerly Burlington Bay, at the west end of Lake 
Ontario, and is 38 miles from Toronto, 378 miles from Montreal, 
and 43 miles from Niagara Falls. It is an important railroad centre; the 
Hamilton & Port Dover, the Great Western, and the Hamilton & Toronto 
roads radiate from this point; while it has by the great lakes and rivers water 
communication from Chicago, Duluth, and Fort William at the West to the 
Atlantic. It is situated in the midst of the finest agricultural district. In 
1840 the population was 3,000; six years later the population was nearly 
7,000, and a city charter was obtained. This rapid increase was due to the 
railroads and the grain district in which it is situated. Its manufacturing 
establishments are extensive, and comprise steam-engine and locomotive 
works, large iron works, car works, foundries, and clothing, and sewing- 
machine factories. The last census of Canada, taken in 1881, showed that 
the capital invested was nearly one thirty-fourth of the whole capital in- 
vested in manufacturing industries throughout the Dominion. 

The city has 33 churches, seven banks, and a large insurance company; a 
Young Men's Christian Association, and a fine public-school system, with 
5,000 pupils and lOO teachers; the Collegiate Institute and Training College 
has 600 students, with 15 masters and teachers. There are also five separate 
Catholic schools in Hamilton, and a Methodist College for young women; 
numerous charitable institutions, the Hamilton Association for investigating 
natural history, botany, etc., and private institutions for commercial and 
business training. Population in 1889, 43,250. 



CITY OF KINGSTON. 




INGSTON is a city in the Province of Ontario. It is situated on 
the northeast shore of Lake Ontario, where the waters of the 
Canadian lakes issue into the St. Lawrence, and is distant from 
Montreal 198 miles, from Toronto 165 miles, and from New York 274 miles. 
It was the site of a French fort from 1673 till 1758; began to be settled by 
the British about 1783; was laid out in 1793; and was incorporated as a town 
in 1838, and as a city in 1846. On the union of the two Canadas, in 1840, 








KINGSTON FROM FORT WILLIAM HFNRY. 



the seat of government was established at Kingston, but was removed again 
in 1845. The harbor of Kingston affords a most imposing and effective pict- 
ure. In the midst of the scene a storm-washed martello tower rises from 
the water, and beyond it is a granite battlement, upon the mainland behind 
which rises the shapely form of the City Hall. The public buildings of 
Kingston are all excellent examples of architecture. Across the channel is 
Wolfe Island, which is connected with the city by a ferry. Upon a prominent 
hill to the right is the large defensive work known as Fort William Henry, 
and near it the Military college, which is the West Point of Canada. There 
is a decided military air to Kingston, due to this fact. The Thousand Islands 



I072 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

begin about Kingston, continue for some 50 miles down the river, and steam- 
boats run daily from the city to the popular summer resorts among them. 

The ship-building of Kingston is second in Canada only to that of Quebec. 
The Canadian Engine & Machinery company manufactures railway rolling- 
stock on the most approved principles. Besides it there are several large 
foundries for the manufacture of engines and locomotives, of agricultural 
implements, edge-tools, axles, and nails. There are also large tanneries and 
breweries. Beside its outlets by water, Kingston communicates with all 
parts of the country by the Grand Trunk Railway, which passes within two 
miles of the city, and connects by a branch with the wharves; and by the 
Kingston and Pembroke Railway, which connects with the Canada Pacific. 
The shops and offices of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway are in Kings- 
ton. Next to Quebec and Halifax, Kingston is the most important military 
position in British America. Queen's University and College at Kingston is 
one of the most popular and progressive of the great educational institutions 
of Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter in 1841, for the education 
of a Presbyterian ministry, and has since instituted the additional faculties of 
law and medicine. There are also a Catholic institution called Regiopolis 
College, the County grammar school, and the common schools, besides sev- 
eral private academies. The provincial penitentiary and the asylum for the 
insane, and local hospitals and homes for the poor are situated in the city. 
In 1862 Kingston became the seat of the new English bishopric of Ontario. 
Many beautiful homes adorn the suburban avenues. Population in 1871, 
12,407; 1 886, 20,000; 1889, 23,175. 




CITY OF LONDON. 

ONDON is the chief city of the county cf Middlesex, Ontario. It 
is situated at the junction of the two branches of the Thames 
River, about 114 miles west-southwest from Toronto, with which 
it is connected by the Great Western Railway. The site of the city began 
to be cleared and laid out in 1825; in 1852 the population was 7,124. When 
the city was called London, the river, which had formerly been known by an 
Indian name, received that which it now bears; a Westminster and a Black- 
friars bridge were thrown over it ; and the names given to the principal 
streets and localities still seem to indicate a desire to make it a reproduction, 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 



1073 



as far as possible, of the capital of England, It has an outlet by railway to 
every part of the American continent. The centre of a rich agricultural dis- 
trict, London carries on a large trade in the produce of the country, while 
there are also many foundries, tanneries, breweries, printing-of^ces, and, out- 




LONDON, ONTARIO. 

side the city, large petroleum refineries. Huron College, Hellmuth College, 
and Hellmuth Ladies' College are the principal educational institutions. 
Population in 1889, 35,000. 




PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. 

UEBEC, the oldest province in the Dominion, is situated between lati- 
tude 45° and 53° 30' north, and longitude 57° 8' and 79° 30' west, 
and was formerly known as Lower Canada. The census of 1881 
gave it an area of 210,000 square miles and a population of 1,359,027. Of the 
total land area, 12,625,877 acres were occupied, 6,410,264 improved, 4,147,- 
984 under crops, 2,207,422 in pasture, and 54,858 in orchards and gardens. 

That part of the province lying north of the St. Lawrence is rocky and 
mountainous, while the southern part is mostly hilly. It has a gulf coast of 
1,164 miles, which is indented with numerous small bays, and a number of 
islands lying in those waters belong to it. The country is dotted with many 



I074 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

beautiful lakes, and watered mainly by the St, Maurice, Saguenay, Gatuinea, 
and the Richelieu rivers. Like Ontario, the province possesses considerable 
undeveloped mineral wealth, which embraces large veins of iron and copper 
and smaller ones of gold, silver, lead, platinum, and zinc. The climate, 
though subject to extreme variations of temperature, is generally healthy. 
It is much colder in winter and warmer in summer than in Ontario, the ther- 
mometer at Montreal frequently going as low as 30° below zero in winter and 
as high as 90° in the shade in summer. The soil in the valley of the St. 
•Lawrence and the eastern part of the province is fertile, and there are large 
tracts of fine grazing country; but the greater part of the surface is covered 
with forests which supply vast quantities of timber for the lumber and ship- 
building industries. The chief woods are pine, ash, beech, birch, elm, and 
hickory. Some wild animals still frequent the forests in spite of the many 
lumber-camps, and the fur-bearing ones. are sufificiently numerous to supply 
a trade worth nearly $200,000 annually. Manufacturing is chiefly confined 
to simple articles of domestic use. 

Outside the large cities the population is mainly engaged in farming, 
dairying, fishing, lumbering, and maple-sugar boiling. In 1881 the agricult- 
ural products were: wheat, 2,019,004 bushels; oats, 19,990,205; barley, i,- 
75i»539; peas and beans, 4, 170,456; potatoes, 14,873,287; turnips, 1,572,476; 
buckwheat, 2,041,670; corn, 888,169; tobacco, 2,356,581 pounds; hops, 208,- 
542; and hay, 1,612,104 tons. The dairy products included 30,630,397 pounds 
of butter and 559,278 of cheese; there were 273,852 horses on the farms, 49,- 
237 oxen, 900,096 milch cows and other cattle, 889,833 sheep, and 329,199 
.swine; and the farmers raised 2,730,544 pounds of wool and 865,340 of flax 
and hemp. The fisheries of the province, more extensive than those of 
Ontario, employed 14,744 men, 146 vessels, and 6,761 boats, and yielded a 
product of 462,388 quintals of cod, 130,354 barrels of herring, 10,725 of 
mackerel, 4,360 of sardines, 517,734 pounds of canned lobster, 101,861 barrels 
of other fish, and 263,374 barrels of fish oil. The lumbering industry gave 
returns of 5,495,183 cubic feet of pine, 59,587 of oak, 2,707,745 of tamarack, 
2,784,395 of birch and maple, and 14,612,669 of other timber. From the 
total 13,582,407 logs and 104,248 masts and spars were cut. Other products 
of note were 15,687,835 pounds of maple-sugar, 559,024 of honey, 777,557 
bushels of apples, and 158,031 pounds of grapes. 

The executive authority is vested in a Lieutenant-Governor, who is aided 
by an executive council and a premier and commissioner of public works, a 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1075 

solicitor-general, a commissioner of crown lands, and a provincial secretary; 
the legislative in a council consisting of twenty-four members appointed by 
the Lieutenant-Governor for life, and an assembly composed of one repre- 
sentative from each of the sixty-five electoral districts chosen for four years; 
and the judicial in a court of queen's bench and a superior court, each hav- 
ing a chief justice and the former four puisne judges. The province has 
twenty-four representatives in the Senate branch of the Dominion parlia- 
ment. The principal cities are Quebec, the capital of the province and the 
great seaport of the Dominion, and Montreal, the commercial metropolis of 
both province and Dominion, situated at the junction of the Ottawa and St. 
Lawrence rivers. The province has a well-regulated and effective school 
system, under control of a superintendent of education. The school popula- 
tion in 1 88 1 was 209,623 ; number of elementary public schools, 4,404, with 
170,858 pupils; colleges, forty-four ; academies, 246; special schools, eighteen; 
normal, three; and model, 333. The prevailing form of religion was tha 
Roman Catholic, which had 712 churches and 1,170,718 adherents. The 
Presbyterians were second in number, 184,706. The total number of churches 
was 1,280. The Church of England had a bishop at Montreal, ranking as 
Metropolitan of Canada, and another at Quebec; the Roman Catholic Church 
had an archbishop at Quebec, and bishops at Montreal, Ottawa, Three Rivers, 
St. Hyacinthe, and Rimouski ; the Presbyterian Church of Canada is a 
branch of the Kirk of Scotland, and the Canadian Presbyterian Church is an 
independent body. The charitable institutions included twenty-nine hospitals 
and eleven orphanages. The province had 1,911 miles of railroad in operation. 




CITY OF QUEBEC 

UEBEC is a fine commercial city in the Province of Quebec, and is 
considered the most important military position in British North 
America. It is situated at the junction of the St. Lawrence and 
St. Charles rivers, on a steep ridge or promontory formed by the rivers. It 
is 180 miles northeast of Montreal, 500 miles northeast of Toronto, 578 miles 
north-northeast from New York, 360 miles from the sea, and 2,070 miles from 
Liverpool. The Grand Trunk Railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and 
the Quebec Central Railway, connect it with the systems of railroads in 
Canada and the United States. 



1076 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 



In 1534, under the patronage and direction of Francis I. of France, the 
navigator, Jacques Cartier, started from St. Malo with three ships upon an 
exploring voyage, entered the river St. Lawrence upon the festival day of 
the saint of that name, and upon the 14th of September reached the bold 
promontory where the citadel stands, under the shadow of which he found 
the Indian village of Stadacona, a name popular with the people to this day. 
Nearly a century later, in the year 1608, Samuel de Champlain appeared 

upon the scene, and Quebec 
had its real beginning. 
Champlain also found and 
named the Richelieu River, 
after Cardinal Richelieu, the 
founder of the trading com- 
pany of " One Hundred As- 
sociates," under whose direc- 
tion he operated. He also 
found the Ottawa and the 
American lake that still 
bears his name. He intro- 
duced the order of the Re- 
collet Friars into Canada, 
and these were followed 
quickly by the more power- 
ful and enterprising Jesuits, 
who toiled with heroic ardor 
among the Indians and set- 
tlers, uniting the clerical of- 
fice with that of the explorer. 
In 1663 the population of Quebec was but 800 souls, and about this time 
Louis XIV., the reigning monarch, assumed control of the colony of New 
France, and the trading company lost its prestige. It continued to be the 
centre of French trade and Roman Catholic missions in North America till 
1759, when it fell into the hands of the British by the memorable victory of 
Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham above the city, — Wolfe, the English com- 
mander, whose character, portrayed so vividly in " The Virginians," has 
charmed the readers of a generation. He came to extend the dominion of 
the British crown. Wolfe and his veteran Highlanders and Grenadiers scaled 




WOLFE S MONUMENT, QUEBEC. 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 



1077 




VIEW FROM THE CITADEL, QUEBEC. 



the precipitous heights, and fought upon the Plains of Abraham against the 
soldiers of Montcahn, and the tourist of to-day sees behind the superb Duf- 
ferin Terrace a unique monument, probably the only such shaft in the v.'orld, 
in joint memory of the two opposing generals 
who fell upon that day. Fifteen years later, 
Arnold, the destined traitor of the Revolution- 
ary cause, coming down the valley of Chaudiere, 
and Montgomery by Lake Champlain, joined in 
the siege of the city. Montgomery was killed 
at the first assault, and Arnold's subsequent 
efforts were abortive. Quebec remained the 
chief city of Canada till the British settlements 
in the west were erected into a separate prov- 
ince, when it became the capital of Canada 
East, now forming the Province of Quebec. 

Quebec is the Gibraltar of America, and its 
picturesque old-world battlements, its imprac- 
ticable streets, its landmarks of history still abundant, and its un-Anglo- 
Saxon ways attract the attention of the tourist. The'walled portion of Que- 
bec is triangular in shape and three miles in 
extent. The wall is pierced by five gateways ; 
three of these communicate with the lower 
town. St. Louis Gate, a beautiful Norman 
structure, leads to the battle-field, while St. 
John's Gate is the outlet to Beauport and St. 
Rochs. The gate by which strangers eater the 
upper town from trains and boats was removed 
some years ago to facilitate travel. The lead- 
ing attractions within the walls are the Ursu- 
line " Convent, the Seminary, the great Laval 
University, the English and French cathedrals, 
and above all, the outlook from the Dufferin 
Terrace. 

The highest point of the city is Cape Dia 
mond, on which is built the citadel, about 350 feet above the water. From 
this point it extends or slopes down to the river St. Charles. The upper and 
lower towns are so named on account of the difference in elevation. Quebec 




U'(JI.EE S COVIC, (ll'EBEC. 



I078 THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

is only second to Montreal in Canada in the importance of its commerce. 
About 600 vessels enter the port annually from the Atlantic Ocean, and as 
many pass in front of the city to go to Montreal. It is one of the great 
lumber and timber markets of North America. The imports amount to $8,- 
000,000, and exports $13,000,000, annually. Ship-building is conducted on 
an extensive scale. The chief industries are the boot and shoe and the 
leather manufactures. It has lines of steamers connecting with Liverpool, 
Glasgow, and London, and numerous lines with the gulf, coast, and river 
towns. The view from the citadel of Quebec is one of the most magnificent 
in the world, and the scenery in its neighborhood, amidst which are the 
Falls of Montmorenci, adds greatly to the attractions of the city. It con- 
tains a seminary for the education of Catholic clergy, established in 1636. 
Quebec is the seat of a Catholic archbishop, who is (1889) Cardinal Tasche- 
reau, and an Episcopal bishop. The Church of Scotland and other denomi- 
nations are also represented. Population in 1871, 59,699; 1886, 75,000; 1889, 
78,500. 




CITY OF MONTREAL. 

ONTREAL is the great commercial metropolis of Canada, and the 
largest city of British North America. It is in the Province of 
Quebec, situated on the Island of Montreal. This island is formed 
by the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, and is separated from the mainland 
by the Back River, or, as the French prefer to call it, the Riviere des Prairies; 
it is 180 miles southwest of Quebec and 200 miles northeast of Lake Ontario, 
406 miles north of New York, and 310 miles northeast of Toronto, 3,200 from 
Liverpool, and 600 miles from the mouth of the St. Lawrence. . Situated at 
the head of the ocean navigation of the St. Lawrence, Montreal has naturally 
become the depot for the exports and imports of all the Canadas. Its harbor 
admits vessels of 3,500 tons, and is 3 miles in extent. It is lined with wharves 
for a mile and a quarter, and is, from its inland position (90 miles above the 
influence of the tides), perfectly safe. At the same time, the obstruction to 
vessels sailing further up the river, caused by the rapids, has been sur- 
mounted by magnificent canals. It is in immediate connection with the vast 
lumber country adjoining the former river and its tributaries. While naviga- 
tion is open, an extensive daily traffic is carried on by steamers and sailing 



lil^! iiiii'ifiiiliiil 
fi 'ii|i|ii')iPij-'' 







THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 1081 

vessels of every dscription with Lake Ontario and the Ottawa district, as well 
as with the lower St. Lawrence; and the ships of several ocean steamship 
companies keep up a weekly communication with Liverpool, while at the 
same time the harbor is constantly crowded with vessels from other foreign 
ports. 

After the navigation of the St. Lawrence is closed (December to April), 
the ocean steamers find a harbor at Portland, Maine, which is connected with 
Montreal by a railway of 292 miles. This line belongs to the Grand Trunk 
Railway Company, and crosses the St. Lawrence at Montreal by the cele- 
brated tubular Victoria Bridge, the length of which, including its two abut- 
ments and 24 piers, is above a mile and three-quarters. By the lines of the 
same company, Montreal has railway communication with Upper Canada, 
the Western States, and Lower Canada, while the Intercolonial Railway 
opens up communication with Halifax and St. John. Several other lines, 
including the Canadian Pacific, afTord communication with various parts of 
Canada and the United States. The position, therefore, of Montreal as a 
centre of commerce is perhaps unequalled, and its rapid advance in conse- 
quence has placed it, within the last few years, among the first commercial 
cities of the American continent. 

The most conspicuous building in Montreal, which is also one of the finest 
churches on the continent of America, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral. 
Built in the Gothic style of the thirteenth century, it comprises seven chapels 
and nine aisles. Its bells are famous, one of them being ranked among the 
five largest in the world. It accommodates 10,000 people. It has numerous 
turrets and two imposing towers on the main front which are 250 feet in 
height; and its chief window is 64 feet high and 32 broad. There are several 
other Roman Catholic churches belonging to the order of St. Sulpice, to 
whose members chiefly Montreal owes its foundation, and who still hold the 
seigniory of portions of the island on which the city is built. Adjoining the 
cathedral is the Seminary of St. Sulpice, to which a large addition has been 
built recently at a cost of $40,000. The city contains also some of the largest 
convents in the world. The general wealth, indeed, of the Roman Catholic 
Church in Montreal has grown enormous, in consequence of the increased 
value of the propetry given to it during the early settlements. The church 
of England has a Cathedral erected at an expense of above $100,000, which 
is very chaste in style. St. Andrew's Church, the most important belonging 
to the Church of Scotland, is also a very chaste specimen of Gothic archi- 



I082 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA; 



tecture, and cost about $50,000. At about the same cost the Methodists 
have built a handsome church in the florid Gothic style. Besides the Roman 
Catholic College on Sherbrooke Street, St. Mary's College of the Jesuits, 
and a Baptist College, Montreal possesses an important university under the 
name of McGill College: founded by a bequest of the Hon. James McGill in 
181 1, erected into a university by royal charter in 1821, and reorganized by 
an amended charter in 1852. It ranks as one of the leading educational in- 
stitutions of the Dominion. Its fine buildings and extensive grounds are 
located in the upper portion of the city. 

Montreal is supplied with water by magnificent works, which cost about 
$6,000,000. The water is brought from the St. Lawrence, above the Lachine 

Rapids, by an aqueduct five miles 
lone. The eastern suburb of Men- 
treal, now incorporated as one of the 
wards of the city, called Hochelaga, 
was originally the site of an Indian 
village of the same name, discovered in 
September, 1535, by Jacques Cartier; 
and it is from his admiring exclama- 
tion at the view obtained from the 
neighboring hill that Montreal (cor- 
rupted from Mont Royal) derives its 
name. The most westerly permanent 
settlement which the French obtained 
in Canada, it was, under them, merely 
an outpost of Quebec, and continued to be such, under British rule, till 1832, 
when it became a separate port. Since then, the rapidity of its progress has 
been marvellous. The annual imports are about $100,000,000, and the exports 
$90,000,000; the latter consist of flour, lumber, grain, furs, fish, oil, etc. The 
principc^l manufacturing industries consist of flour, type foundries, woolen 
and cotton goods, steam-engines, various kinds of iron-ware, tools, cordage, 
rubber goods, paper, furniture, etc. The stranger who wanders along the 
business streets, if observant, will note the air of solidity imparted to the- 
structures. They are largely built of stone, and look as though they might 
endure for ages. 

Montreal has its French quarter, as well defined as that of New Orleans, 
and its English quarter. The active centre of the French population surges 




VICTORIA BRIDGE, CROSSING THE ST. LAWRENCE 
RIVER AT MONTREAL. 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1083 

around Bonsecours Market, a huge and stately building fronting upon the 
river, and up through Jacques Cartier square. Upon Notre Dame street, at 
Jacques Cartier square, stands the Nelson monument. The splendid man- 
sions on Sherbrooke street are chiefly occupied by English and Scotch mer- 
chants. Along the side of the " Mountain " there are magnificent mansions 
which command a grand view of the surrounding country. 

The " Bonaventure " is a " union " depot, and from thence arrive and de- 
part Grand Trunk trains, the Central Vermont, Southeastern, and other lines. 
The North Shore line has its depot (Quebec route) at the other end of the 
city, fronting on Notre Dame street. Montreal is a festive city ; is very 
proud of its battalions of volunteers, and takes keen delight in the achieve- 
ments of its lacrosse and snow-shoe clubs. The mid-winter carnival is now 
a fixed institution ; and it is really a fact, that to see the city under its most 
favorable conditions, one must visit it in January or February. 

The great Allan line of steamships gives dignity to the water-front views, 
and the vessels of half a dozen lesser lines are clustered along the wharves. 
In 1840 the population of Montreal was 27,000; in 1850, 53,000; in i860, 88,- 
000; 1870, 105,000; 1880, 125,000: 1886, 160,000; 1889, 189,215. 



toK) 



PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA. 

OVA SCOTIA, the former colony of New Scotland, and more re- 
motely known as Acadia, or New France, combined with Cape 
Breton Island, is situated between latitude 43° 26' and 47° 5' north, 
and longitude 59° 40' and 66° 25' w^est. It was ceded by the French to Eng- 
land in 1 7 14 at the peace of Utrecht, and after the peace of Aix-la-Chaj>elIe 
in 1748 a settlement of disbanded troops was formed there by Lord Halifax, 
whose name was subsequently given to the capital of the province. The 
original colony had an area of 15,677 square miles, but the incorporation of 
Cape Breton Island with it gave it a total of 20,907. 

It is connected with the province of New Brunswick by an isthmus thir- 
teen miles wide, has a coast line of 1,200 miles, and varies in width from fifty 
to 120 miles. In the interior the surface is undulating and the soil generally 
fertile; on the coast it is very rugged. About 3,000 square miles of the sur- 
face are under water. In every part the lakes and rivers are numerous, leav- 
ing few places far from convenient water-carriage, or without eligible sites 



io84 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

for flour and saw mills. The shore is lined with numberless inlets, within 
which small craft sail in smooth water while there is the heaviest sea outside. 
The chief inlets are Sheet Harbor, eastward from Halifax, and, westward 
from it, Margaret's Bay, Mahone Bay, and Shelburne Harbor, all of them 
deep and spacious basins. Halifax Harbor is one of the finest roadsteads in 
the world, and is the principal British naval station of North America. 

The geological formations are granite, gneiss, mica-slate, and metamor- 
phic rock. The trap regions contain gems and neolites; the sandstone, beds 
of gypsum and rock salt; the coal-measures valuable fields of coal, particu- 
larly in the Cumberland and Pictou fields; iron ore occurs in large quantities 
in connection with coal ; specular iron ore is found south of the Cobequid 
Hills; copper-ore exists in several places, particularly at Cape d'Or; lead ore 
is frequent in the limestone at Guy's River; excellent mill and grindstones are 
found near Cape Canso and elsewhere; the finest freestone for building pur- 
poses abounds along the northern shore; valuable slate is taken from the 
central region ; and salt-springs of great strength are numerous between the 
Basin of Mines and Northumberland Strait. The climate is healthy, bracing, 
and considerably modified by the nearly insular position of the province. 
The winter season varies in length and severity, but the influence of the Gulf 
Stream renders the harbors on the Atlantic coast accessible all the year 
round, while the parts on the northern coast may be frozen up a period of 
four months. At no time is the cold oppressive, nor is the heat of summer, 
except for occasional brief periods, excessive. 

The census of i88i gave the entire province a population of 440,572, com- 
posed chiefly of English, Scotch, and Irish. The main occupations are farm- 
ing and fishing. A considerable trade is done in ship-building and distilling. 
The manufactures include cloths, flannels, bed linen, blankets, carpets, paper, 
tobacco, leather, agricultural implements, stoves, rope, and chain cables. The 
exports, which in 1881 amounted to $9,217,295, embraced timber of all sorts, 
plank, deal, spars, staves, cord-wood, fish, dry and pickled, smoked herring, 
seal-skins, oil, coal, gypsum, grindstones, butter, potatoes, and other vege- 
tables; and the imports, valued at $8,701,589, British manufactures, wines, 
spirits, beef, pork, sugar, and tobacco. The yield of coal in that year was 
1,365,800 tons ; grain products, 5,570,444 bushels; potatoes, 6,961,016 bushels; 
hay, 414,046 tons; and timber of all kinds and forms, 3,144,323 cubic feet. 
The fisheries employed 755 vessels and 13,214 boats; many of them of do- 
mestic build, and 26,900 men, and yielded 715,781 quintals of cod, haddock. 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1085 

and hake, 301,756 barrels of other fish, 3,841,467 pounds of lobster, and 
275,352 gallons of fish oil. 

The executive authority is vested in a Lieutenant-Governor and an ex- 
ecutive council, aided by an attorney-general, a premier and provincial secre- 
tary, and a commissioner of public works and mines; the legislative in a 
legislative council appointed for life and an assembly of forty-three members; 
and the judicial in a court of queen's bench, court of equity, and district 
courts. Halifax is the capital of the province, and Sydney of Cape Breton 
Island. A system of public school education was established in 1826, and 
improved every few years up to 1864, when a plan was adopted that has since 
undergone but slight changes. For several years the annual expenditure for 
educational purposes has averaged $700,000. Grammar, high, and normal 
schools are maintained in each district, and there are a number of high grade 
and collegiate institutions, such as King's College at Windsor, on the plan of 
Cambridge and Oxford, Dalhousie College at Halifax, on the model of Edin- 
burgh University, Acadia College, Roman Catholic, at Halifax, and the Baptist 
College at Harton. The dominant form of religion is that of the Church of 
England, whose bishop and archdeacon are supported by the home govern- 
ment, and the clergy by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The 
Presbyterians rank second, and represent the Established Church of Scotland, 
the Free Church of Scotland, and the United Presbyterian Church of Scot- 
land. The Roman Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, and minor sects follow. 



CITY OF HALIFAX. 




ALIFAX, a seaport, and the capital of the Province of Nova Scotia, 
stands on the southeast or outer coast of the peninsula. The 
harbor is one of the finest in the world. It is entered from the 
south, extends northwards about 16 miles, terminates in a magnificent sheet 
of water called Bedford Basin, is spacious enough for the entire navy of 
England, and offers all the year round easy access and safe anchorage to 
vessels of any magnitude. Lines of steamers ply between Halifax and Lon- 
don, Liverpool, the continent of Europe, New York, Boston, and the West 
Indies. It is the great centre of trade for the maritime provinces of Canada. 
Halifax with its suburbs extends along the slope of a hill, and is over 
three miles in length, and averages about a mile in width. There are many 



io86 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

beautiful residences on the northwest arm which runs from the harbor three 
miles inland. The dock-yard, covering fourteen acres, is one of the most 
extensive of the British Empire. A number of British war-ships are gener- 
ally moored off this dock-yard. The city is now the stronghold of the Im- 
perial army and navy in North America. All the entrances to the harbor 
bristle with batteries armed with the heaviest ordnance, and garrisoned with 
British troops. 

The principal edifices are the Custom-house and Post-ofifice, the Province 
Building, Dalhousie College, Government House, Military and Provincial 
Hospitals, Admiralty House, Lunatic Asylums, schools for blind and deaf 
and dumb, and several fine common schools, penitentiary. Court-house, 
Academy of Music, a new City Hall, etc. There are 25 churches, a Roman 
Catholic cathedral, and residences for an Episcopal' Bishop and a Roman 
Catholic Archbishop. It has three sugar refineries, a cotton factory, several 
boot and shoe factories, and a number of minor industries. There are seven 
banks and a government savings bank. Halifax has railway communication 
with the whole continent. It is the winter port of the Intercolonial and 
Canada Pacific Railways. It enjoys unrivalled shipping facilities and has a 
grain elevator. The parks and public gardens are famed for their beauties. 
Population, 1889, 46,780. 



PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 

EW BRUNSWICK formed a part of Nova Scotia when known 
as Acadia, was first colonized in 1692, ceded to England in 171 3, 
settled by Scotch immigrants in 1764, and separated from Nova 
Scotia and given its present name in 1785. It is situated between latitude 
44° 35' and 48° 5'north and longitude 63°47' and 69° 5' west, and bounded 
on the north by the province of Quebec, on the east by the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, on the south by the Bay of Fundy, and on the west by the State of 
Maine. The census of 1881 gave it an area of 27,174 square miles, and a 
population of 321,233. 

The province is divided naturally into three regions. The northern is 
very hilly and even mountainous, with a table-land 2,000 feet above sea level, 
and numerous lakes. The central is divided from the northern by a line run- 
ning from Presque Isle, on the St. John River on the west, to the mouth of the 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1087 

Little Nipisighet River in the Bay of Chaleurs. The shores of this region 
are low ; nearly all the rivers have sand bars at their mouths ; there are but 
few good harbors; timber-covered hills are numerous; and the eastern por- 
tion is quite level and the most fertile part of the province. The southern 
region comprehends the country along the Bay of Fundy, and from forty to 
fifty miles inland. In the western section is the greater part of Passama- 
quoddy Bay, an extensive sheet of water, branching out into several inlets, 
and forming harbors for vessels of considerable size. 

The bay is well known to tourists and sportsmen of the United States. 
It contains several islands, the largest of which are Campobello, ten miles 
long and two wide, and Deer, nearly seven miles long and three wide in its 
broadest part; while just below its entrance into the Bay of Fundy lies the 
noted Grand Manan, fourteen miles long and six or seven wide. East of St. 
John River the surface is rocky and sterile, but the region has several fine 
valleys, in which the rivers flow, miostly to the St. John, and in which there 
are several lakes of considerable extent. The principal rivers are the St. 
Croix, which separates the province from the State of Maine; the St. John, 
which has a flow of 400 miles; the Miramichi, 100 miles long and navigable 
for forty; the Nipisighet, nearly 100 miles long, with many falls and rapids; 
and the Ristigouche, which forms the northern boundary of the province. 

The natural resources of the province are red marl, gypsum, copper, 
plumbago, manganese, anthracite and bituminous coal, salt, sulphur, and 
amethyst, carnelian, and jasper. The climate is remarkably healthy, and the 
heat greater and cold more intense than under the same latitudes in Europe. 
Nearly the whole surface of the province is covered with forests, in which 
pine, fir, spruce, hemlock, birch, beech, maple, ash, and poplar abound. The 
chief agricultural products are wheat, rye, oats, barley, beans, peas, and buck- 
wheat. Flax, potatoes, turnips, red and white clover, and some small fruits, 
like apples, plums, and cherries are likewise cultilvated. Numerous wild 
animals roam the forests, tempting the skill of the hunter and trapper, and 
the rivers, lakes, and bays abound with salmon, trout, eels, perch, cod, mack- 
eral, and herring. In 1881 there were 849,678 acres in crops, and 392,169 in 
pasture. The grain products amounted to 5,490,896 bushels, potatoes, 6,961,- 
016 bushels, hay, 414,046 tons, wool, 760,531 pounds; and the farms contained 
52,975 horses, 8,812 oxen, 203,748 milch cows and other cattle, 221,163 sheep, 
and 53,087 swine. 

The government of this province is vested similarly to that of the other 



io88 THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

provinces. No legal preference is shown to any form of religion, but the 
bishop of the Church of England takes precedence after the Lieutenant- 
Governor and the commander of the British forces on ceremonial occasions. 
A system of free public schools was established in 1871, and all the large 
religious denominations have high grade schools or colleges of a sectarian 
character. The principal cities and towns are: Frederickton, the capital, St 
John, the largest and most important city, St. Andrews, Woodstock, New- 
castle, Bathhurst, and Dalhousie. In 1881 the province was well equipped 
with telegraphic and railroad facilities, and had 1,148 miles of the latter in 
operation. 




CITY OF FREDERICTON. 

REDERICTON, the capital city of the Province of New Brunswick, 
is situated on the right bank of St. John River, between eighty-four 
and eighty-five miles from its mouth and in latitude 45° 55' north, 
and longitude 6&^ 32' west. It was originally built on a flat, bounded on two 
sides by the stream, but has since been considerably improved. The streets 
are laid out with much regularity, and though the greater portion of the 
buildings are of wood, of tasteful style and ornamentation, there are numerous 
structures of more substantial material. The public buildings of note are the 
government house, of stone, the provincial house, of wood, city hall, military 
barracks, court-house, exhibition building, custom-house, and jail. The edu- 
cational institutions embrace King's College, a Baptist college, a collegiate 
school, a number of admirable model and training schools, and several libra- 
ries. Among the ecclesiastical buildings are Christ Church Cathedral, belong- 
ing to the Anglican or Church of England, and eight other churches. 

The city is supplied with gas and good water, enjoys a considerable 
amount of trade from being a port of entry; but has not had such a rapid 
growth as St. John, or St. Andrew, the former being the principal business 
town of the province. Fredericton was founded by Sir Guy Carleton in 1786, 
shortly after New Brunswick became a province, and was first known as St. 
Anns. It was designated a port of entry in 1848, and incorporated as a town 
in the following year. Its population has been almost stationary, notwith- 
standing the fact that vessels of fifty tons burden can ascend the St. John 
River to it. The census of 1871 gave it 6,006 inhabitants, and that of 1881, 
6,218. 



CITY OF ST. JOHN. 

T. JOHN, the capital of St. John County, is the commercial metrop- 
olis and largest city of the Province of New Brunswick. It is 
situated at the mouth of the river of its own name, 190 miles 
northwest of Halifax. The harbor, which is protected by batteries, is good, 
and accessible to the largest vessels at all seasons of the year. The entrance 
of the river into the harbor is through a rocky gorge, about a mile above the 





ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK. 

city, spanned by a fine suspension bridge, 640 feet long and 90 feet above the 
water; also by a cantilever railway bridge completed since 1885, by which a 
direct line of travel is established, as formerly all passengers and baggage had 
to be transferred from the Intercolonial Railway to the New Brunswick Rail- 
road by ferry. The streets are wide, and meet at right angles. Some of 
them are cut 30 or 40 feet deep through solid rock, the city being built on a 
rocky peninsula, slanting down to the water. Since the great fire of June, 
1877, which destroyed the greater part of the town and caused a loss of about 



logo THE DOM I x\ ION OF CANADA: 

$12,000,000, the buildings have been constructed chiefly of brick or stone. 
The principal public buildings are the Court-house, the Insane Asylum, Post- 
ofince, City Hospital, City Hall, Opera-house, Academy of Music, Roman 
Catholic Cathedral, the barracks, the mechanics' "institute, and the peniten- 
tiary. The city has a fire department, a police force, a system of water-works, 
gas, horse-cars, a fire-alarm telegraph, about 40 churches, several schools, 
banks, academies, orphan asylums, newspapers, good hotels, a natural history 
socioty, a historical society, etc. 

The city is governed by a mayor, and eighteen aldermen. It is connected 
Avith the Iscw England states by the New Brunswick Railroad, and with 
Nova Scotia by the Intercolonial Railroad. The principal industries are ship- 
building, fisheries, and the lumber trade. The manufacture of machinery, 
boots and shoes, cotton and woolen goods, leather, carriages, edge-tools, 
paper, iron castings, steam-engines, etc., is carried on to a considerable 
extent. The exports, which average annually $4,000,000, are principally 
lumber shipped to Europe, the West Indies, and the United States. The 
imports are about $8,000,000 annually. Population, 1889, 28,000; including 
Portland at mouth of St. John's River, 45,000. 



PROVINCE OF MANITOBA. 

ANITOBA was formerly known as Prince Rupert's Land, and 
later as the Red River Settlement, because the first considerable 
settlement was made in the region of what is called in the United 
States the Red River of the North. It is situated between latitude 49° and 
50° 30' north and longitude 96° and 99° west, and is bounded on the north, 
east, and west by the Northwest Territories, and south by the State of Min- 
nesota and the Territory of Dakota. It was formerly a part of the enormous 
possessions of the Hudson Bay Company, who sold it to the Dominion gov- 
ernment in 1869. 

When its first Lieutenant-Governor undertook to exercise his authority 
the colonists deposed him and made a declaration of independence. This act 
led to the invasion of the new province by an expedition composed of regular 
British troops and Canadian militia in the summer of 1870; but a compromise 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. lOQi 

was arranged with the disaffected colonists, and they were given full repre- 
sentation in the parliament. In 1881 it had an area of 123,200 square miles, 
and a population of 65,954, which was increased to 125,000 in 1883. The 
surface is almost entirely a level prairie, bisected by the Red River, which 
empties into Lake Winnipeg, and with the richest wheat soil in the world. 
The valley of the river which has made Dakota and Minnesota famous the 
world over for their great wheat farms, carries its remarkable fertility into 
the province and well up toward its mouth. 

The province is without mineral resources, and wood of any considerable 
growth is exceedingly scarce; it is purely and wholly an agricultural and 
grazing section, and as such the richest in the entire dominion. Its settle- 
ment has been accelerated by the wonderful narratives of the farming wealth 
and possibilities on this side the border. Of the entire domain, 2,384,337 
acres were occupied in 1 881, 230,264 were in crops, and 250,416 were im- 
proved; 16,739 horses were employed on the farms, 12,269 oxen, and 48,012 
milch cows and other cattle; and the products were: wheat, 1,033,673 
bushels; oats, 1,270,268; barley, 253,604; butter, 957,152 pounds, and cheese, 
19,613. Wild game, fowl, and fish abound: wild fruits are plentiful; elk, 
badgers, and squirrels are the only wild animals of note. The climate is 
healthy, but subject to extreme changes, the severity of which is considerably 
modified by the pure, dry atmosphere. 

The government is administered by a Lieutenant-Governor, aided by an 
executive council of five members, and a legislative assembly of twenty-four. 
There were 88 churches in 1881, and the population was divided denomina- 
tionally as follows : Presbyterians, 14,292 ; adherents of the Church of Eng- 
land, whose head, the Lord Bishop of Rupert's Land, had his seat at Winni- 
peg, 12,297; Roman Catholics, who had an archbishop at St. Boniface, 12,246; 
Methodists, 9,470; Baptists, 9,449; the remainder were of minor sects or of 
no acknowledged creed. There were four colleges and five boarding schools; 
and the newly established system of public education had several elementary 
institutions in operation. A great hinderance to the development of the prov- 
ince for several years was the lack of adequate means of communication ; but 
this drawback was materially relieved by the extension through it of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, which had 670 miles of road in operation within its 
limits in 1881. And even with this great iron artery leading directly to its 
choicest sections, many immigrants thereto have since found it advantageous 
in cost or speed to seek their destination through the United States. 




CITY OF WINNIPEG. 

INNIPEG, the capital city of the Province of Manitoba, is situated 
on the west bank of the Red River of the North at the mouth of 
the Assinniboin, thirty miles southeast of the headwaters of Lake 
Manitoba, forty miles south of Lake Winnipeg, and sixty-seven miles north 
of St. Vincent, on the boundary line of the United States and British posses- 
sions. 

The rapidity of its growth is equalled only by that of some of the Colo- 
rado mining cities, and is a standing marvel in British eyes. This growth is 
due to two causes: the extreme fertility of its location, and the extension 
through it of the great Canadian Pacific Railroad. The site now occupied by 
the city will be more readily recalled by the elder generation by its former 
name. Fort Garry, and the fact that from its establishment in 1820 till the 
purchase of the section by the Dominion government, it was the chief trading 
station of the powerful Hudson Bay Company. Its name was derived from 
the fort, erected as a protection against Indian incursions, curious remains of 
which are still preserved. It has a warm but not oppressive climate in sum- 
mer, which, while it lasts, provides beautiful clear skies and bracing air. 
Vegetation is luxuriant in the rich, loamy soil, and its growth surprisingly 
rapid. The winters are severe, but the atmosphere is dry, clear, and invigor- 
ating. 

In 1868 Winnipeg was virtually a wilderness. Two years later it had a 
permanent settlement of 215 persons. From that time it gained in popula- 
tion from 500 to 1,000 per annum, till 1881, when it had 14,700 inhabitants, 
street extensions of over 100 miles, nearly 3,000 dwelling-houses, and a prop- 
erty valuation of $6,585,067. Formerly the Hudson Bay Company enjoyed a 
monopoly of the fur trade; then it was scattered among the wholesale houses 
that had grown up under its shadow. In 1882 new buildings to the value of 
$6,000,000 were erected. In 1886, fifteen years after it was made the capital 
city of the new province, it had four grist mills, which yielded a product of 
flour with a market value of $1,062,500, and 129 manufacturing establishments, 
employing a capital of $2,050,766, and turning out products worth $3,229,724. 

The joint cause of religion and education kept pace with the material 
prosperity of the city; churches of all the denominations common to Canada 



THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 1093 

sprang up and profited by the vigor and enterprise of the citizens; and after 
adequate provision had been made for the elementary educations of the chil- 
dren, efforts were put forth to estabHsh a higher grade system, with the result 
that in 1886 the city possessed St. John's College, under the control of the 
Anglican Church ; Manitoba College, founded by the Presbyterian Church ; 
the College of St. Boniface, established by the Roman Catholic Church on 
the opposite side of the river; the University of Manitoba, and St. Mary's 
Academy. In the five years, 1880-86, the population more than doubled, 
being in the first year 10,000, and in the latter 20,238, or, nearly one-fifth the 
entire population of the province (108,640), according to a special census 
taken July 31, i! 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



HIS province, which was named in honor of Queen Victoria's 
father, lies in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, east of the province of 
New Brunswick, and north of Nova Scotia, is 140 miles long 
and from 4 to 34 broad, and between latitude 45° 58' and 47° 7' north and 
longitude 62° and 64° 27' west. It has an area of 2,131 square miles, and 
had a population in 1881 of 108,891. 

It was discovered by Cabot, June 24, 1497, and included in the territory 
of New France and called St. John's; was granted as a feudal tenure to Sieur 
Doublet, a French naval offlcer, in 1663; was taken by the English in 1745, 
restored to France at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ; retaken by the English 
1758, and at the peace of 1763 confirmed, with Cape Breton, to England; was 
erected into a separate colony 1768; and was given its present name 1798. 
The surface is generally flat, with a soil adapted to agriculture and timber- 
growing. It is destitute of minerals, but has valuable beds of peat and con- 
siderable wealth in timber, which supports a large ship-building interest. 
The climate is salubrious and much milder than that of the adjoining conti- 
nent. Of its 1,365,400 acres, 1,126,653 were occupied in 1881, 596,731 were 
improved, and 467,211 were under cultivation. The various farm animals 
aggregated 328,734. The agricultural products were: grain, 4,301,1 10 bushels, 
potatoes, 6,042,191, turnips, 1,198,407; dairy products: butter, 1,688,690 
pounds, cheese, 196,273; timber, 910,200 cubic feet; fisheries products: cod, 
18,736 quintals, herring, 21,501 barrels, mackerel, 91,792, canned lobster, 
3,275,316 pounds, oysters, 175,408 barrels, and fish oil, 8,139 gallons. 



1094 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

This province is governed in the same manner as the others of the 
Dominion, and is divided into three counties, King's, Queen's, and Prince's, 
each of which has four representatives in the legislative council and ten in the 
assembly. The land tenure has been a source of agitation in the province for 
many years. At the close of the last century the whole island was divided 
into sixty-six lots and distributed among various persons. As late as 1865, 
450,000 acres were held by occupiers in fee simple; 244,779 belonged to the 
government; 669,600 were owned by descendants of the fortunate sixty-six, 
of which 209,702 were held by tenants' under lease; and 459,898 were unset- 
tled. For a number of years the government has made a practice of buying 
up the interests of these proprietors whenever an opportunity was offered, 
and reselling the estates to the tenants on payments extending over several 
years. 

Education is provided for by grants from the public revenue, and in 1863 
the experiment was tried of supplementing the government grant by fees 
from the scholars and appropriations from the difTerent districts, but it failed, 
and since 1867 the teachers' salaries have been wholly paid by the govern- 
ment. In the schools the Bible is read every school day without comment or 
remark, and children whose parents or guardians object to it, are exempted 
from attendance during the reading. The school population numbered 22,- 
711 in 1 88 1, when there were 355 district schools, fifteen grammar schools, 
forty-six high schools, and three colleges, a Roman Catholic, an Anglican, 
and a Wesleyan, all at Charlottetown, the capital. Of the total population 
in that }'ear, 108,891, 47,1 15 were of the Roman Catholic faith, 61,662 were 
Protestants of different denominations, and the remainder were of other 
faiths than the Christian. The total number of churches was 231. There 
were 200 miles of railroad in operation that year. 



CITY OF CHARLOTTETOWN. 

HARLOTTETOWN, the capital city of the Province of Prince 
Edward Island, is situated at the junction of the Hillsborough River 
with the York, on an angular piece of ground which rises gradually 
from the southern coast to the northwest, in latitude 46° 15' north, and longi- 
tude 63° 7' west. The two rivers, together with the Elliott, form the inner 
harbor, which is a well-sheltered basin about three miles wide, whence the 




1 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 109S 

three streams discharge their waters through a single channel about half a 
mile wide into Hillsborough Bay, which is locally known as the outer harbor, 
and is capacious and safe for vessels of any tonnage. 

The town is regularly built, with broad streets intersecting each other at 
right angles. The public buildings include the provincial house, a handsome 
stone edifice with ample accommodations for the legislature, public ofificers, 
and supreme courts of law and chancery, the old court-house, a post-office, 
and an asylum for lunatics and indigent persons. The chief educational in- 
stitutions are Prince of Wales, St. Dunstan, and Methodist Colleges, the two 
former receiving a part of their support from the government, a normal 
school, and a convent. There are nine churches, divided among the Anglican, 
Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and other denominations. 
The city has a valuable export trade in timber, deals, and dried and pickled 
fish, and imports chiefly British and American manufactures, and various 
articles of consumption. Population in 1881, 11,485. 




PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

RITISH COLUMBIA, composed (1889) of the old colony of British 
Columbia and Vancouver's, Queen Charlotte's, and several other 
adjacent islands which were incorporated with it in 1866, is in the 
northwest part of North America, extends from the United States boundary 
line to the Arctic Ocean, has Alaska on the west of its northern extremity, 
and is separated from the rest of the British possessions on the east by the 
Rocky Mountains. Its geographical position is between latitude 48° 19' and 
60° north and longitude 113° and 136° west. The census of 1881 credited 
it with an area of 341,305 square miles, all the islands included, and a popula- 
tion of 49,459, which embraced 25,661 Indians and 4,350 Chinese. 

The mainland is traversed by the Cascade as well as the Rocky Mountains, 
and its surface is generally mountainous, though there are large sections of 
arable land and much that is well adapted to grazing. Within its limits the 
Rocky Mountains present two noted peaks, Mt. Browne which has an eleva- 
tion of 16,000 feet, and Mt. Hooker only 300 feet less. West of the Cascade 
range the country is heavily wooded with dense fir and spruce forests, but 
eastward of it the surface presents an open tract till Caribou, the head of the 
mining region, is reached, and then heavily timbered land alternates with 



1096 THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

fertile prairies. The country is watered by the Columbia and Frazer rivers, 
and at the delta formed by the latter, Burrard's Inlet, and Mud Bay lies an 
agricultural region of the richest soil, which only needs drainage and a good 
sea-wall to reclaim the whole, as was done at Matsqui, where the land is 
under cultivation, and potatoes, turnips, beets, and wheat of phenomenal size 
are raised. Gold and silver mining, coal mining, stock-raising, lumbering, 
and great manufactures offer extensive fields of industry to capital and 
energy. 

The coal supply is of marvelous extent, and beside the great veins which 
underlie Vancouver's Island, an excellent quality of the bituminous grade has 
been laid bare east of the Cascades on the Nicola River and in the vicinity of 
Marble Cafion. Large veins of marble and a great variety of choice building 
stone abound, and likewise the precious minerals. The vast bed of the 
Columbia River is full of gold, and large placer deposits are frequently met 
with along the banks of the Frazer, while there are known to be vast quartz 
veins throughout the province, still undeveloped from lack of capital to work 
them advantageously. 

There is a great abundance of wild game, including several species of 
deer, notably the beautiful caribou, foxes, martins, puma, grizzly, cinnamon, 
big black, and small black bears, wolves, cayotes, pin-tailed and willow grouse, 
ducks, geese, and the finest trout in the world. The supply of salmon is ex- 
tensive and practically inexhaustible, and several companies are carrying on 
large fisheries and canneries on the Naas, Frazer; and Skeener rivers. The 
climate is as mild as that of England, and the air is very dry. Vancouver's 
Island is separated from the mainland by a channel, variously known as 
Queen Charlotte's Sound, Johnston's Strait, and the Gulf of Georgia. The 
greater part of its area is mountain and barren rock; the remainder exhibits 
the forest and prairie characteristics of the mainland. It was supposed to 
form a part of the mainland till 1789. Capt. George Vancouver discovered 
its isolation on his voyage to Nootka Sound, under orders from the British 
government to receive a formal cession of the territory from Spain, in 1792. 
In 1848 it was made over to the Hudson Bay Company on the condition that 
they should colonize it; in 1856 gold was discovered there, and in 1866 it was 
incorporated with British Columbia. Its area is estimated at I3,cx)0 square 
miles. 

In 1881 the land occupied in the province amounted to 441,225 acres, and 
improved 184,885. The grain product was 559,220 bushels, and potatoes 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. 1097 

556>I93- Farm animals numbered 151,202; butter product was 343,387 
pounds, cheese, 33,252; value of fur product $153,442; amount of timber 
product, 2,427,882 cubic feet; number of fisheries, 406; and value of gold 
product, 1871-82, $20,000,000. The province is governed similarly to the 
others. The chief cities are Victoria, the capital, on Vancouver's Island, and 
Westminster, the seat of an Anglican bishop. 



CITY OF VICTORIA. 

ICTORIA, the capital city of the Province of British Columbia, is 
situated at the southern extremity of Vancouver's Island, in lati- 
tude 48° 27' north, and longitude 123° 25' west. The city stretches 
about three-quarters of a mile around the harbor, is lighted by gas, and since 
1864 has been provided with water brought from excellent springs by service 
pipes. The streets are regularly laid out, crossing each other at right angles, 
most of them sixty feet wide, with macadamized roads, and, generally, wooden 
sidewalks. The harbor accommodates vessels drawing sixteen feet of water; 
vessels of deeper draft find ample anchorage in the neighboring and more 
important harbor of Esquimalt, which is on the south coast of the island, 
about forty miles inside the entrance to the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca, 
which separate the island on the south from the mainland. This harbor is 
four miles from Victoria by land and three by water, and connected with it 
by a broad and substantial road. A British naval station and an imperial 
dock-yard have been established at the harbor, and elaborate fortifications 
have been projected for the protection of the capital and the harbor, which 
is large enough to hold all the men-of-war that usually comprise the British 
American-Pacific squadron. 

Victoria contains numerous government buildings both of stone, brick, 
and wood, a theatre, public library and reading room, hospital, police and 
military barracks, breweries, foundries, a tannery, magnificent hotels, and 
many large brick and stone warehouses and stores. The educational and 
religious institutions embrace Church of England, Roman Catholic, Congre-. 
gational, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Jewish churches, with elementary, 
grammar, and higher grade schools under their control. The climate is 
moist, cool, and generally delightful. Large quantities of gold, from the 



1098 THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

Fraser River mines, coal, timber, dried fish, and furs, are annually exported, 
and much of the imports, chiefly manufactured goods, machinery, agricultural 
and household implements, are received by way of Portland, Or., and San 
Francisco. When Vancouver's Island united with British Columbia, Vic- 
toria and New Westminster were rival aspirants for the capital seat, and the 
former was chosen by popular vote at the suggestion of Queen Victoria. 
Population, 1881, 5,925. 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. 



HE largest province in the Dominion comprises the vast region 
stretching north from the provinces already described to the Arc- 
tic Ocean, extends a length of about 2,500 miles, with a breadth of 
1,500, and was estimated in 1881 to have an area of 2,934,000 square miles, and 
a population of only 56,446, mostly Indians. It is larger than the whole of 
Europe, excepting Russia, and the greater part of the whole region is barren 
waste. 

What is called " the fertile belt " stretches 960 miles from east to west, 
with an average breadth of 250 miles, and comprising, therefore, 240,000 
square miles. At least one-fourth of this land has been ascertained to possess 
a very rich and deep soil, capable of growing an abundance of wheat, barley, 
potatoes, and all roots and green crops produced by the English agricultur- 
ist, while it is equally adapted to stock raising. In 1881 the land occupied 
amounted to 314,107 acres, and improved, 28,833. The timber product was 
109,873 cubic feet, and the value of the fur trade $428,177. The region was 
purchased by the Dominion government from the Hudson Bay Company in 
1870. 

In 1875 an act was passed vesting the government in a Lieutenant-gover- 
nor and a council of five, of which the stipendary magistrates should be ex- 
ofTficio members, and in 1882 a portion was divided into four districts, Assin- 
iboia, with 95,000 square miles; Saskatchewan, the "fertile belt," 114,000; 
Alberta, 100,000; and Athabasca, 122,000. The law of 1875 provided that 
as soon as districts of 1,000 square miles should contain a population of 1,000, 
exclusive of aliens and Indians, they were to be constituted electoral districts, 
and return a member to the council. Forty-four churches and a school pop- 
ulation of 578 were reported in 1881. Capital Regina. 



ISLAND OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 

LTHOUGH this island was independent of the Dominion govern- 
ment and constituted a province of Great Britain, in 1888 a move- 
ment was ofificially inaugurated by its authorities to secure a 
politicar union with the Dominion in the summer of that year; and, as at the 
time of writing all indications gave assurance of the consummation of the 
proposed act, the country is here treated as if it were at the time a sister 
province of the Dominion. It is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, at the mouth 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is separated from Labrador by the Straits of 
Belle Isle, and lies between latitude 46° 38' and 51° 37' north, and longitude 
52° 44' and 59° 30' west. It has an extreme length of 370 miles, width 290, 
circumference of about 1,000, and area of 42,000 square miles, and had an 
estimated population of 185,000 in 1885. 

The entire Atlantic coast of Labrador, 1,100 miles in extent, is attached 
to Newfoundland and under its jurisdiction. The island has what is known 
geologically as an " iron-bound " coast, rising frequently in bold, lofty preci- 
pices, vertically, or nearly so from the sea. The outer exterior is mountain- 
ous, but the interior is a vast elevated and undulating plateau, with ranges of 
minor hills alternating with shallow valleys: One range of extremely rugged 
and desolate hills, reaching at many parts an elevation of upward of 2,500 
feet, extends diagonally across the island. 

The coast is deeply indented with large bays and inlets, the most promi- 
nent of which are Placentia Bay, having a width at its mouth of fifty-five 
miles and extending ninety miles inland; Fortune Bay, twenty-five miles 
wide and seventy miles extension; St. George Bay, forty miles wide; Notre 
Dame Bay, fifty miles wide and with arms reaching inland in some places a 
distance of eighty miles ; and Trinity Bay, with inland extension of seventy 
miles. The largest river is the Exploits, which, after a course of 200 miles, 
falls into Exploits and Notre Dame bays, and drains an area of over 3,000 
square miles. Its upper waters, in two minor branches, flow into Red Indian 
Lake, which has an area of sixty-nine square miles, and is 468 feet above the 
sea level. The second river in importance is the Humber, which drains an 
area of 2,000 square miles, and falls into the Bay of Islands. This river ex- 
pands in several places into lakes of considerable size, notably the Grand 



Iioo THE DOMINION OF CANADA: 

Pond, which has a surface area of 192 square miles and includes an island of 
fifty-six square miles. The third river in size is the Gander, which drains 
2,600 square miles, flows through a lake of the same name, possessing a sur- 
face area of forty-four square miles, and falls into Gander Bay. 

Nearly one-third the entire surface of the island is occupied by its lakes, 
which, in general are well stocked with trout. But very little of the soil is 
productive agriculturally. The fisheries always have been and doubtless 
always will be the chief industry of the inhabitants. The known mineral 
wealth embraces gold, silver, copper, lead, marble, limestone, coal, and gyp- 
sum. Of these, the copper deposits are the most industriously and profitably 
worked. The first mine was opened in 1864 at Tilt Cove, on the shore of 
Notre Dame Bay; a second was discovered at Betts Cove, in the same dis- 
trict, in 1875 ; and the third at Little Bay in 1878. The total export of metal 
from these mines up to 1879 amounted in value to $4,629,889. In 1880 gold 
was discovered in quartz veins in the region of Brigus, Conception Bay. Sir 
Alexander Murray, the ofificial geologist, made a thorough examination of 
the locality, and pronounced the indications favorable for systematic mining, 
whereupon New York and Boston capitalists invested nearly $2,000,000 in the 
auriferous fields. The climate is healthy, but variable. Dense fogs prevail 
in the vicinity of the island, which, with violent gales, frequently render the 
coast very dangerous to navigation. 

Newfoundland and its vicinity constitute the greatest cod-fishing region 
of the world. The Grand Banks, which form the greatest submarine island 
on the globe, having a length of from 600 to 700 miles and a width of 200, at 
a depth of from ten to 150 fathoms, seem to have been the original home of 
this fish. The value of the annual catch of this fish alone averages $6,250,000, 
and the exports reach 1,250,000 quintals of 1 12 pounds each. Next to this 
the most important fishery is the seal, of which anywhere from 300,000 to 
550,000 will be taken in a single season, representing an average of $1,026,896 
in market value. The herring fisheries will average $581,543 in value per 
annum, the salmon $114,505, and the lobster $104,000. 

The government is vested in a governor appointed by the British sover- 
eign, an executive council of seven members chosen by the dominant party 
in the legislature, a legislative council of fifteen members holding ofifiice for 
life, and a house of assembly comprising thirty-three members elected for a 
period of four years. There are also the usual judicial officers and courts. 
The right of suffrage is extended to all male subjects over twenty-one years 



HER PROVINCES AND PRINCIPAL CITIES. nor 

of age who have occupied domiciles for two years. PoHtically the island is 
divided into seventeen electoral districts. The public debt amounted to 
$1,351,000 in 1883; the revenue of that year was $1,369,909; the value of im- 
ports, chiefly provisions and manufactures, $6,863,708 ; and of exports, mainly 
fish, $8,200,00. No ofifiicial discrimination is made between the various relig- 
ious denominations; the Roman Catholic has the largest membership, and is 
followed by the Church of England, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, and Congrega- 
tional churches. Education, being fostered by the government, is brought 
within the reach of all classes. It is arranged on the denominational system, 
and the government makes an annual division of about $100,000 among all 
denominations, according to their respective members. Besides many private 
and strictly denominational schools, there were in 1885, 416 public elementary 
schools, with 24,292 pupils, four academies, with 674 students, and two high- 
grade grammar schools. The population was estimated that year at 185,000, 
of whom 30,000 were engaged in fishing and 24,000 more in other branches of 
that industry. The capital is St. John's. 



CITY OF ST. JOHN'S. 

T. JOHN'S is a city and the capital of the Island of Newfoundland, 
situated on the east coast of the island. The city is 2,000 miles 
from Liverpool, 540 from Halifax, and 900 from Quebec. It has 
an excellent harbor, which is well fortified. Being the nearest port in 
America to Galway, Ireland (distance, 1,650 miles), St. John's has acquired 
importance in the commercial and political world in connection with steam 
navigation between the two continents. It has suffered severely from re- 
peated conflagrations; in 1846 it was more than half destroyed. 

At the entrance to the harbor are the Narrows; on the north side of the 
Narrows is a cliff over 300 feet high; back and above it is Signal Hill, 520 
feet above the sea level. On the other side of the Narrows is a hill, 650 feet 
above the sea, on which is a lighthouse. The Narrows will admit only one 
vessel at a time. The latter ridge of hills extends into the interior for miles. 
The city is built of brick, and is well situated on sloping ground on both sides 
of the harbor. Bridges and causeways connect the north and south sides. 
Over 1,200 vessels, having a tonnage of 250,000, enter the harbor annually. 



no: THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 

There are a dry-dock and marine railway. The business portion of the city 
is solid and substantial. It has several banks, 12 churches, a number of con- 
vents, 20 insurance companies, various societies, benevolent organizations, 
academies, colleges, theological institutions, a medical society, an athenaeum, 
two libraries, 13 newspapers, and two fine cathedrals (one each, Roman 
Catholic and Episcopal). Among the public buildings of note are the Gov- 
ernment-house, the residence of the Governor, which cost $250,000, the As- 
sembly building, the Court-house, the Public Hospital, and Market-house. 
The Allan line of European steamers has extensive wharves at this city. 
The manufactures consist chiefly of ship-bread, furniture, boots and shoes, 
iron-ware, and nets. The city has large storehouses, distilleries, tanneries, 
breweries, refineries, block factories, and steam seal-oil works. A large trade 
is done in exporting oil, seal, and cod. Its principal business is connected 
with the fisheries. It receives the large imports of the colony. Population 
in 1874, 25,000; 1889, 42,320. 




AiEXICO; 

The Republic, the Capital and Seaport ; with other Places 
of Interest, Picturesque and Historic. 



EXICO as a country presents a more interesting and fascinating 
study than any other on the American continent. It has ex- 
treme age for the antiquarian ; remains of long extinct dynasties, 
forms of government and peoples for the archaeologist ; a progression through 
incalculable bloodshed from the picturesque empire of the Aztecs to the 
republic, exhibiting in some parts the civilization, culture and spirit of ad- 
vancement of the nineteenth century, and in others much of the turbulence 
of revolutionary days, for the historian and political economist; a volume 
of heroic suffering, persecution, ceremonial grandeur, spoliation, and ulti- 
mate toleration for the ecclesiastic; a grand record of martial daring and 
achievement for the military critic ; all followed by an era of remarkable 
prosperity — a fitting sequel to its centuries of unrest — for the student of 
contemporary progress. In all the multiplicity of historical associations, 
both the country and city possess an enduring interest to all, and especially 
to citizens of the United States, once their masters by the stern arbitrament 
of war, now their friends by close political, social, and material ties. 

THE REPUBLIC. 
Mexico is bounded on the north by the United States, on the east by 
the Gulf of Mexico, on the south by Central America and the Pacific Ocean, 
and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. It has a northern frontier line of 
1,400 miles, a southern of 345, and a seacoast of 6,086; an area of 748,144 
square miles; and a population ofificially computed in 1886 at 10,460,636, 
of which 1,985,117 were white natives, European and American residents, 
3,970,000 pure Indians, and the remainder half-breeds. In 1889 its political 
divisions embraced twenty-seven states, two territories, and one federal 



1104 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 



district. The chief cities with their population were: Mexico, the cap- 
ital, 300,000; Guadalajara, 80,000; Pueblo, 75,000; Guanajuato, 52,000; 
Merida, 40,000; San Louis Potosi, 35,000; Oueretaro and Zacatecas, each 
30,000; Oajaca, 28,000; Colima, 26,251; Saltillo, 26,000; Vera Cruz and 
Morelia, each 24,000; and Aguascalientes, 22,000. In the same year the 
federal army consist(^d of 18,894 men and 1,741 officers. The navy was 
limited to four gun-boats. The national debt, foreign and domestic, in 1886 
amounted to $162,737,650; the revenues of that year aggregated $30,625,000, 
of which $20,000,000 were from customs duties; and the expenditures were 
$26,390,324, one-third of which went to the support of the army. Recent 

operations in developing 
the long-needed railroad 
system of the country had, 
in 1889, given to thirty- 
eight lines a total length of 
3,703 miles, and the tele- 
graph, including govern- 
ment, railroad, and private 
lines, exerted its magic in- 
fluence over 19,027 miles. 
The commercial relations 
with the United States for 
the four years prior to 1887 
show a very large volume 
of business. The exports 
from the United States to 




MEXICAN ADOBE HOUSE. 



Mexico were valued at $14,370,902 (1883); $11,089,603 (1884); $7,370,599 
(1885); and $6,586,077 (1886); wdiile the imports into the United States from 
Mexico were $8,177,128 (1883); $9,016,486 (1884); $9,267,021 (1885); and 
$10,087,972 (1886) 

The government of the republic is founded on a constitution similar in 
the main to that of the United States, but which, however, has been laid aside 
and modified and amended frequently. The executive authority is vested in 
a president chosen by electoral colleges every four years ; the legislative in a 
congress consisting of a senate, whose members are elected every six years, 
and a house whose deputies serve two years; and the judicial by a variety of 
judges, those of the supreme court being elected in the same manner as the 



HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. 1105 

president but for terms of six years, while those of inferior courts are ap- 
pointed by the president and governors of states or chosen by local elections. 
By virtue of his office the chief justice of the supreme court is vice-president 
of the republic rx officio. The state and territorial governments are created 
and conducted for the most part like those in the United States, though as a rule 
the governors are military men and in sympathy with the policy of the chief 
executive. Since the restoration of the republic, after Maximilian's short 
and sad reign of imperialism, the government has extended liberal aid to the 
cause of education. As a result there were in 1886, 8,905 public schools and 
colleges, with an attendance of over 500,900 pupils, besides innumerable private 
ones. The former include special schools of law, medicine, music, agriculture, 
engineering, mines, fine arts, the sciences, literature, and military tactics, sup- 
ported by the general government in place of the famous University of 
Mexico, founded in the sixteenth century and conducted by religious teachers, 
which it abolished in 1856. The different states also maintain excellent 
common schools throughout their jurisdiction, and high schools in their capi- 
tals. The deaf, the dumb, and the blind are likewise adequately provided 
for, and there are many noble charitable and reformatory institutions. 

In the exercise of religious worship the people of Mexico are now per- 
mitted to follow their choice of form without molestation of any kind. In 
this respect the changes of the last half century have been very marked. 
Formerly the Roman Catholic faith was the only one tolerated in the country, 
and was the religion of the state, even in early republican days. At one time 
the Catholic Church, which sprang from the missions of the early Spanish 
fathers, owned nearly one-third the entire soil with all its wealth of minerals. 
During the period of 1856 and 1859 what are known as the "laws of reform" 
were enacted. These virtually confiscated to the government all the landed 
property of the bishops and priests, closed the convents and schools, and led 
to the sale and conversion to public use of all ecclesiastical buildings which the 
authorities then considered superfluous. The constitution adopted in 1857 
recognized the equal right of all denominations to hold religious services in 
their individual forms, and put an end to all sectarian distinctions. Between 
1869 and 1 88 1 Protestant missionary work resulted in the establishment in 
the capital city of fifty-six churches with 10,000 communicants, seventeen 
Sunday schools with 963 scholars, twelve day schools with 465 students, a 
girls' normal college, and a theological seminary. The dominant religion, 
however, is still the Roman Catholic, and it had in 1889 three archbishoprics 



iio6 THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 

and twelve bishoprics. The " Church of Jesus," an organization modeled 
somewhat upon the general plan of the American Protestant Episcopal 
Church, but professing to be undenominational in its tenets and operations, 
was founded by the Rev. Henry Chauncey Riley, D.D., in 1868. To aid him 
in his work the government placed at his disposal the magnificent seques- 
trated Church of St. Joseph, and the chapel of the famous Church of San 
Francisco, both in the City of Mexico; and by 1884 he had established forty- 
nine churches, nine day schools, and two orphanages. He was consecrated 
Bishop of the Mexican Church of Jesus at Pittsburg, Penn., in June, 1879, ^7 
seven bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Mexico is exceedingly rich in natural resources, the chief of which are 
silver and gold, the former being distinctively the staple production. There 
are eleven notable mines in the country, the oldest of which — opened in 1538 
— is in Mexico City. Careful records of the annual production of the 
precious metals have been preserved since 1537, and show that between that 
year and 1880 the gold and silver mines alone yielded a supply valued at 
$3,1 10,000,000. Near the close of the eighteenth century Humboldt estimated 
that a single mine, that of Veta Madre, in Guanajuato, produced one-fifth of 
the silver then current in the world. A mine in Zacatecas yielded $3,000,000 
per annum for many years successively, and those of San Louis Potosi the 
enormous sum of $150,000,000 in a period of seventy-seven years. And still 
the supply of silver seems to be practically illimitable. Others of the precious 
metals abound in corresponding prodigality. The Cerro del Mercado is a 
solid mountain of magnetic iron ore; copper associated with gold and lead 
with silver are found in considerable quantities in many states; and numerous 
mines of the red sulphuret of mercury or cinnabar are now being operated 
more freely than before, on account of the great demand for and high price 
of quicksilver. Among other material resources of value are granite, marble, 
alabaster, gypsum, sulphur, and rock salt. Pearls are plentiful in the Gulf of 
California, and the richest amber is found on the coasts of Yucatan. 

Mexico has also a large agricultural wealth, susceptible of development 
far beyond its present state. Cotton is produced in the states of Coahuila, 
Durango, and Sinaloa; tobacco in southern Vera Cruz and Tabasco; cocoa 
in Tabasco, Oaxaca, and Soconusco; coffee in Michoacan and Colima; and 
the most nutritious grasses, which feed innumerable herds of cattle, droves 
of horses, and flocks of sheep, are spread over nearly all the northern states. 
Indian corn, the staple food from aboriginal days, wheat, barley, rice, sugar- 



HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. 



1 107 



,r^^ -/m^i. 



cane, oranges, lemons, bananas, pineapples, and grapes grow almost without 
cultivation, so rich is the soil of the table-lands, plateaus, and central valleys. 
The employment of American methods and machinery has wrought wonder- 
ful changes in the agricultural development of the country, and given an 
earnest of what might be accomplished in a few years by a judicious and 
liberal application of forces, now only beginning to be understood and appre- 
ciated. 

The history of Mexico as a country is so unusually complex and volumi- 
nous that but little more than a mere chronology can here be given. On his 
last voyage Columbus approached the 
peninsula of Yucatan, but does not seem 
to have come within sight of it. Cordova 
discovered the peninsula in 15 17, and 
two years later Cortez landed on the site 
of the present Vera Cruz, ascended the 
table-lands »■ 
and was sur- 
prised to find 
the interior 
numerously 
inhabited by „_ 
Aztecs, over 
whom Monte- 
zuma, a pow- 
erful chief, 
also several 
to conquest 




MEXICAN ox CART. 



was reigning as emperor, and 
independent republics. Tempted 
by Cordova's accounts of the 
richness of the country, Cortez kept up a continuous warfare for two years, 
and then succeeded in overturning the Aztec empire. From that time till 
1820 Mexico constituted a colony of Spain, though it was subject to fre- 
quent revolutions, and at one time, 1813, a national assembly was formed and 
the independence of the country declared. Early in 1820 Spain became dis- 
tracted with her own internal affairs, and while endeavoring to effect a union 
between the royalists and constitutionalists, Don Augustin de Iturbide, on 
the pretense of desiring to establish the independence of the country and 
yet preserve a union with Spain, gained possession of the capital, summoned 
a congress, and had himself proclaimed Emperor of Mexico under the title 



iio8 THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 

of Augustin I. His sovereignty lasted from May i8, 1822, till March, 1823, 
when the army rose against him, and he abdicated and fled to Europe. 
Shortly afterward the country was declared a republic, and a constitution 
substantially like that of the United States adopted. Iturbide attempted 
to regain his throne by an uprising in 1824, but was captured and shot. The 
republic was " proclaimed " by Gen. Santa Anna at Vera Cruz in Decem- 
ber, 1822, and under the title of constitutional president he became virtu- 
ally dictator. From thence till the overthrow of his fifth dictatorship, 
August, 1855, the country was rended by revolutions, had an expensive war 
with the United States, and possessed no stable or even respectable govern- 
ment. 

The " plan of Ayutla " was adopted 1855, a constituent convention was held 
1856, and it promulgated a constitution, February 3, 1857, which with subse- 
quent amendments, forms the present general law. The war of reform, 
already alluded to, ensued, a struggle between the adherents of the National, 
or Roman Catholic, Church, the army, and the aristocracy. The country had 
scarcely recovered from its surprise over the suppression and confiscation of 
the ecclesiastical property and buildings, when the period of French inter- 
vention opened, and was followed by the brief and luckless reign of the Aus- 
trian Archduke Maximilian as sovereign of the Empire of Mexico. During 
this period, 1861-67, Benito Juarez, an Indian, as constitutional president, 
directed the successful resistance to imperialism. His service as president 
was extended from December, 1857, till his death in July, 1872, and much of 
the present prosperity of the country is due to his firmness, liberal ideas, 
sound statesmanship, and prescience. He was succeeded by Lerdo de Tejada, 
and he in turn by Porfirio Diaz, an accomplished and successful general of 
the army, who, after a highly creditable service as president, was honored with 
a second re-election in July, 1888. 



CITY OF MEXICO. 



EXICO City comprises what is known politically as the Federal 
District. It is situated in latitude 19° 25' 45" north, and longi- 
tude 99° 7' 8" west from Greenwich, built upon the ruins of the 
ancient Aztec capital and at an elevation of about 7,500 feet above sea 
level. It is divided into eight sections, having in 1889 an aggregate of 



HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. 



1 109 



304 streets with an average width of forty feet each, and containing 7,979 
buildings, exclusive of government, public, church, and charitable structures, 
valued at $1 14,738,000, as well as 7,047 buildings in which its commercial 
and industrial interests were carried on, and ninety public squares. The 
Presidential Mansion, formerly the palace of the viceroys, is an enormous 
building, three stories high, 500 feet long and 350 feet wide, and is built on 
the site of the palace of Montezuma. It accommodates nearly all the 
public offices, including those of the heads of the different departments, 
and the senatorial branch of the congress. The most notable and con- 




CITY OF MEXICO. 



spicuous building within the city walls is the famous Roman Catholic Cathe- 
dral, begun in 1593 and completed suf^ciently to be dedicated in 1677, at 
a cost of $1,757,000. Subsequent improvements and ornamentation brought 
the total cost up to $2,500,000. Its decorations, grand altars, priceless carv- 
ings, gold and silver enrichments, and its paintings and statuary, render it 
without exception the most gorgeous ecclesiastical structure in the world. 
Among the other buildings which, from their architectural design, historical 
association, or contents, challenge the admiration of all tourists, are those 
of the Mexican Inquisition, founded in 1571, and now used as a national 
medical school; the custom house; the convent of Santo Domingo; the 
National Museum, which contains a unique collection illustrative of the 



I I 10 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 



earliest history of the country, embracing an original sacrificial stone of the 
Aztecs, the world-famous Calendar Stone, and a statue cf Kuitzilopochtli of 
huge proportions; the Academy of San Carlos, established by King Charles 
III., of Spain, and filled with the largest and most costly collection of paint- 
ings on the continent ; and the National Library, housed in the ancient 
church of San Augustin, which has been remodeled by the government at a 
heavy expense, containing upward of 150,000 volumes. 

Of the ninety public squares the largest and most beautiful is the Plaza de 

^^l? Armas, which is 800 feet 
long by 600 feet wide. 
There are numerous pleas- 
ure resorts in the city, of 
which the Passeo de Buca- 
reli, or public drive, is to 
Mexico City what Hyde 
Park is to London, the Bois 
de Boulogne to Paris, and 
Central Park to New York. 
It is the afternoon resort 
of the wealth and fashion 
of the city. Hundreds of 
coaches in all shapes and 
forms, as well as hundreds 
of gentlemen on horseback 
frequent it daily; but on 
Sundays and holidays the 
drive is in its glory. Mount- 
cm kch M|. SAN iJCiMiM.o, niv OF MEXICO. cd poHcemctt are stationed 
every hundred yards to maintain order and guard against accidents. The car- 
riages form a long line, going up on one side and down the other. The side- 
walks for pedestrians are wide, well paved, and provided with carved stone 
benches at easy intervals. An additional attraction is given them by two rows 
of trees composed of the eucalyptus, or fever tree, and the ash, planted alter- 
nately. The drive is macadamized its entire length, and the centre is re- 
served for equestrians. The promenade extends from the bronze equestrian 
statue of Charles IV. to the castle of Chapultepec, a distance of 3,750 yards; 
the width, including walks, is 170 feet. It contains six circular spaces 400 feet 




HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. nn 

in diameter for monuments to eminent men. In the first is a magnificent 
bronze and marble statue of Columbus, and in the second a monument to 
Guatimozin, the last Indian emperor. This grand drive was laid out by the 
Emperor Maximilian, first, to secure the shortest possible route to Chapulte- 
pec for military purposes, and, second, to provide one of the most beautiful 
drives in the world. The Alameda and the Passeo de la Viga likewise are 

tempting resorts, but of 
less fashionable popu- 
larity. 

There are very few 
small houses in the city, 
nearly all being very com- 
modious though not tall, 
and as a rule each one is 
occupied by more than 
one family. In the princi- 
pal streets the houses are 
usually two and three 
stories high. The wealth- 
iest families rarely occupy 
more than one floor — the 
upper one — and often not 
the whole of that. The 
-^ best three-story buildings 
generally contain from 
two to four habitations; 
each consists of a whole 

CASTLE OF CHAPULTEPEC, CITY OF MEXICO. qj- ^ half of 2L flOOr, and 

the front ground floor is almost invariably used by commercial, banking, 
or other business establishments. There is not a house of any pretentions 
whatever in the city without a court, on the ground floor of which are 
located the servants' quarters, coach houses, and stables. There is but one 
door on the lower floor, and none at all on the outside of the upper story. 
The door is very strongly built, and the opening high enough for a coach to 
pass through. It opens into the court, through which inmates pass to the 
stairway leading to the upper story. The tenement houses occupy large areas, 
and are built on much the same plan, with but one door leading into a court, 




III2 THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 

and from which each occupant has entrance to his own apartment on the 
ground floor or the gallery above, which runs all around the building. In the 
central districts these houses generally have two stories, but as a rule one 
only when built at a distance from the business centre, and they sometimes 
contain as many as forty distinct habitations. 

In 1886, the business establishments of the city included 1,072 cigar and 
tobacco stores, 889 grocery stores, 670 pulque stands, 514 liquor saloons, 
390 restaurants, 275 butcher shops, 190 bakeries, 144 grain stores, 130 barber 
shops, 118 tailoring establishments, 171 carpenter shops, 174 shoe stores, 88 




merchants' bazaar, city of MEXICO. 

blacksmith shops, 79 drug stores, 68 hardware stores, 56 printing offices, 55 
bath houses, 72 dry-goods stores, 48 chartered and private banks, and 46 
cafes. There were also nine cotton, seven paper, and three woolen factories 
in the city and its immediate vicinity. The government has established a 
National Monte de Piedad, or pawn shop, and in addition to this there were 
73 others, private, with a joint capital of $483,872. During the latter half of 
1885, these pawnshops loaned the sum of $1,333796 on various kinds of 
pledges, on which an average interest charge of 12;^ per cent, per month 
was paid. 

The Municipal Government has liberally seconded the efforts of the Federal 
to provide facilities for educating all its youth without reference to color or 



HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. 



1113 



condition in life. The most notable institutions are the Academy of Fine 
Arts, the Mining, Engineering, and Medical schools, and the Military, Law, 
Commercial, and Agricultural colleges. In 1886 the various schools and 
colleges within the city numbered 316, with 712 male and 469 female teachers, 
and an average daily attendance of 12,775 boys and 10,385 girls, or 23,160 
pupils in all. About one-half of these institutions are supported by the 
Federal and Municipal Governments at an annual expense of $816,840, and 
the remainder are private en- 
terprises, ^v*; 

In the line of local transit ' 

the city had, in 1886, thirty- "^'^ ^^ 

two lines of street railroads, 
beside eleven others which 
connected with the outlying 
towns, and five trunk railroads 
entered it from different di- 
rections. 

In its historical phase the 
city is more interesting than 
the country, because of its 
greater antiquity. It stands 
near the northwestern part 
of the valley of Mexico, about 
four miles from the mountains 
in the direction of the town 
of Guadaloupe. The appear- • 
ance of the valley is that of 
an oval basin surrounded by 

mountains of every degree of entrance to palace, city of mexico. 

elevation, from the Pinolos, or little rugged promontories, to Popocatepetl, 
the highest peak in Mexico, covered with perpetual snow. The site of the 
city was chosen by a barbarian chieftain, who found a lake (Texcoco), in the 
midst of which was a slight elevation of land or island, large enough to en- 
camp his tribe upon. There he built a town which was preserved through all 
the wars that ensued with neighboring nations because it was so easily 
defended. The date of the founding of the town is given as 1325, and it 
was named Tenochtitlan. At the time of the discovery of the country by the 




„j# 



r^-j&r-it 



III4 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO 



Spaniards, it was a rich, flourishing, populous, and active city, the seat of gov- 
ernment and of religion. As previously narrated Cortez landed 15 19. For 
two years he sought the conquest of the city. The Aztecs defended it stub- 
bornly. Cortez besieged it for a period of seventy-five days, but the hosts 
of Montezuma held out till the invaders had almost entirely destroyed the 
city. As building after building was razed the fury of the Spaniards in- 
creased, and it was only after they had completed one of the most terrible 
slaughters on record that they gained absolute possession of the once beauti- 
ful capital. The building of the present city was begun about 1522, and it 
was named Mexico from Mexitli, the tutelary divinity of the Aztecs. 




PALACE, CITY OF MEXICO. 

The general knowledge of the early condition of the city is derive-d in 
large part from native pictures that survived the destruction of Cortez. 
They contained chronological histories, which had been prepared and pre- 
served with the greatest care. The most celebrated one of all was lost, but 
Humboldt has given an account of a copy of it. From this table it appears 
that the Toltecs migrated from a country north of the present city in A. D. 
544; that their monarchy was destroyed; that the Aztecs arrived there from 
Aztlan in 11 78; and that they founded Tenochtitlan, the predecessor of the 
City of Mexico, in 1325. From 1522 onward the history of the city and 
country has been so interwoven and so essentially identical that the outline of 
the country, already given, will suffice for a more detailed historical account 
of the capital. Population, 1889, 300,000. 



CITY OF VERA CRUZ. 




ERA CRUZ, 

the chief 
seaport 

and commercial city 
in Mexico, is situ- 
ated on the coast of 
the Gulf in latitude 
19° 11' 56" north, 
and longitude 96° 
S' 36" west, and is 
190 miles south 
bv southeast of the „ 

o 
City of Mexico; z 

population 1889, z 
24,000. It is built 3 
on a level and arid = 
shore, consistmg m ^ 
the main of sand, < 
and is inclosed by > 
strong walls pro- g. 
vided with heavy 
redoubts. Its har- ^ 
bor is little more ° 
than a roadstead, 
formed by several 
shoals which in- 
close, in a semicir- 
cular form, a tract 
of sea which in 
many parts offers 
excellent anchor- 
age. The most se- 
cure portion of the 
harbor is the strait 
^vhich seoarates the 




II i6 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO 






island of San Juan de Ulloa, on which 
the celebrated fortress of the same name 
is built, from the city, and this is less 
than 700 yards wide and about 1,000 
yards long. 

The streets are straight, wide and 
well-paved, and the buildings are con- 
structed chiefly of a porous white coral, 
which composes the cliffs on the coast. 
The roofs are flat, covered with cement, 
and shed rain-water into algibes or tanks, 
whence it is taken for drinking and 

general domestic purposes. In 1887 

K there were sixteen churches, a custom 

s 

j^- house, several hospitals, a municipal 
g palace, a library, a theatre, modern 

1 water-works • — though the supply of 

(^ water is considered less healthy than 
o 

>. the collected rain-water — and street rail- 
ed 

^ roads. The city is lighted by gas, and 

Q 

< has improved railroad connection with 
^ the City of Mexico by one line, and with 
^ Jalapa, the former capital of the state 
o of Vera Cruz, by another. 
p The progress of Vera Cruz has been 

most seriously retarded by the preva- 
lence during the summer months of the 
vomito prieto, a kind of yellow fever,, 
which proves very fatal to foreigners, 
and drives even the acclimatized busi- 
ness men into the interior during its 
continuance. The strong winds, which 
from October to April fill the air with 
sand and lash the roadstead waters into 
mid-ocean fury, are also a great hin- 
drance to the development of the city 
on account of the danger to shipping 



HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. 1117 

which they produce. They yield some compensation, however, in driving the 
dreaded fever away. With these drawbacks a vast amount of business is 
transacted there. Upward of 4,000 vessels from all parts of the world, enter 
and clear the harbor annually. The imports and exports average about $25,- 
000,000 each in value per annum, of which $2,000,000 are with the United 
States. 

The island on which the castle of San Juan de Ulloa is built was visited 
for the first time by Europeans under the command of Juan de Grijalva in 
1 5 18, and in the following year Cortez landed at the place where the city now 
stands; but the town founded by him, and called Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, 
was some miles further north. Three year later that place was abandoned, 
and another town w^as built at Antigua, which in turn proved inconvenient. 
The present city w^as then established in 1590, but was not incorporated till 
1615. The castle and city were held by the Spaniards till 1825; the French 
took them in 1838; and the Americans, under General Scott, in March, 1847. 




Other Places of Interest, Picturesque and 

Historic. 

ONTEREY, the capital of the State of Nuevo Leon, is 450 miles 
north-northwest of Mexico City, 1,626 feet above sea level, built 
principally of stone, and is the oldest and most important city in 
northern Mexico. It is inclosed within the northern cordillera of the Sierra 
Madre Mountains, and has a climate generally mild, but very changeable. It 
has a beautiful public square, ornamented by a marble fountain fashioned by 
native workmen and artistically executed, numbers among its noteworthy 
public structures a venerable cathedral, two churches — one of which has the 
reputation of being the handsomest in all Mexico — a government palace, 
municipal palace, a noble hospital, and a prison, military barracks, and abat- 
toir, and contains a seminary, two colleges, and about fifty public and private 
schools, all of a high standard and liberally sustained. The manufactures, 
which constitute the chief pride and wealth of the city, embrace nails, bricks, 
carriages, morocco, candles, soap, sugar, beer, brandy, cotton, paper, flour, 
and lumber. A large proportion of its trade, export and import, is with the 
United States. 



Iii8 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO: 



Monterey was founded in 1596, on the site of a former city known as 
Ciudad de Leon, and was erected into a Roman Catholic bishopric in 1777. 
It was the scene of some of the earliest and most decisive actions in the war 
between the United States and Mexico, being a strong strategic point, corre- 
spondingly fortified, and defended by 10,000 regular troops under General 
Ampudia. The American General Taylor attacked it with 6,600 men on Sept. 
19, 1846; first bombarding it, then sending a brigade under General Quitman 
against the lower part of the town for the purpose of carrying it by assault, 
General W, O. Butler forcing an entrance at another point, and General Worth 
driving the Mexicans from the heights south of the river and the Saltillo road. 

On the following morning the 
height overlooking the bishop's 
palace was stormed, and its guns 
were turned upon the retreating 
Mexicans. From the beginning 
the contest was a most deter- 
mined one on both sides. Even 
after the Americans had entered 
the city their progress was con- 
tested step by step, the Mexicans 
finding a mute ally for resistance 
in the solidly-built houses that 
lined the principal streets. By 
the 23d the Americans had 
fought their way to the plaza, 
or public square, and on the fol- 
lowing day General Ampudia sur- 
poRTAL OF THE cATHKDKAL, MONTEREY, MEXICO. rcndcrcd. The Amcricau losses 
in the various movements amounted to 120 killed and 368 wounded but the 
Mexican loss was not reported. Since the close of that war, the progress of 
the city has been rapid for Mexico and substantial. Population, 1869, 13,534; 
1885, 37,000. 

The State of Mexico contains three very picturesque and exceedingly fer- 
tile valleys, formed by the two great mountain chains which traverse it and 
their branches, the valleys of Mexico, Tlaxcala, and Toluca. The chief river 
is the Lerma, which connects the lake of its own name with Lake Chapala. 
Lake Lerma is in the valley of Toluca. The valley of Mexico contains Lakes 




HER CAPITAL, SEAPORT, ETC. tttq 

Tezcuco, area 99 square miles; Chalco, 54; Xochimilco and Xaltocan, each 
27; Zumpango, 9; and San Cristobel, 6. Some of these overflow their banks 
during the rainy season, endangering the capital, which has often narrowly- 
escaped destruction by the floods. Lakes Tezcuco, Xochimlico, and Chalco 
are connected with each other by a canal that was constructed by the ancient 




A GLIMPSE OF MONTEKKY, MEXICO. 



Aztecs. The former is navigable by small steamers, and receives the sewage 
of the capital city. Lake Chapala is also navigable by steam vessels. The 
distance between Mexico City and Vera Cruz is a little over 260 miles, and is 
traversed by a railroad that represents one of the most wonderful engineering 
enterprises in the world. It was begun in 1852, required twenty years of 
constant toil for its completion, cost $27,000,000, and was opened for trafific 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 1121 

amid national rejoicings on Jan. 17, 1873. A stretch of sixty miles extends 
over the mountain region between the great table-land and the coast, at an 
elevation in some places of nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, and on a grade 
of 133 feet to the mile. It winds along the rugged sides of mountains, passes 
through tunnels cut in the hardest rock, and bowls over bridges above deep 
ravines, and displays on every side some of the grandest scenery on the 
continent. In September, 1888, the road was considerably injured at 
the barranca of Metlac, in the State of Vera Cruz, where it crosses on an 
iron bridge ninety-six feet high and over 500 feet long. Over 150 feet of 
the bridge were wrecked by the great mass of forest trees and the huge 
boulders of rock that were dislodged by the heavy rains and washed down 
the mountain sides. 

The State of Durango is bounded on the north by Chihuahua, on the east 
by Coahuila, on the southeast by Zacatecas, on the south by Jalisco, and 
on the west by Sinaloa. It is between latitude 22° 51' and 29° 28' north, 
and longitude 102° 50' and 106° 55' west; contains an area of 66,582 square 
miles; and had a population in 1880 of 190,846. It is divided into thirteen 
districts; the climate is cold in the Sierra Madre region, warm on the west- 
ern slope, and temperate in the rest of the state. There are large tracts 
of exceedingly fertile soil in the state, an abundance of water, an inexhausti- 
ble supply of excellent iron ore in Carmen Mountain near the capital, and 
numerous deposits of silver of great value. The greater part of the surface 
is covered by rugged mountains of considerable height. The capital city, 
of the same name, is built on an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level, in 
latitude 24° 2' north, and longitude 103° 34' west, and 150 miles west of 
Zacatecas. It is a well-built and prosperous city, the seat of a Roman 
Catholic bishop, and has an imposing cathedral, several convents, a col- 
le<->-e, mint, theatre, and manufactories of tobacco and iron. Population, 
1880, 27,000. 

The State of Chihuahua is bounded on the north by New Mexico and 
Texas, on the east by Coahuila, on the south by Durango, and on the west 
by Sonara; is situated between latitude 26° 9' and 31° 47' north, and longitude 
103° 8' and 118° 41' west; has an area of 105,300 square miles; and had a 
population in 1880 of 180,758. It is divided politically into eighteen districts. 
The state is very mountainous, containing a portion of the Sierra Madre 
range, a branch locally known as the Tarahumara, and the mountains of 
Carcay, Jesus Maria y Tabacotes, Nido, Batopilas, Urique, Guazapares, 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 



1123 



Guadaloup y Calvo, Campana, El Chicalate, Mesteiias, Almagres, and several 
others. The Conchas is the largest river in the state, and next to it are the 
Chihuahua, Satevo, Florido, Casas Grande, Santa Maria, and Carmen. There 
are three lakes of note, the Guzman, Santa Maria, and Patos. The plains on 
the eastern spur of the Tarahumara Mountain have an elevation of from 4,000 

to 5,000 feet above sea level. 
The capital city, also of the 
same name, is in latitude 28° 50' 
north, and longitude 105° 33' 
west, 310 miles north north- 
west of Durango, and is a place 




THE CATHEDRAL IN CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO. 

of large manufacturing and commercial importance. The state is noted 
the world over for its numerous silver mines of fabulous extent and wealth, 
and the capital is the chief point of supply for the whole mining region. 
It possesses a mint which coins on an average $2,000,000 in silver annu- 
ally; manufactories of wines and liquors, many large flour mills, and cot- 
ton factories; and its inhabitants are chiefly engaged in mining, cattle- 
raising, general agriculture, and the cultivation of the vine, which thrives 
wonderfully in El Paso and Hidalgo. Among the points of interest in the 



1 1 24 



THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 



capital are the Roman Catholic cathedral, built of stone, and costing with its 
furniture, altars, and decorations, $800,000; state prison; state-house ; and 




THE PLAZA IN CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO. 




A PUBLIC FOUNTAIN IN CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO. 

mint. The city is supplied with drinking water from mountain sources by 
means of a stone aqueduct three miles long, and carries on a large export and 
import trade with San Antonio, Tex. Population, 1880, 12,116. 




CUBA, 

THE "GEM OF THE ANTILLES," AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. 

UBA, the most important colony of Spain, the largest of the West 
India islands, and poetically spoken of as the " Gem " or " Pearl " 
of the Antilles, lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean 
Sea, with its east and north extremities about the same distance — 130 miles 
— from the coasts of Yucatan and Florida. The island measures 760 miles 
in its greatest length and from 20 to 135 miles in width, has a coast line of 
2,220 miles, and a total area of 47,278 square miles. A large number of small 
islands and rocks skirt the entire coast, rendering the approach of an unskilled 
mariner exceedingly dangerous ; yet there are over 200 ports along the coast, 
the majority of which may be entered safely by vessels of considerable size, 
as the sea in many places remains deep to the very shore. 

The soil is exceedingly fertile, particularly in the western part, w^here the 
chief agricultural industries of the island are carried on, sugar, tobacco, and 
molasses. The mineralogy of the island is represented by gold, silver, iron, 
copper, quicksilver, lead, antimony, arsenic, copperas; none, however, in 
quantities that would justify the expense of systematic mining. There are 
many large areas of dense forest, containing a very valuable growth of lignum- 
vitse, ebony, rosewood, and mahogany. The cocoanut, African palm, sour 
orange, lemon, pine-apple, banana, and sweet potato are indigenous; there are 
300 kinds of butterflies, 200 species of native birds exclusive of domestic 
fowls, and 600 species of fish ; turtles, alligators, insects — including the taran- 
tula, the scorpion, and the sand-fly — and an ant that preys upon vegetables, 
abound ; but there are very few wild animals or snakes on the island. A 
mountain range runs almost the entire length of the island near its centre, 
forming a watershed from which numerous small rivers flow either into the 
Gulf or the sea; the highest elevation is 8,000 feet above sea-level. To- 
bacco, one of the three great staples of Cuba, is grown on the southern coast 
of the extreme western end, a strip of irregular shape about eighty miles long 
and twenty wide, known as Vuelto Abajo. Cotton is cultivated to a consid- 
erable extent, and the mulberry tree, which there attains its highest perfection, 
is much esteemed in connection with the breedingf of silk-worms. 



1 126 CUBA AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. 

The Roman Catholic is the established religion of the island, and although 
the government assumed a direct supervision of educational matters in 1842, 
and declared the Royal and Pontifical University in Havana a national insti- 
tution, it is essentially under the control of that church. This famous seat of 
learning was established by virtue of a bull issued in 1722 by Pope Innocent 
XIII. and approved by the Spanish government, 1729. There are two quite 
celebrated seminaries for the instruction of young men expecting to become 
clergymen, the college of San Carlos in Havana, and that of San Basilio in 
Santiago de Cuba. The expenses of education in the higher branches are 
paid from the public revenues, while the various cities and towns support 
schools for the primary branches. In ecclesiastical government, Cuba is 
divided into two parts since 1788, the metropolitans of which are established 
at Havana and Santiago de Cuba. In political government there are three 
divisions, known as the Western, Central, and Southeastern Provinces, and 
the supreme authority and direct representative of the Sovereign of Spain 
is the Captain-general, usually an army officer of distinction in the mother- 
country. The subordinate officials in the fourteen cities, twelve towns, and 
324 villages and hamlets are also military men, who receive the appointments 
by way of political rewards. 

The population of Cuba is variously estimated. A census was taken in 
1862 which showed 1,359,438 inhabitants, of whom a large portion were slaves, 
A law was passed by the Spanish Cortes or congress on June 23, 1870, declar- 
ing all slaves free; but through the opposition of a powerful faction in 
Havana the government has never been able to make its declaration an ac- 
complished fact. In 1880 the population was estimated at 1,521,684, of whom 
764,160 were put down as whites, Spaniards and Spanish Creoles, 344,400 as 
free people of color, 227,900 as slaves, and 58,400 as Chinese. The most popu- 
lous cities were Havana, 250,000; Santiago de Cuba, 60,000; Matanzas, 36,- 
000; and Puerto Principe, 30,000. Although its manufacturing industries are 
limited to a few commodities, their individual extent gives Cuba its chief 
importance. In 1880 there were exported from the port of Havana alone, 
12,464,936 pounds of tobacco, 153,141,000 cigars, 90,523 boxes, 219,323 sacks, 
and 190,083 barrels of sugar, 12,433 barrels of molasses, and 9,873 pipes of 
rum of 125 gallons each. The more recent volume of business with the 
United States, the chief consumer of Cuban products and manufactures, is 
shown by the following: Imports from Cuba into the United States; (1883) 
$65,544,534; (1884) $57,181,497; (1885) $42,306,093; (1886) $51,1 10,780; (1887) 



CUBA AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. 1127 

),5I5,434. Exports from the United States into Cuba: (1883) $14,567,918; 
(1884) $10,562,880; (188.5) $8,719,195; (1886) $10,020,879; (1887) $10,138,930. 
A further view of the transactions with the United States is afforded by the 
clearance reports of the Havana custom-house for 1882, the latest at hand. 
During that year 1,424 vessels entered and cleared that port alone, represent- 
ing an aggregate tonnage of 1,258,181. Of this number 570 vessels of 496,736 
tons were American; 528 of 489,903 tons were Spanish; 219 of 186,403 tons 
were English; 27 of 43,980 were French; 5 of 3,906 tons were German; 54 of 
26,326 were Norwegian; and 21 of 10,927 belonged to other nations. 

The history of Cuba forms a long narrative of revolutions, insurrections 
and warfare in various degrees. The island was discovered by Columbus, 
Oct. 24, 1492 ; colonized by Spaniards under Diego Velasquez, 1 5 1 1 ; a French 
pirate burned Havana, 1538; the native Indians, harshly treated by the Span- 
ish governor, Hernando, became extinct, 1553; Drake, returning victorious 
from Carthagena, blockaded the chief ports, 1588; a Dutch squadron menaced 
them, 1638; filibusters overran the island from 1650 to 1700; Puerto Principe 
was plundered and destroyed by them, 1688; the tobacco monopoly was estab- 
lished by the Spanish crown, 1717 and remained in force till 1816; and Havana 
was captured by the British, 1762, and restored in the following year on Spain 
ceding to England the territory of Florida and all her possessions east and 
southeast of the Mississippi River. After the restitution of Havana the home 
government began granting concessions of commercial privileges ; and while 
the island entered upon an era of prosperity, it was through the agency of 
an element destined to become the source of long and bitter trouble. The 
necessity for a large force of field laborers gave a great impetus to the 
African slave-trade; and it has been estimated that between 1789 and 1845, 
over 550,000 slaves were placed on Cuban plantations. These, in time, broke 
out in stubborn insurrections, the uprisings in 1844 and 1848 being particu- 
larly notable by reason of the large numbers who were killed, the victims in 
the latter year alone amounting to 10,000. 

During 1849-51 the island was again disturbed by a series of outbreaks 
fomented and led by American adventurers. And again in 1868, when the 
mother-country was shaken in every province by a determined revolution, 
the island was seized by a convulsion which lasted twelve years. The most 
heroic attempts were made by the Cubans to achieve independence, and they 
were encouraged in their course by the people of the United States as openly 
as international law would permit. They established a congress, elected a 



1 128 CUBA AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. 

president, commissioned army and naval officers, and confined their opera- 
tions chiefly to the eastern part of the island. The Spanish authorities fought 
the revolutionists with extreme vigor, and came near involving the home 
government in war with the United States by acts of almost savage cruelty. 
It was estimated that during the struggle 80,000 soldiers were sent to the 
island from Spain, of whom not more than 12,000 survived; 13,600 Cubans 
were killed in battle; 43,500 were taken prisoner and put to death; and Spain 
spent $70,339,658 in the defence. 

The revolution gradually subsided between 1878 and 1880 upon promises 
of leniency and local reforms by Spain ; and since the latter year the island 
has enjoyed tranquillity. 






CITY OF HAVANA. 

AVANA, the capital of the island and the most important city in 
the West Indies, is situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, in 
latitude 23° 8' north, and longitude 82° 22' west; and had a popu- 
lation in 1887 of 230,000. It has a channel three-eighths of a mile long, open- 
ing into a large basin ; is defended by Morro and Punta castles and La Cabana, 
a strong citadel, besides other heavy fortifications, all below the inner harbor; 
and is divided into the old or walled town and the new one beyond. The 
most attractive part of the city is in the vicinity of the great public square, 
the Plaza de Armas, w^hich has four beautiful gardens, spacious walks bordered 
by stately palms and other magnificent trees, and a statue of Ferdinand VII. 
in the centre. On the west side is the Governor's Palace, a two-story build- 
ing with a handsome colonnade in front, painted yellow, in which the govern- 
mental offices are located. Opposite the Palace is the beautiful chapel. El 
Templete, erected on the spot where the first mass was celebrated after the 
removal of the city to its present site. The cathedral, erected in 1724 and 
used as a college by the Jesuits till 1789, stands foremost among the public 
buildings. Its dimensions and architecture are imposing, but not remarkably 
so for an old Roman Catholic community. What made it particularly inter- 
esting to travellers and especially to Americans, was the fact that it contained 
the ashes of Christopher Columbus, which were transferred thither from the 
cathedral at San Domingo, Jan. 15, 1796. After reposing there nearly one 
hundred years, they were removed July 2, 1887, placed reverently on board 



CUBA AND ITS CAPITAL CITY. 1129 

an Italian man-of-war, conveyed to Genoa, and entombed with great public 
and ecclesiastical ceremonies. There are fifteen other churches, nine of which 
are attached to monastic orders; two, San Catalina and San Juan de Dias, 
date from the sixteenth century; one, San Augustin, from the beginning of the 
seventeenth ; and all are noted for the richness and splendor of their decora- 
tions. 

The strangest contrasts are seen in Havana within comparatively a few 
feet. Within the walled part, the business part still and the residence of many 
wealthy Cubans, the tourist will look in vain for a tree, plant, or something 
green to refresh the eye ; a very small square in front of the little temple 
reared in memory of the landing of Columbus on the spot, being the only 
exception. Beyond the walls where the modern part of the city begins, the 
prospect immediately changes. Beside the Plaza de Armas and the build- 
ings already mentioned, there are the Calle del Prado, extending to the Costa 
del Norte, the Parque de Isabela Catolica, with its statue of her majesty, the 
Campo del Marte, and numerous other parks and boulevards, teeming with 
life and beauty. Here are located the architectural adornments of the capi- 
tal, the principal hotels, the Tacon and La Paz theatres, the Louvre, and the 
celebrated Casino club house, the pride of the city. 

The architecture of the residences and business houses is identical with 
that of the south of Spain, and is of a decidedly Moorish tone. The houses are 
built for the most part of stone, with very thick walls and tessellated floors, 
and seldom exceed two stories in height. The roofs are invariably flat and 
covered with variegated tiling, or, in the case of a very pretentious building, 
with masonry; and in evenings the families and their guests betake them- 
selves thither to enjoy the refreshing sea breezes. The doors are large, pon- 
derous, and strengthened with heavy iron bands and bolts; the knockers are 
usually brass, in the shape of a hand. The windows have no glass, and are 
simply large openings for air and light, with iron bars running up and down 
their length about six inches apart. Heavy latticed shutters on the outside 
stand open in evenings to admit the breeze and are closed in the day time to 
exclude the sun. The houses are painted pink, blue, yellow, and other bright 
colors; the floors and stairs of costly residences are generally marble, the 
apartments open upon a covered veranda, and the outer door or doors — for 
many of them are double — open into ?i patio, corresponding with the Mexican 
court-yard, in which there is usually a fountain and a profusion of plants and 
flowers. A staircase leads from the patio to the upper apartments. Since 



II30 THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 

the close of the revolution, many wealthy planters have erected very costly 
residences, and changed the native to the modern foreign style both in con- 
struction and embellishment. 

The first railroad in Cuba was opened in Havana in 1837; the first tele- 
graph line was built therefrom in 1852; the submarine cable to Florida was 
laid in 1867-8; and that to Jamaica in 1870. In 1889 Havana had steam- 
ship communications with Spain, France, England, and the United States 
weekly ; and railroad connections with Cardenas, Matanzas, Santiago, and 
other important places on the island. 



THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 

HIS possession of Great Britain embraces a group of 600 islands in 
the Atlantic Ocean, stretching in a north-westerly direction from 
the north side of San Domingo to the east coast of Florida, be- 
tween latitude 20° 55' and 27° 40' north, and longitude 68° 40' and 79° 
20' west, and having an aggregate area of 3,021 square miles. Less than 
twenty of the islands are inhabited, and these had a population in 1887 
of 43,521. The principal islands are situated on the remarkable flats 
called the Bahama Banks, of which the Great Bank lying at the western 
extremity of the archipelago occupies an extent of 300 miles in length, 
northwest and southeast, and eighty miles in breadth. The deepest water 
on any part of this bank is thirty feet, but the patches of coral rock and 
dry sand are innumerable. These banks rise almost perpendicularly from 
an unfathomable depth of water, and are formed of coral, with an accumula- 
tion of shells and calcareous sand. The islands are generally long and nar- 
row, low, and covered with a light sandy soil, their figure and surface 
throughout being nearly uniform in character. Those islands not situated on 
the bank have a reef of rocks extending a short distance from the shore, 
forming the boundary of soundings, immediately outside which the sea is 
often unfathomable. 

The principal islands arc Abaco, eighty miles long and twenty broad ; 
Eleuthera, eighty miles long and ten broad; New Providence, eighty miles 
long and from eight to ten broad; Andros, 100 miles long and fifteen broad; 
Guanahani, or Cat Island, forty miles long and five broad ; Watling, twenty 
miles long and four broad; Exuma, thirty miles long and four broad; Long 



THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 1131 

Island, seventy-five miles long and five broad ; Crooked Islands, a group of 
four small ones, whose inhabitants are chiefly engaged in salt-raking; and 
Inagua, the most southern of the group, containing 675 square miles of sur- 
face, and remarkable for its great salt-pond of 1,600 acres, from a single acre 
of which 8,000 bushels of salt have been frequently raked in one season. 
Caicos and Turk's Islands were formerly included in the Bahama group for 
administrative purposes, but since 1848 they have been under the jurisdiction 
of the Governor of Jamaica. 

The climate is healthy and temperate; from May to October the ther- 
mometer ranges from 82° to 88°F., from November to April it averages 70°; 
thunderstorms are violent and frequent, and earthquakes are sometimes felt. 
The rainfall in 1887 was 79.41 inches, of which 20.07 f^^l ^^ August and only 
0.51 in February. This was the largest rainfall registered in the Bahamas for 
twenty years, and was distributed throughout the year thus : first quarter, 
2.84 inches; second, 28.18; third, 37.07; and fourth, 11.32. The products of 
the islands comprise fruit in abundance, oranges, pine-apples, limes, lemons, 
yams, sweet potatoes, maize, and cotton ; the leading articles of export are 
salt, sponge, pineapples, oranges, limes, lemons, cabinet woods, cascarilla 
bark, arrowroot, and pimento ; and the chief imports are provisions, lumber, 
shingles, and other materials for ship and house building from the United 
States, and sugar, coffee, and other tropical productions from Cuba, Porto 
Rico, and the British West Indies. In 1887 the exports amounted to $627,- 
320, and there was a marked falling off in cotton and pine-apples and an im- 
provement in the sponge trade. The imports aggregated $947,280, of which 
$148,345 came from Great Britain, and the remainder almost wholly from the 
United States, where nearly the whole of the fruit grown on the islands is 
sold. The public revenue in that year was $229,345, an increase of $9,745 
over the previous year; the expenditure was $219,775; and the debt, $415,- 
630. 

The government of the islands is vested in a colonial governor appointed 
by the British sovereign, an executive council, a legislative council, and an 
assembly of thirty members chosen by popular vote. All forms of religious 
worship are tolerated, but the Church of England is naturally the largest in 
membership. It carries on a considerable work on the islands, which consti- 
tute fifteen parishes, and has numerous churches, chapels, mission stations, 
and day and Sunday schools. A colonial board of education was established 
in 1848 on the system of the British and Foreign School Society, and in 1887 



1 132 THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 

there were thirty-six schools with an average daily attendance of 4,550 
scholars. The lack of means to procure a higher grade of teachers was much 
deplored. New Providence is the most important island in the group, and 
Nassau, its chief and only town, is the seat of government of the colony. 

The submarine gardens of the Bahamas form one of the most interesting 
scenes imaginable, and more than fulfil any ideas the fancy may create about 
them. They are really fairy gardens, for, far do\\n in the clear green water 
wave brilliant sea grass, sea fans, plumes, flowers, and vines; while many 
species of fish, varying in hue and size from the green and golden minnow, 
not two ounces in weight perhaps, to the ponderous jow fish, clad in a coat 
of silver rhail and weighing over 500 pounds, dash through the shrubbery or 
placidly float in a coral grotto. Conches, in which pinkish pearls are con- 
cealed, may also be found there, and with them nearly every species of shell- 
fish indigenous to tropical, seas. 

Harbor Island, in the northern end of the group, is very interesting, as it 
boasts the second largest city in the Bahamas, Dunmore Town, and the 
famous " Glass Windows," which are nothing more than a massive arch of 
limestone rocks, about eighty feet in height, which command some noble 
views of land and water. One of the most curious spots in the entire region 
is Spanish Wells, situated on an island of the same name. Its houses, which 
are huddled together in the utmost confusion, are erected on high posts to 
protect the inmates from the incursions of the wandering crabs, which live 
among the rocks and move over the island at night in such \-ast numbers that 
they destroy ever}' edible thing they can find. Eleuthera Island, readily 
reached by small boats from New Providence, grows about two-thirds of the 
entire pine-apple crop of the Bahamas, and its inhabitants have been shipping 
almost wholly to the United States since 1820. Guanahani, or Cat Island, 
was the first land met with by Columbus on his first vo}-age of discovery, his 
landing taking place in October, 1492. He piously made the sign of the cross 
on a large rock, named the place San Salvador, and carried to Mexico the 
few natives he encountered. 

The islands remained uninhabited till 1629. when New Providence was set- 
tled by the English, who held it till 1641. A body of Spaniards seized the 
island in that year, destroyed the colony, and expelled the settlers, but made 
no permanent occupation. The English again colonized it in 1666. and the 
settlers enjoyed a peaceable existence till 1703, when a combined force of 
French and Spaniards destroyed Nassau and put its inhabitants to flight. 



THE BAHAMA ISLANDS.— NASSAU. 1133 

After this the island became a rendezvous for pirates, whose depredations on 
the adjacent seas became so notorious that the British government determined 
to suppress them and re-estabhsh the colony. This it did by means of a naval 
squadron in 1718. Nassau was fortified, and settlements were made on other 
large islands. In 1776 New Providence was seized by the Americans, but they 
abandoned it shortly afterward ; in 1781 all the islands were seized by the 
Spaniards; and 1783 they were again restored to Great Britain by treaty, and 
she has since remained in undisturbed possession of them. 



CITY OF NASSAU. 



ASSAU, the port of entry and capital of the Colony of the Bahamas, 
is built on the northern coast of the island of New Providence, 
and extends along the water front for a distance of three miles 
and back to the crest of the slope, on which stands the government house, 
the Royal Victoria hotel, erected by the British government in i860 for the 
accommodation of foreign invalids, and many of the finest private residences. 
The ground here has an elevation of ninety feet above the sea level of the 
harbor, thus insuring admirable drainage. The streets are regularly laid out, 
cross each other at right angles, and are macadamized ; and the houses are, 
for the most part, built of stone, in the midst of grounds beautifully arranged 
in flower and shrub. The city contains a museum and library established in 
1847, numerous churches and charitable institutions, and elegant drives leading 
to the suburbs, rich in inland and seaward scenery. It w^as founded in 1629, 
declared a free port in 1787, suffered severely from a tornado on March 30, 
1850, was made an Anglican bishop's see in 1861, and its harbor was used as 
a rendezvous for blockade-runners during the American civil war. 

Though a considerable foreign trade is carried on in the city, it enjoys its 
highest distinction as an unusually popular winter resort for invalids and 
pleasure seekers. Its proximity to the American coast and ease of access by 
steamship from a number of Atlantic ports, combined with the equability 
and wonderful salubrity of its climate, attract a large number of American fam- 
ilies annually who wish to escape the rigors of a northern season. The heat 
is tempered by an ocean breeze of a softness and purity not excelled else- 
where ; fish abound in the neighboring waters ; and northern fowl seek the 



1 1 34 THE BAHAMA ISLANDS.— NASSAU. 

region of the lakes close by, at the beginning of the American winter and the 
Nassau fashionable seasons. 

Nassau has been very aptly called a lazy man's paradise; and while air, 
surroundings, and associations are conducive to quiescence, there is an abun- 
dance of material for the most active sight-seeing. Beside the ordinary trop- 
ical trees found in the West Indies, the tourist will be pleased to meet the 
banyan tree, the royal African palm, the silk-cotton tree, the life plant — that 
mysterious growth of which a leaf, if broken off and pinned to the wall, will 
not only thrive without water but will send forth shoots that in turn produce 
others and so rapidly, that the product of a single leaf will soon cover the 
side of a large room — and many other marvels of plant, flower, and shrub. 
One of the most charming spots on the island is Lake Killarney, whose 
greenish transparent water gleams amid orange and cocoanut groves, and 
whose emerald hue contrasts strongly with the scarlet of the pine-apple plan- 
tations that surround it. The Caves, which are composed of a series of 
caverns, are much frequented by American tourists. Two of these are of fair 
size, but the largest is a mile in the interior. The vestibule is divided into 
two parts which run at right angles to each other, and one of them bears a 
resemblance to a cathedral, with its altar, chancel, and columns, while the 
roots of a banyan tree, which have pierced its roof, are not unlike supports for 
chandeliers. The inner chamber which is entered through a narrow hole 
about half a mile long, is wrapped in such gloom that the torches used by 
visitors only make its blackness seem deeper. Those who have a taste for 
archaeology would enjoy a visit to Forts Fincastle, which, viewed from the 
front, resembles a side-wheel steamship built of stone, and Charlotte at the 
western end of the town, with their gloomy vaults and dungeons, massive 
walls and inky passages of stone, which seem to breathe of past cruelty and 
slaughter. Fort Fincastle is now used as a station for signalling the ap- 
proach of vessels. Fort Charlotte was built by the Earl of Dunmore more 
than lOO years ago, has gloomy passages of massive rock, numerous dun- 
geons, and a curious deep well with circular stairs leading to the bottom, 
from which an almost hair-raising passage enables one to reach a chamber 
known as " The Governor's Room." 

There is so much to see, learn, enjoy, and be benefited by in this de- 
lightful winter resort, that one season will hardly suf^ce to yield the amount 
of satisfaction that is possible. 



THE 

COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA 
Their Capitals and Seaports. 




BRAZIL. 

RAZIL, until the peaceful revolution of 1889, was a constitutional 
monarchy. The treatment of its history must necessarily be con- 
fined to the period prior to that event, as the time to write accu- 
rately and impartially of the recent change in government has not yet arrived. 

The country occupies one-half the entire territory of South America, and 
has an area nearly equal to that of the whole of Europe. It extends from 
latitude 4° 30' north to 33° 45' south, and from longitude 34° 40' to 72° 30' 
west, and has an extreme length of 2,600 English miles, a breadth of 2,500 
miles, and a sea-board of 4,000 miles. The area is variously estimated at 
from 3,218,166 to 3,288,963 square miles, and the population was computed in 
1885 at 12,922,375, of whom 1,149,723 were slaves. Beyond this enumeration 
there was a nomadic aboriginal population estimated at 1,000,000. 

The country has an unusually large and constant water supply from its 
remarkable riv^er system, which— if it did not include that grand monarch of 
rivers — the Amazon — would still be a natural phenomenon. The Amazon is 
reputed the largest river in the world, and though it is claimed that both the 
Mississippi and Nile rivers are longer, they are unquestionably inferior in 
volume. It rises in the mountains of western Peru near the Paciiic Ocean, 
and, after flowing a distance of nearly 3,000 miles, empties into the Atlantic 
through a main mouth fifty miles wide. If it be admitted, as is strongly 
asserted, that the Para River also is an outlet, the delta of the Amazon will 
measure 180 miles in width. The Amazon itself drains 800,000 square miles 
of territory within the country, and with its numerous tributaries about one- 
third the whole of South America. 

The surface of the country is divided into the higher region of plateaus, 
ridges, broad, open valleys, and the vast lowland plain of the Amazon. The 



1136 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA; 

mountains are rich in minerals and precious stones; mines of diamonds are 
both numerous and exceedingly productive; and, according to Prof. Agassiz, 
no country in the world approaches Brazil in the variety and wealth of its 
forest productions. From a single piece of land not half a mile square he 
cut 117 different kinds of valuable woods, and noted particularly a single 
variety of the palm from which the natives obtained food, drink, clothing, 
bedding, cordage, fishing tackle, medicine, and the material they manufac- 
tured into dwellings, weapons, harpoons, and musical instruments. The most 
important trees are the Brazil wood, rosewood, laurel, soap, and the entire 
family of palms. The cocoa tree, which grows in great quantities, supplies 
chocolate, one of the most important items of internal commerce, and the 
gum of the caoutchouc tree, w^hich is tapped daily in the dry season, when 
held in the smoke made by burning the nuts of the tucuma becomes the india 
rubber of commerce. The fruit of the Brazil-nut tree ranks third in import- 
ance among the exports of the Amazon valley, the first two being rubber and 
cocoa. 

The soil in general is very rich ; the valley of the Amazon is so fertile that 
nearly all its vegetation is spontaneous, and agriculture is carried on rudely 
and without tilling. The eastern and coast provinces are the chief agricul- 
tural regions, where coffee, sugar, cotton, cassava flour, tobacco, rice, maize, 
fruits, and spices are grown in enormous quantities. The flora and fauna are 
the most luxuriant and beautiful in the world ; the birds are unapproachable 
in brilliancy of plumage; animal life is displayed in its wildest forms; and the 
domestic animals of importance are limited to the horse, cattle, and sheep. 
Cattle are bred in the central and southern provinces, but sheep do not thrive 
as well. As may be imagined from the great extent of the country, the 
climate shows considerable variations. In the Amazon basin the temperature 
averages between 75° and 90° F. ; in the latitude of Rio de Janeiro the sum- 
mer or January temperature averages about 75° near the sea level, and that 
of July about 65°. Snow and ice form on the high table-lands and mountain 
ranges. At the mouth of the Amazon the climate in general is similar to 
that of New York city in August. 

Under the empire the state treatment of religious affairs was liberal. The 
established form was Roman Catholic, but there was no persecution in any 
way for religious acts or motives. The empire maintained the Roman Cath- 
olic clergy and also aided materially in the building of churches and support 
of clergy and institutions of other denominations. The educational system 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1137 

was thorough and likewise Hberal, but unfortunately has not been fully 
appreciated. Public education is primary, secondary, or preparatory, and 
scientific or superior. In all cases it is gratuitous. 

In 1886 there were 4,379 miles of railroad in operation and 1,410 under 
construction, and 6,440 miles of telegraph, beside a submarine cable to 
Europe. The same year the total imports amounted to $103,691,240, and 
the exports, which were chiefly coffee, sugar, and hides, §1 15,143,260. In 
1887 the public revenue was $100,364,124, one half of which was from cus- 
toms duties, and the expenditures $115,133,240; and the public debt of all 
kinds aggregated $565,035,000. The recent trade with the United States 
was as follows: imports: 1885,17,258,035; 1886, $6,480,738; 1887, $8,071,653; 
exports: 1885, $45,263,660; 1886, $41,907,532 ; 1887, $52,953,176. In the lat- 
ter year there were sixty-two cotton spinning and weaving factories, with 
5,084 horse-power and 5,712 looms, and fifty-two central sugar houses, for 
thirty-three of which the government guaranteed the interest on the capital 
invested, $10,000,000. 

Under the empire the government of the country was a constitutional 
monarchy. Four powers were established by the constitution : the legisla- 
tive, vested in a national assembly comprising a senate of fifty-eight life 
members and a congress 01 122 representatives elected for four years; the 
executive, vested in the emperor, assisted by a cabinet of ministers and a 
council of state; the judicial; and the moderating, or royal prerogative. 
For administrative purposes the country was divided into twenty provinces, 
comprising 642 municipalities. Each provincial government consisted of a 
provincial chamber and a general council or legislative assembly; the mem- 
bers of the former were elected directly by the voters for terms of two years, 
and of the latter by the same electors as the members of the house of repre- 
sentatives. The chief cities are Rio de Janeiro, the capital, population in 
1887,274,972; Bahia, 128,929; Pernambuco, 1 16,671 ; Para, 35,000; Maran- 
ham, 31.604; Sao Paulo, 25,000; and Parahiba, 15,000. The language of the 
country is Portuguese. 

Brazil was discovered in 1500 by V. Y. Pinzon, an associate of Columbus. 
Pedro A. Cabral subsequently took possession of it, and amid the persistent 
opposition of several countries the Portuguese made a number of settlements. 
In 1807, Napoleon declared war against Portugal, and in the following year. 
King John VI. fled with the royal family to Brazil, then a Portuguese colony. 
In 181 5 the colony was declared a kingdom; in 1820 the royal family re- 



II38 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

turned to Portugal, the king leaving his son, Dom Pedro I. as regent; in 1821 
a national congress chose him Perpetual Protector; and in 1822 he declared 
Brazil free and independent, assumed the title of Constitutional Emperor and 
Protector, and was recognized by Portugal in 1825. Dom Pedro I. abdicated 
in favor of his son, Dom Pedro II., in 1831, and the country remained under 
a regency till 1841, when the new emperor was crowned. In 1865-70 the 
country was at war with Paraguay; 1866 all the important rivers were opened 
to foreign commerce; 1871 and 1885 provisions were made for the gradual 
liberation of the slaves, and in 1888 the emancipation measures were con- 
summated. In November, 1889, the empire was overthrown by a peaceful 
revolution. The royal family was pensioned and retired to Portugal, and 
measures were taken for the organization of a republican government. 




CITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 

10 DE JANEIRO, the city of the " River of January," the capital 
of Brazil and much the largest city in South America, is situated 
on the western shore of a bay of the same name, in latitude 22° 54' 
south, and longitude 43° 10' west. The bay is twenty-four miles in length 
from north to south, from four to fifteen miles wide, and being inclosed by 
hills over 1,000 feet high, forms the finest, safest, and most capacious harbor 
in the world. Its entrance, which is protected on both sides by heavy for- 
tifications, is 1,700 yards wide with an average depth of fourteen fathoms of 
water. Near the entrance, and where the bay is only from four to eight 
miles wide, the city stretches a distance of six miles. A fine pier of stone 
projects a short distance into the bay, and is ascended by a flight of steps. 
It leads directly to the Pra9a de San Jos^, two sides of which square are oc- 
cupied by the imperial palace. The streets are paved; the houses, generally 
built of stone and two-stories high, are white-washed or rough cast, with red- 
tiled roofs, and projecting eaves; the lower story is usually a coach-house or 
stable, the windows of the second reach the floor and open upon iron verandas, 
guarded by trellis-work shutters. 

In 1887 there were sixty churches, of which the cathedral and the 
churches of San Francisco de Paula and De Candelaria were the most distin- 
guished buildings in the city. The church of San Francisco is very large, has 
extensive catacombs beneath it, and, like all the older structures of the kind, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1139 

has a plain exterior, but is richly decorated within. The chapels of the 
emperor and empress near the palace are splendid churches. The public 
buildings of note include the government building, the post-ofifice, the marine 
hospital, the opera-house, the military barracks, the offices of the ministers of 
war and of commerce, the senate building and the National Museum, which 
contains fine collections of minerals and precious stones, American orni- 
thology, and native Indian curiosities, beside many foreign curiosities, speci- 
mens of natural history, and a number of sarcophagi. The six last buildings 
are on the Campo de Santa Anna, the largest public square in the city. 
Among other buildings the mint. Academy of Fine Arts, observatory, im- 
perial library, and the palace of San Christovao are prominent. The charita- 
ble institutions include a number of hospitals for natives, Portuguese, English, 
French, and Spaniards. The city has a grand array of educational institu- 
tions, comprising a national college, military and engineering school, naval 
academy, school of medicine and surgery, a commercial school, a geographical 
and historical institute, a polytechnic and agricultural college, several night 
schools for adults, and numerous public, parochial, and private schools. The 
imperial library is noteworthy, beyond its treasures, because it was at one 
time the royal library of Portugal, and was removed from Lisbon to Rio de 
Janeiro on the flight of King John in 1808. 

The city is supplied with good water by means of what is probably the 
greatest curiosity in that entire section. The source of the supply is the 
Corcovado Mountain, 2,307 feet above sea level, and on the summit of which is 
the observatory and a watch tower. Rushing down the mountain, the water 
is collected into the Casa de Agua, or reservoir, about four miles from the 
city. From this it is conveyed by an aqueduct of huge blocks of granite, 
twelve miles long, begun in the middle of the seventeenth and finished in the 
middle of the eighteenth ce-ntury, and crossing a valley over 200 yards wide 
supported on two rows of arches one above another, and reaching a height of 
ninety feet, to the city where it is distributed into numerous fountains for 
general use. 

The harbor is entered annually by about 4,500 vessels of 2,500,000 tons 
burden from foreign ports, and about 6,500 vessels of over i ,,000,000 tons 
from domestic ones. During the ten years preceding 1889, the average value 
of imports was $37,000,000, and of exports $54,000,000. The chief item of ex- 
port is coffee, and about one-half of the entire product is shipped to the 
United States. The population of Rio de Janeiro in 1885 was 274,972. The 



II40 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

first settlements on the bay were made by Portuguese in 1531. They soon 
withdrew, and a colony of French Huguenots followed them in 1555. The 
Portuguese, however, returned, drove the French away, and made a perma- 
nent settlement in 1567. The city became the capital of the Portuguese 
viceroyalty in 1763, and of the Brazilian empire in 1822. 

Pernambuco, with a population of 116,671, has a decidedly metropolitan 
air, with long lines of street cars, substantial iron bridges over the rivers that 
divide the city into three sections, streets closely built with stucco-front 
houses three and four stories high, and an extensive market built of stone 
and iron. The city is built on perfectly level ground, presents a long front 
to the water, exhibits much neatness and commercial thrift, and imports large 
quantities of sugar, molasses, and rum. 

Para, with a population of 35,000, is, after Quito, the only considerable 
city in the world on the equatorial line. The river in front of the city is 
twenty miles wide, but the expanse is broken by numerous islands. Ships of 
any size will float within 150 yards of the shore. The city is regularly laid 
out, has a number of handsome public squares, wide and attractive avenues, 
six large churches including the cathedral, a post office, a custom house of 
considerable magnitude, and a most ornate presidential mansion, with a 
staircase of marvellously sculptured marble. The commerce of the city is 
carried on almost exclusively by Portuguese and other foreigners; and the 
chief exports are rubber, cacao, coffee, sugar, cotton, sarsaparilla, vanilla, 
copaiba, tobacco, rum, hides, parrots, and mokeys. 




THE REPUBLIC OF CHILI. 

HI LI occupies the long narrow strip of territory between the 
Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, and the nineteenth and 
fifty-sixth degree of south latitude. Including Antofagasta, which 
was ceded to it by Bolivia in 1885, Tarapaca, which Peru surrendered in 
1883, and Tacua, which by the treaty of peace is to remain in the posses- 
sion of Chili till 1893, when the question whether it shall revert to Peru 
or remain a part of Chili is to be settled by a popular vote, the republic 
contained in 1885 an area of 293,310 square miles, and had a population of 
2,520,442. Its surface is mountainous, with a mean elevation of 14,000 feet 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1141 

abov'e sea-level; the average height of the Andes there is 1 1,830 feet, and their 
highest peak, Aconcagua, is 22,420 feet above the sea. The upper half of the 
country is generally barren and sterile, the richest and most fertile portions 
being the central and southern parts. Above 82 per cent, of the whole sur- 
face is desert, mountain pasture, and forest, and the remaining 18 per cent, 
arable land. Agriculture is pursued with much industry, and owing to local ne- 
cessities, with the most improved implements and on advanced scientific plans. 
The country is destitute of rivers or lakes of any magnitude, but numerous 
small streams fed by the melted mountain snow are skilfully utilized for irri- 
gation p jrposes. The staple products are the usual kind of European cereals, 
potatoes which are indigenous, hemp, fruits of all kinds, the vine, and the 
olive. In mineral resources the country is richest in copper, though it has 
considerable mines of gold and silver, and all are worked with modern appli- 
ances. The climate embraces the extremes of intense heat and intense cold, 
is on the whole healthful and as enjoyable as any on the globe, and averages 
in temperature at Santiago 53° F. The rainy season is June, July, and August ; 
spring begins in September, and winter in June. 

Politically the republic is divided into eighteen provinces and four terri- 
tories. The capital is Santiago, usually spoken of as Santiago de Chili to 
distinguish it from other cities and towns of the same name; Talcahuana has 
the best harbor, and Coquimbo the second, but that of Valparaiso is the most 
important, as that city is the seaport of the capital. The president is elected 
for a term of five years; the legislative authority is vested in a senate of 
thirty-seven members elected for six years and a chamber of deputies of 109 
members elected for three; and the executives of the provinces are appointed 
by the president. All citizens able to read and write, and who pay a small 
annual tax, are allowed to vote in all elections. The constitution guarantees 
personal and religious freedom, but makes the Roman Catholic the religion 
of the state. Through all the changes of administration the government has 
liberally fostered the cause of education, and the remarkable statement can 
be made with absolute truth that in the total population one person out of 
every seven can read, one out of every eight can read and write, and one out 
of every twenty-four attends school regularly. Nearly two-thirds the educa- 
tional institutions are supported by the government. In 1885 there were 
1,421 miles of railroads, and 7,625 of telegraph lines in operation; in 1886 the 
revenue, one-half of which was derived from customs and monopolies, 
amounted to $35,064,350, and the expenditures were $50,073,183; and on 



II42 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA. 

Jan. 1,1887, t^^<^ total debt was $120,428,825. The exports of 1886 included 
products of the mines worth $40,264,340, of agriculture $9,710,747, of manu- 
factures $172,900, and of specie and bullion $644,416. Recent trade with the 
United States is shown as follows: exports; (1883) $435,584, (1884) $537,936, 
(1885) $604,525, (1886), $1,182,845, (1887) $2,863,233 ; imports: (1883) $2,837,- 
551, (1884), $3,236,945, (1885) $2,192,672,(1886) $1,973,548, (1887) $2,062,507. 

When Francisco Pizarro had overthrown the empire of the Inca of Peru, 
he sent Almagro to subjugate Chili. The latter invaded the country 1535, and 
with great loss of men passed over the Andes and through the desert of Ata- 
cama, and entered the northern provinces, previously dependencies of Peru, 
without material resistance. But when he started southward he encountered 
many war-like tribes, by whom he was held in check till his death. He was 
succeeded by Valdivia, who advanced to the Biobio, completed the conquest, 
and founded the town of Santiago in 1541. For more than 200 years the 
Spaniards endeavored to establish and maintain their authority in the southern 
provinces, but without permanent results; and in 1771 they were compelled 
to abandon all that country except Valdivia, Osorno, and a few fortresses on 
the Biobio. In 18 10 the Chilians revolted against the Spanish dominion, and 
on Sept. 18 declared themselves independent. This action led to a war that 
ended in 18 14 with the defeat of the Chilians by the Spaniards at Rancagua. 
Three years later the country was entered from La Plata by San Martin, who 
by the battles of Chacabuco, Feb. 12, 1817, and Maypu, April 5, 1818, effected 
the liberation of the country, though the Spaniards held possession of the 
island of Chiloe till January, 1826. The constitution was adopted 1824, subse- 
quently remodelled, and proclaimed 1830. Spain recognized the republic in 
April, 1844. In 1865 Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador were engaged in a war 
with Spain, during which Spanish vessels bombarded Valparaiso and destroyed 
$1 5,000,000 worth of property. The European powers compelled Spain to raise 
the blockade of the port, and through the mediation of the United States a 
treaty of peace between Chili and Spain was signed in 1869. After the war of 
1879-81 with Peru and Bolivia, Chili extended its northern frontier from 
latitude 24° to 19° south, and ceded all of Patagonia east of the crest of the 
Andes to the Argentine Republic. 



CITY OF SANTIAGO. 

ANTIAGO, the capital of the repubhc, is in the plain of the same 
name, on the Mapocho, a branch of the Maypu River, at an eleva- 
tion of 1,690 feet above the sea-level, and in latitude 33° 25' south, 
and longitude 70° 38' west. The city is laid out in rectangular and equal 
squares, called quadras ; the principal streets are about forty-five feet wide ; 
and the houses are generally but one story high, large and containing many 
rooms, arranged round three quadrangular squares, called patios. The Plaza 
Mayor, or great public square, occupies the space of a whole quadra in the 
centre of the city, and has a handsome bronze fountain, with a large hewn- 
stone basin, in the centre, and beautiful parterres of grass and flowers. The 
president's palace, the penitentiary, and the chamber of justice stand on the 
north-west side, and the massive stone cathedral and the archbishop's palace, 
a striking building in the Moorish style of architecture, on the south-west. 
Other public buildings of note are the mint, national museum, treasury, legis- 
lative hall, the handsomest theatre in South America, and many churches and 
convents — especially those of San Domingo, San Francisco, and San Augustin; 
the University, the military academy, the academy of sciences, two national 
colleges, a number of primary schools, and the large public library. There 
are also two large and well-endowed hospitals, that of San Juan de Dios for 
males, and that of San Francisco de Borjas for females. A beautiful paseo, 
combining the features of a public park, promenade, and drive, extends along 
the banks of the river a distance of two miles, and contains statues of many 
of Chili's most celebrated men, besides one of Abraham Lincoln. The city 
is defended by two fortresses on the crown of the hill of Santa Lucia which 
are much visited by tourists on account of the excellent view of the Andes 
they afford. Near the hill on the north is the tajamar, or breakwater, raised 
to protect the city from the overflow of the Mapocho during the melting 
of the mountain snows. The road from Santiago to Valparaiso, a distance of 
ninety miles, is the best artificial road in South America, and practicable for 
carriages though it crosses three ranges of steep hills. A terrible disaster 
occurred in Santiago on Dec. 8, 1863. A church belonging to the Jesuits had 
been dedicated in 1857 to the Immaculate Conception, and a confraternity 
had been founded with which nearly all the best families in the city were 
afifiliated. In each year from November 8 to December 8, a celebration was 



1 144 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA. 

held every evening, terminating on the day of the Conception. On the last 
evening some of the muslin drapery of the image of the Virgin caught fire, 
and in fifteen minutes 2,500 corpses were all that remained of the congrega- 
tion. A grand Martyrs' Monument has since been erected to the memory of 
those who perished. In 1875 an international exhibition was held in the city. 
The population of Santiago was estimated in 1880 at 193,517. 




CITY OF VALPARAISO. 

ALPARAISO, the principal port of the republic, is situated in lati- 
tude 33° i' south, and longitude 71° 45' west, on a bay opening di- 
rectly into the Pacific Ocean, having three well-sheltered sides and 
the fourth exposed to the winds from the north. It consisted previous to 1854 
of a long, narrow street, built under a cliff and following the contour of the 
shore close to the sea-side. Painted piazzas are substituted for balconies 
almost at every house, and their different colors give the city a bright and 
gay appearance. Abov€ the heights a handsome suburb has been laid out 
chiefly by American, English, and French merchants. The harbor is defended 
by three forts and a powerful v/ater battery, is easy of entrance, and has nine 
fathoms of water close in shore. It is by far the best along the American 
coast of the South Pacific, and is annually entered by over 1,500 vessels. 
The custom-house, government ware-houses, ship-building yards, the English, 
French, and United States hospitals under charge of resident physicians, the 
Protestant cemetery, and several of the churches are the chief local attrac- 
tions. The population in 1886 numbered 100,926, of whom 75,000 were 
natives, 6,500 British, 3,750 French, and 1,500 Italians. The city was almost 
entirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1822, suffered severely from a fire in 
1858, and was bombarded by the Spaniards in 1866. These calamities per- 
mitted avast improvement in the rebuilding of the city; and several public 
works, such as laying out the government square on which the Exchange is 
located, and Victoria square which has a theatre, the construction of a mole 
for the loading and discharge of vessels in the harbor, and the opening of 
coal mines in the south and quicksilver mines in the hills back of the city, 
have since been carried out. The city is lighted with gas, possesses street 
railroads, banks, foundries, and various manufactories, and is connected with 
the capital by railroad and telegraph. 



THE REPUBLIC OF PERU. 

ERU, the traditional home of the Incas, the land of extreme antiq- 
uity and of fabulous silver wealth, and one of the chief maritime 
nations of South America, lies on the west coast of the continent, 
is bounded on the north by Ecuador, on the east by Brazil and Bolivia, on 
the south by Chili, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Previous to the 
disastrous war with Chili, 1879-81, its territory lay between latitude 3° 20' and 
22° 20' south, and longitude 67°and 81° 26' west, and embraced an area of 
504,000 square miles. It had a width varying from 60 to 750 miles, a total 
length of 1,250 miles, excepting the coast line which was 1,300 miles, and a 
population of 3,400,000. In 1886 its area was estimated at somewhat less 
than 500,000 square miles, and its population at 2,600,000. Chili took from it 
the littoral province of Tarapaca by the treaty of peace, leaving it divided 
politically into seventeen departments and one littoral province, Callao. 

The entire length of country is traversed by two parallel ranges of the 
Andes, dividing the surface into the coast, the sierra, and the montana 
regions. The first is a sandy waste, from twenty to sixty miles in width ; the 
second is about 100 miles wide, covers 150,000 square miles, or one-third the 
entire territory of the country, contains nine-tenths of the cultivated area, 
and four-fifths of the population ; and the third is a comparatively little known 
tract, supposed to be quite fertile, containing vast navigable rivers, and in- 
habited chiefly by Indians still uncivilized. The climate is dry and hot on 
the coast, cold in the central or elevated portion, and hot again in the ex- 
treme east. The mountains are rich in minerals, and the valleys very fertile. 
Agriculture is carried on in the interior in a primitive manner, but in other 
localities modern appliances are used. Near the coast there are many large 
plantations of cotton and sugar, on which the greater part of the work is done 
by steam. The forests abound in cedar, ebony, walnut, and mahogany, as 
well as the cinchona tree from which quinine is made, rubber, bread-fruit tree, 
and a variety of spices. The wild animals are the puma, jaguar, bear, deer, 
boar, armadillo, fox, and several species of the monkey family. Alligators 
swarm the rivers, and seals and tortoises disport along the coast, while the 
rivers and lakes supply numerous edible fish, including the princely salmon. 

Though its sources of mineral wealth are many and exceedingly valuable. 



1146 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

and the productions of its soil correspondingly rich both for domestic con- 
sumption and export, its entire yield of natural, cultivated, and manufactured 
articles is inferior in aggregate value to that of the millions of tons of guano 
that have been deposited by birds along the seacoast and on the neighboring 
islands, extending in some places to a depth of eighty feet. Next in value 
are the deposits of nitrate of soda in the province of Tarapaca. The hand- 
ling of these articles constituted a government monopoly for many years ; 
but Chili took possession of both industries after the war of 1879-81. There 
are about 15,000 mines of all kinds .in the country, about 600 of which are 
regularly worked, and a single one of silver has an annual yield of 1,500,000 
ounces. In 1878 there were exported 450,000 tons of guano, 250,000 tons 
of saltpetre, and 200,000 tons of sugar. Recent trade of all kinds with the 
United States has been, exports : (1884) $2,077,645,(1885) $1,764,890,(1886) 
$963,480, (1887) $461,726; imports: (1884) $1,043,902,(1885) $735.979- (1886) 
$798,577, (1887) $717,968. The total national indebtedness amounted to 
$373,456,940 on July I, 1886, and the budget for 1887-8 estimated the reven- 
ues at $16,183,674, and the expenditures at $13,632,386. 

The government is modelled after that of the United States. The execu- 
tive authority is vested in a president for a term of four years, and the legis- 
lative in a senate of forty-four members and a house of no representatives. 
The established church is the Roman Catholic, and none others are tolerated. 
Education is compulsory and gratuitous, and is well cared for by the govern- 
ment and large cities. The country is full of antiquarian remains, especially 
in the line of various structures, temples, aqueducts, walls, and monuments, 
composed of enormous blocks of stone. 

Peru was an old country when the Spaniards discovered it early in the six- 
teenth century, for they found it inhabited by the Quichuas and Aymaras, 
two powerful races in subjection to the Inca dynasty. It became and re- 
mained a viceroyalty of Spain till 1821, when the Argentine general, Jose de 
San Martin, after a successful invasion, proclaimed its independence. He held 
the protectorship a short time, and was succeeded by General Bolivar, who 
defeated the Spaniards in 1824, and drove them from their last stronghold, 
Callao, two years later. A republican form of government was established 
in 1825; the Peru-Bolivian confederation was formed 1836, and overturned 
1839; slavery was abolished 1855; Bolivia, Chili, and Ecuador became allies 
of Peru in a war with Spain 1866; and a war was waged between Peru and 
Chili 1879-1881, which resulted, after brilliant exploits on sea and land by 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. ii47 

both countries, in the conquest of the southern provinces of Peru, the loss of 
its sea-coast territory and the occupation of its beautiful capital, Lima. 



CITY OF LIMA. 




IMA — Ciudad de los Reyes — " The City of the Kings," as it was first 
called, founded Jan. 6, 1535 (O. S.), by Pizarro, is the most inter- 
esting, historically, of all the capitals reared by the Spaniards, and 
was for 300 years the seat of " the haughtiest and perhaps the most luxurious 
and profligate of the Viceregal Courts." Its viceroys were invested with royal 
power, and ruled in the height of Peruvian glory. No city had such convents 
and such churches, none were endowed with such a prodigality of wealth. In 
Lima was the College of San Marcos, the oldest university in America, founded 
fifty-six years before the English landed in Virginia, and sixty-nine before the 
Mayflower pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. There, too, according to 
the Hon. E. George Squier, the Viceroy La Palata rode through the streets 
of his capital in 168 1 on a horse whose mane was strung with pearls, and 
whose shoes were of gold, over a pavement of solid ingots of silver. 

The city, which is the capital of the republic and of the department and 
province of the same name, is situated on the Rimac River, six miles from 
Callao, its seaport on the Pacific, and had a population in 1881 of about 125,- 
000. The city stands on high ground in a spacious and fertile valley, is about 
two miles in extent, is surrounded by two walls, and from its numerous domes 
and spires has an imposing and picturesque appearance at a distance. It is 
regularly laid out in square blocks of houses about 400 feet each way, the 
houses are built low on account of frequent earthquakes, and there are thirty- 
three public squares, the most spacious being the Plaza Mayor, which em- 
braces an area of nine acres in the centre of the city, and is connected with 
a grand bridge across the Rimac by a magnificent boulevard. On the north 
side of this square is the government palace, a large but gloomy-looking 
edifice, formerly occupied by the viceroys, and, under the republic, by the 
courts. On the east side are the cathedral, a handsome building of con- 
siderable extent, built of stone, with two towers 133 feet high, and most lav- 
ishly and artistically ornamented and furnished within, and the archiepiscopal 
palace, now in part used by the congress. On the west side are the town 
hall and the city prison, and on the south are private residences, well built 



II48 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

and richly furnished. All the above public buildings were erected by Fran- 
cisco Pizarro, whose ashes repose beneath the grand altar in the cathedral. 
There are fifty-six other ecclesiastical edifices, one of the most splendid of 
which is the immense church of San Pedro, founded in 1598, which has seven- 
teen altars, and contains the national library. A fountain stands in each of 
the four corners of the Plaza Mayor, and one in the centre surrounded by a 
gorgeous circular garden. In the centre of the Plaza de la Independencia is 
an equestrian statue of General Bolivar. In 1873 a portion of the ancient 
wall in the southwestern part of the city was pulled down, and a beautiful 
boulevard was laid out, and named in honor of Henry Meiggs, the American 
engineer and builder of Peru's great railroad over and through the mountains. 
The famous marble statue of Columbus was then erected between the boule- 
vard and the exhibition building. There are eight national colleges in the 
city, an ecclesiastical seminary, a medical college, a normal school, a military 
and naval institute, an industrial municipal school, a botanic garden, a national 
museum, the largest circus for bull-fighting in the world, two theatres, and 
numerous public baths. The exports and imports of the city together aver- 
age over $25,000,000 per annum. Lima suffered severely from earthquakes in 
1630, 1687, 1746, 1806, and 1828. 



CITY OF CALLAO. 

ALLAO, the port of Lima and principal seaport of Peru, is a fortified 
city on the Pacific Ocean, six miles by railroad from the capital. It 
is in latitude 12° 4' south, and longtitude 'j'j° 13' west, has an ad- 
mirable harbor and roadstead sheltered by two islands, and further improved 
by harbor walls, floating and wet docks, and a costly mole. It is defended by 
the fortress of San Felipe, from whose turrets the flag of Castile and Leon 
floated for the last time on the American continent as the emblem of Spanish 
authority. The city has gas works, sugar refineries, machine shops, and steam 
cranes for loading and unloading vessels. The chief exports are guano, gold^ 
silver, saltpetre, cinchona, sugar, hides, raw cotton, copper, and Indian wool. 
Its population in 1886 was 33,502. Callao was destroyed by an earthquake 
in 1746, and sustained great damage and loss of life by a tidal wave in January,. 
1878. The blockade of the port by the Chilians in the war of 1880-1 was a 
very serious matter for the Peruvians, as it was the rendezvous of all the 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1149 

lines of foreign steamships, and the point at which the commercial mails of 
all nations engaged in South Pacific trade were made up. The harbor was 
full of vessels from all parts of the world when the blockade was established ; 
but as no foreign power has a right to interfere in a war between the South 
American republics, their presence could do Peru no good. 



THE UNITED STATES of COLOMBIA. 




HE United States of Colombia is a republic in the north-western 
part of South America, includes the Isthmus of Panama, which 
connects the two continents, was formerly known as New Granada, 
has an area of 586,000 square miles, and had a population in 1886 of 3,500,000. 
It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the northeast and east 
by Venezuela, on the southeast and south by Brazil and Ecuador, and on the 
west by the Pacific Ocean. The republic is composed of nine states, An- 
tioquia, Bolivar, Boyaca, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Panama, Santan- 
der, and Tolima; the chief cities are Bogata, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Sabanilla 
or Baranquilla, Rio Hicha, Buenaventura, Panama, and Lumaco ; and the 
capital is Bogota, on the San Francisco River. The Andes Mountains here 
have three great ranges, the eastern, central, and western, between which are 
the large valleys of Cauca and Magdalena. The eastern branches have a series 
of table-lands from 8,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea level, and in the south- 
ern part are the table-lands of Pasto and Luquerres, with a mean elevation of 
14,000 feet. The climate on the highlands is mild and healthful ; but on the 
lowlands and along the coast it is intensely hot. 

The republic is exceedingly rich in natural resources. There is scarcely 
a state which does not possess in its soil more or less gold ; and even though 
rudely operated by a few laborers they produced annually between 1870 and 
1880 from $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 worth of that metal. The district of 
Choco has produced nearly all the platinum, and that of Muzo the emeralds 
that have abounded in foreign markets for several years ; and in various parts 
of the country are mines of silver, copper, lead, iron, quicksilver, coal, ame- 
thysts, and other varieties of valuable stones and minerals. Wheat, potatoes, 
the breadfruit, Peruvian bark, cedar, balsam, lignum vita, mahogany, rub- 
ber, and vanilla thrive with little cultivation. Among the peculiar varieties 
of tree-growth are three which have extraordinary virtues : one as a specific 



II50 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

against inflammation, the second for stanching effusion of the blood, and 
the third for instantaneously stopping bleeding at the nose. 

In 1886 the army consisted of 3,000 men. The law makes one per cent, 
of the male population liable to be called to arms in case of war. The funded 
debt of the republic on Dec. 31, 1884, amounted to $26,000,000, of which 
$11,000,000 were on foreign account. The commercial dealings with the 
United States showed exports (1885) $2,342,077 ; (1886) $3,008,921; and im- 
ports (1885) $5,397,412 ; (1886) $5,294,798. The transit trade through the ports 
of Panama and Aspinwall is of far greater importance than the direct com- 
merce, its value being estimated at not less than $85,000,000 per annum. 

Since the early history of this continent the cutting of a passage through 
the Isthmus, which would unite the two great oceans, has been the object of 
constant solicitude and speculation on the part of commercial nations, en- 
terprising engineers, and far-seeing publicists; and since the beginning of the 
sixteenth century innumerable surveys have been made for a connecting canal 
through Tehuantepec, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. In the early part 
of 1888 the great project seemed in a fairway toward accomplishment, M. de 
Lesseps being then well advanced on his Panama ship-canal, and work on 
a second, through Nicaragua, in which the United States was more particu 
larly interested, being actively opened. But in the latter part of 1888 the 
French scheme became seriously impaired by the bankruptcy of the company, 
and in May, 1889, on the failure of the French people to respond with sufficient 
contributions, and the government to vote a subsidy or sanction a public lot- 
tery in its interest, the scheme was abandoned, and all the work done reverted 
to the possession of the Colombian government. This failure of the French 
project gave renewed encouragement to the advocates of the "American plan " 
for Nicaragua. The United States Congress passed a bill creating a corpora- 
tion for prosecuting the work, the secretary of the navy granted a distin- 
guished officer a year's leave of absence to enable him to become construct- 
ing engineer, and in May, 1889, the first shipment of men and machinery was 
made from New York by the corporation. It is proposed to improve the 
capacious and long neglected harbor of Greytown — designed for one termini — 
by dredging out the accumulated silt, and building a long breakwater. Esti- 
mated cost, $2,000,000. 

New Granada was discovered by Alonzo de Ojeda in 1499; the first settle- 
ment was made at Santa Maria la Antigua in 15 10; but the interior of the 
country was only conquered toward the middle of the sixteenth century by 



THEIR CAPITALS ANu SEAPORTS. 1151 

Benalcazar and Ximenes de Quesneda, who founded Santa Fe de Bogata in 
1545. The Spaniards remained in possession of the country till 181 1, when 
New Granada proclaimed its independence, and the war that ensued lasted till 
1 82 1. New Granada, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama formed a union in 
1823. This was dissolved 1831, and the territory was divided between Vene- 
zuela, New Granada, and Ecuador. A confederation was formed 1857, and a 
new constitution proclaimed the following year. The present form of govern- 
ment was established 1861, and the present constitution adopted 1863. 
Like all South American countries, this has been kept in turmoil and deluged 
with blood through the machinations of ambitious men, and has had compar- 
atively few years of peaceful government. 



CITY OF BOGOTA. 



OGOTA, the chief city and capital of the republic, is situated in 
latitude 4° 36' north, and longitude 74^ 13' 59" west, and at the 
junction of the San Francisco River with the Rio de Bogata, is 
on a wide plateau 8,800 feet above sea level, and has a climate somewhat 
similar to that of autumn in the middle portion of the United States. The 
city is well-built, with houses averaging two stories in height ; but the streets 
are exceedingly narrow, and few will admit of the passage of ordinary 
vehicles. The residences are constructed of adobe in the form of a hollow 
square, are roofed with tiles, and inclose pretty court-yards and flower gar- 
dens. The streets are paved with cobble-stones and are mainly used for 
laundry purposes, having drainage ditches in the centre supplied with water 
from pipes at the houses on the corners, and in these ditches the people wash 
their clothing. There is a grand plaza in the centre of the city, with the 
cathedral on one side and the president's palace and the government houses 
on the other; and in the centre is a bronze statue of Simon Bolivar on a 
pedestal of stones contributed by the different states in the republic. The 
cathedral is 300 feet long and 100 wide, and contains a large number of mag- 
nificent paintings and decorations placed there by the Spaniards. There are 
thirty-six other churches, two of which are on the mountains, 1,500 feet above 
the city, and a number of monasteries and convents. Other prominent build- 
ings are the market, where one can buy the fruits and vegetables of the tor- 
rid and temperate zones, the University of Bogata, which has an astronomi- 



IIS2 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

Cell observatory ranking next after the National Observatory at Washington, 
D.C., three Jesuit colleges, the national academy, the public library, the mint, 
the hospital of San Juan de Dios, the opera house, and the theatre. There are 
mines of silver, gold, and precious stones in its immediate vicinity. One of 
the greatest attractions to the tourist is the grand cataract of Tequendama, a 
few miles below the city, where the Bogota River has a perpendicular fall of 
650 feet. 

The prevailing religion is the Roman Catholic, but there are no restrictions 
against other forms. Education is highly appreciated and liberally advanced. 
The city has suffered severely several times from earthquakes, and the mas- 
sive cathedral was greatly damaged by one in 1827. It is on account of the 
prevalence of earthquakes that nearly all the buildings are but one and two 
stories in height. The chief exports of Bogota are gold, silver, copper, tobacco, 
coffee, cocoanuts, and rubber. The population in 1886 was 40,883. 




THE REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA. 

HE republic of Venezuela is in the extreme north of South America, 
between latitude 1° 8' and 12° 16' north, and longitude 60° and 
73° 17' west, and is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, 
on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and British Guiana, on the south by Brazil, 
and on the west by the United States of Colombia. According to a cen- 
sus taken in 1884, it had an area of 632,695 square miles and a population of 
2,121,988. Politically it is divided into eight states, one federal district, eight 
territories, and two national settlements. The country is traversed by two 
distinct mountain systems north and south of the Orinoco River, with an 
average height of from 5,000 to 6,500 feet; but in the Sierra Nevadas there 
are two peaks which reach an altitude of 15,000 feet. Venezuela is watered 
by the Orinoco with its 400 navigable tributaries, a large number of streams 
which empty into the Caribbean Sea, and numerous lagoons and lakes. 

The soil is exceedingly fertile, and the climate is divided into hot, temper- 
ate, and cold according to location. In mineral resources the country poss- 
esses gold mines in the Yuruari district, which are among the richest in the 
word and to which England laid semi-ofificial claim in the early part of 1888. 
There are also considerable veins of silver, platinum, copper, iron, tin, zinc, 
and quicksilver, as well as mines of diamonds and other precious stones. But 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1153 

though the total mineral yield of 1884 reached the value of $4,452,050, of 
which $3,243,380 represented the output of gold, the mining industry has 
never been adequately developed ; and for many years the country has been 
distinguished among its sister republics as a stock-raising and agricultural 
section. In 1873 the chief occupation of the people was cattle-raising, and 
the country possessed 1,389,800 head of cattle, 1,128,273 sheep and goats, 
362,579 swine, 93,800 horses, and 47,200 mules. In eleven years this stock 
had much more than doubled, the reports for 1884 showing 2,926,733 cattle, 
3,490,563 sheep and goats, 976,500 swine, 291,603 horses, and 906,467 mules. 
The agricultural industry was represented that year by 852,500 acres under 
cultivation, and a yield of coffee, the chief product, worth $11,255,000, of 
sugar $7,686,000, of corn $6,000,000, and of cocoa $2,998,000. The principal 
articles of export are coffee, cattle, sugar, hides, gold, cocoa, tallow, horses, 
skins, and cabinet woods; and of import, cotton, linen, silk, flour, provisions, 
hardware, and wines. The custom-house reports show the recent trade with 
the United States as follows: exports: (1880) $6,039,092, (1886) $5,791,621, 
(1887) $8,261,271; imports: (1880) $2,330,745, (1886) $2,695,588, (1887) $2,- 
827,010. 

The constitution of Venezuela is a close imitation of that of the United 
States, and guarantees personal and religious freedom to every citizen. 
Like all South American countries the prevailing form of religion is the 
Roman Catholic, but all its clergy are subordinate to the civil authorities, 
and there are no restrictions upon the observance of other forms. Its edu- 
cational system is comprehensive, progressive, and handsomely supported. 
There are two large universities, six federal schools of the first class and 
fourteen of the second, four influential normal schools, twenty-four high 
grade private schools, nine national colleges for girls, a polytechnic institute, 
a school of arts and trades, a naval institute, and a school of telegraphy. 
Elementary education has been compulsory and gratuitous since 1870. A 
generous effort has been made to establish libraries throughout the country 
also. In 1874 all the public collections of books and documents, and those 
taken from the suppressed convents, were consolidated in the library of the 
University of Caracas, and there placed at the convenience of the public; and 
the government has since aided in the establishment of public libraries in 
each of the capitals of the eight states, besides founding a national museum 
in Caracas, which has valuable collections in the departments of national and 
natural history, ethno^-raphy, zoology, and geology. The chief cities are 



1 1 54 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

Caracas, the capital, population (1887) 70,509, Valencia, 36,145, and Barque- 
simeto, 28,918. La Guayra is the seaport of the capital. 

Columbus discovered the island of Margarita in 1498, and in the following 
year Vespucci examined the coast as far as the present Gulf of Maracaibo. 
A lacustrine Indian village was found, from which the Spaniards named the 
place Venezuela, or " Little Venice." In 1520 the first permanent settlement 
was made at Cumona; in 1522 Barquesimeto was founded; in 1555 Valencia; 
and 1557 Caracas. During a revolution in 1810-11 the people declared their 
independence of Spain, but were speedily subjected. In 18 19 Venezuela, New 
Granada, and Ecuador united in forming the republic of Colombia, which 
was recognized by Spain in 1823. Six years afterward this republic was 
divided into three independent states, Venezuela adopting a federal consti- 
tution in 1830. The country has been more free from revolutions than most 
of the other South American republics, though it has had its share. 




CITY OF CARACAS. 

ARACAS, the capital of the republic as well as of the federal district, 
is in latitude 10° 30' 50" north, and longitude 6'j° 5' west, at the 
eastern end of the valley of the same name, and nearly 3,000 feet 
above sea-level. Its streets and avenues cross one another at right angles, 
forming blocks of houses in almost exact squares. The city is well drained 
and abundantly supplied with wholesome water by several streams, and is 
kept remarkably clean by a host of carrion vultures that sweep through 
the streets and devour all manner of garbage and pestiferous refuse. Four 
beautiful avenues divide the city into equal parts, in each of which are 
numerous plazas or public squares, handsome gardens, churches, and public 
buildings. In the centre i? the Plaza Bolivar, and from it extend the North, 
East, South, and West avenues in a straight line far out into the country. 
The streets running parallel to Avenues North and South, to the west of 
those thoroughfares, are designated by even numbers, and those to the east 
of the avenues by odd numbers; and the streets crossing these at right angles 
are given odd numbers if they lie to the north of Avenues East and West, 
and even if to the South. Caracas comprises five parishes, Alta Gracia in the 
northwest, Cadelaria in the northeast, Santa Rosalia in the southeast, Santa 
Teresa in the south, and San Juan in the southwest. In each of these there 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. ii55 

is a parisn church, and in addition to them there are eight other churches in 
the federal district, which includes the actual extent of the city proper and 
its immediate suburbs. The cathedral and the church of Alta Gracia are the 
most notable buildings, though the University of Caracas, the National 
Museum close by, and several hospitals possess much national and local im- 
portance. The city is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop, is esteemed 
very healthful, and has been visited by several earthquakes, one of which, in 
1 812, caused the loss of over 12,000 lives. According to the last census there 
were 9,224 residences in the federal district, sheltering over 70,000 persons. 

La Guayra, the seaport, is in latitude 10° 36' north, and 66° 57' west, has 
a deep bay and a good anchorage, but is wholly unprotected against the fu- 
rious east winds. It is the most extensively frequented port on the coast, is 
defended by the fort of Cerro Colorado and numerous coast batteries, has a 
healthful climate and a temperature ranging from 100° to 110° F., and enjoys 
an extensive foreign and coasting trade. It has but two streets. The popu- 
lation was estimated at 8,000 in 1887. 



THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



HE Argentine Republic, an independent state on the southeast 
coast of South America, previously known as the Provinces of the 
Rio de la Plata and afterward as the Argentine Confederation, is 
situated between latitude 22° and 56° south, and longitude 53° 30' and 70° 
west, and since 1881 includes a large portion of Patagonia as well as of Terra 
del Fuego. It is bounded on the north by Bolivia and Paraguay, on the east 
by Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the 
Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by Chili, the Andes Mountains separating 
the two republics. Previous to the treaty with Chili in 1 881, its area w^as 
estimated at 841,000 square miles, and its population at 1,768,681 in 1869, 
and 2,400,000, exclusive of 93,291 Indians, in 1876. After the cession of por- 
tions of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego, the area became enlarged to over 
1,200,000 square miles, and the population to 2,942,000, which was oflficially 
divided as follows: natives, 2,121,000; Italians, 154,000; Spaniards, 73,200; 
French, 69,400; English and Irish, 23,000; and natives of other South Ameri- 
can countries the remainder. 



ii5t3 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

Over three-quarters of the country is a plain whose soil has been highly 
enriched by decayed vegetation, and is well watered by the Parana and its 
numerous tributaries. Excepting the extreme western border and a few iso- 
lated hills in the southeast, the country is exceedingly level and well adapted 
to agriculture, which is by no means pursued as extensively or systematically 
as the natural conditions would justify. The climate is in general healthy, 
though the atmosphere is very dry. In the south it resembles that of Nor- 
way, near Buenos Ayres that of England, and in the north that of France. 
The central portion is subject to warm north winds freighted with heavy 
vapor, heavy thunder-storms are frequent ; the pampero, a strong southwest 
wind, brings dryness from the Andes, and the zonda, a lasting north wind, 
brings intense heat. Physical compensation, however, is found in invariably 
cool nights. 

The natural resources are considerable and valuable, though lacking much 
of the means and spirit of development seen in the United States. There 
are large mines of gold, silver, iron — though the country imports from Europe 
almost all it needs — salt, gypsum, alum, sulphur, coal, copper, and pumice- 
stone. Along the Andes and on the banks of the Paraguay River are dense 
forests of important woods, while palms and other tropical trees abound in 
the north. Animal life embraces the llama of the plains; jaguars, pumas, 
capibara, and ounce in the forests; tapir in the north; deer in the pampas 
or grassy plains; the condor, Caracara vulture, parrots, and humming birds 
of exquisite plumage and enchanting song; seals, sea lions, and sea elephants 
are taken on the coast, and the rivers abound with a variety of fish, lamprey, 
trout, skate, and other table favorites. 

The chief industries are the cultivation of wheat, corn, oats, sugar cane, 
tobacco, cotton, flax, and peanuts, the breeding of cattle, goats, and sheep, 
mining and smelting of gold, silver, and copper, and the manufacture of 
guano, furs, ostrich feathers, and Liebig's extract of beef. The Pampa horse 
roams in herds of 8,000 to 10,000, and yields for export annually 250,000 
hides, while cattle, which seem to swarm the plains in millions, furnish an 
average of 3,000,000 hides per annum for export. In 1881, 3,397 vessels of 
413,419 tons entered, and 2,489 vessels of 321,168 tons cleared the various 
ports; and in 1882 the exports — about one-half hides and three-eighths wool 
— aggregated $58,441,000 and the imports $59,270,000. In the latter year 
there were 8,466 miles of telegraph and 1,617 miles of railroad in operation. 

The republic is composed of fourteen provinces, of which those of Buenos 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1157 

Ayres, Mendoza, Cordova, Corrientes, Salta, and Entre Rios are the most 
populous, each having over 48,000 inhabitants. The country is governed 
according to a constitution adopted in 1853 and since frequently revised, 
which invested the executive authority in a president elected by representa- 
tives of the provinces for a term of six years, the legislative in a congress 
composed of a house of representatives of fifty-four members and a senate 
of two members from each province, and the judiciary in a supreme court 
and a number of subordinate ones. The prevailing form of religion is the 
Roman Catholic, though all others are tolerated. Buenos Ayres has an 
archbishop, and the Littoral, Cordova, Cuyo, and Salta a bishop each. Prior 
to 1882 but little attention was paid the cause of education by the govern- 
ment, but since then universities have been erected in Buenos Ayres and 
Cordova, and colleges in those cities and in Concepcion. 

The history of the Argentine Republic dates back to the year 15 16, when 
Juan Diaz de Solis discovered the Plata River; but more immediately from 
the year 1535, when Don Pedro de Mendoza founded the city of Buenos 
Ayres,, the present capital. For many years the settlements were subject to 
attacks by native Indians, and were controlled politically by the viceroy of 
Peru till 1778. The first confederation embraced the provinces of the Rio 
de la Plata, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, which were formed into a sep- 
arate viceroyalty of Peru, with Buenos Ayres as its capital, in 1778. In 18 10 
the viceroy was expelled, and in 1813 the Spanish authority was thrown off, 
and a republic was established by a constituent assembly. Three years later 
the united provinces declared their independence and elected a dictator of 
the republic; but it was not till 1821 that they succeeded in terminating the 
Spanish domination by force of arms in several brilliant engagements. Then 
followed a long period of revolutions, secessions, and bitter warfare. A 
peace was concluded 1840, but soon afterward complications arose which led 
to the intervention of France and England. Paraguay and Uruguay became 
independent republics. The province of Buenos Ayres seceded 1852, but 
re-entered the confederation 1859. The constitution was adopted May nth, 
1853, and was revised in i860 and 1862, but the country was distracted by 
revolutions, incited mainly by aspirants to the presidency, to as late a period 
as 1880. 




CITY OF BUENOS AYRES. 

UENOS AYRES, the capital of the republic and of the province 
of the same name, is the largest city, and an important seaport. 
It is in latitude 34° 36' south, and longitude 58° 22' west, on the 
right bank of the Rio de la Plata, 100 miles from Montevideo, and 150 miles 
from the ocean. The streets, which are straight and cross each other at 
right angles, remind a tourist of Moorish and Spanish street scenes. A 
plaza or park extends along the entire water front, and is beautified with 
majestic palms and vines, parterres of flowers, numerous fountains, and some 
excellent statuary.' The buildings are mostly of soft brick plastered over, 
and generally of a quiet buff color, and the streets are too narrow to permit 
tree-planting in them. There is a pretty park at Palermo, a few miles from 
the city, with superb avenues of palms, and a collection of the wild animals 
of the country in cages, including jaguars, pumas, and others. The public 
buildings include a Roman Catholic cathedral, the government building, a 
number of old and handsomely decorated churches, and an educational insti- 
tution combining a college, a normal school, an observatory, and a valuable 
library. The city bears a particularly picturesque appearance by night as 
well as by day, and the promenade effects are greatly heightened by the rich 
costumes of the ladies. Everybody smokes cigarettes, and it is no exception 
to see the dainty fingertips of a belle stained brown with nicotine. The 
population of the city in 1882 was 295,000, and in 1886, 398,498. 



THE REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA. 

OLIVIA, the most central republic of South America, is bounded 
on the north and east by Brazil, on the south by the Argentine 
Republic and Chili, and on the west by Peru and Chili, and pre- 
vious~to the war with Chili in 1879-81 lay between latitude 9° and 23° 15' 
south, and longitude 57° 20' and 69° 30' west, and had an area of 842,000 
square miles. A result of Chili's victory in that memorable tripartite struggle 
was the cession to it of all Bolivia's coast territory, and since then no definite 
statement has been made either of its area or population. The greater 




THE COITNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA. ii59 

part of the country is mountainous and distinguished by numerous enormous 
peaks, many being living volcanoes. The plateau of Potosi has an elevation 
of 13,000 feet above sea level; Mount Sajama is 22,760 feet high. Mount 
Illampu 23,00c, and Mount Illimani 21,155. Three tributaries of the Madeira 
and three of the Parana rivers drain the country. Owing to its extreme ele- 
vation, Bolivia has five distinct grades of climate; the very cold, on elevations 
of 13,000 feet and over; the cold between 13,000 and 11,000; the high valleys, 
between 11,000 and 9,000; the medium, between 9,000 and 6,000; and the 
purely tropical. 

The natural resources are gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, quicksilver, iron, 
coal, nitre, and salt ; of forest growths there are excellent qualities of rubber, 
cinchona, and various medicinal roots and barks; and there are large and 
valuable deposits of guano. The wild animals embrace the llama, vicuna, 
alpaca, guanaco, several species of monkeys, wild-cat, bear, and wild boar. 
The agricultural productions include potatoes, oca, quinoa, barley, wheat, 
corn, cacao, coca, bananas, cofiee, cotton, tobacco, and sugar-cane. There 
is no direct commercial intercourse between Bolivia and the rest of the world, 
owing to the very poor facilities for transportation ; but a considerable trade 
is carried on with the adjoining countries, and to foreign ones through Bra- 
zil, Chili, and Peru, as Bolivia has now no sea coast nor port. The exports 
include silver, of which there is an annual production valued at $2,250,000, 
cinchona, coffee, yellow and white cotton, guano, copper, tin, and nitre; and 
the imports cotton and woollen goods, iron, hardware, silks, furniture, and 
jewelry. In 1879 the total value of exports was about $5,000,000, while the 
imports amounted to nearly $5,750,000. 

Up to 1880 there were but three railroads in the country, and though 
money had been appropriated two years previously to extend existing lines 
and open new ones, it was subsequently diverted to war purposes. A line of 
telegraph extends from Chililago, on Lake Titicaca. which is the largest in- 
land body of water in South America, having an area of 4,000 square miles, 
to La Paz and Orura, a distance of 180 miles. In 1880 the public debt 
amounted to $30,000,000, and the last reported revenue was $2,930,000, and 
expenditure $4,505,000. Since the war and the reduction of the army to a 
peace footing, that branch of the public service has cost two-thirds of the 
revenue, and consisted of 2,421 men, with eight generals and sufificient other 
officers to provide one officer for every two men. While all creeds are tol- 
erated, the Roman Catholic has been the prevailing form of religion since 



ii6o THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

1538, when the Spaniards conquered the country; and the four universities 
and half-dozen colleges and schools that have constituted the educational 
system in late years, owe their existence and influence almost wholly to the 
clergy of that church. 

The chief cities and towns are La Paz, Cochabamba, Sucre or Chuquisaca, 
Potosi, Santa Cruz, Oruro, Tarija, and Trinidad. La Paz and Oruro have 
both been the capital of the republic in past years, and Chuquisaca, or Sucre 
as it is more generally called, is now (1889) the seat of executive authority. 
The constitution that Simon Bolivar, after whom the country is named, gave 
the republic in 1826 has since been amended and altered entirely out of its 
original form. The original four years' term of the president has been changed 
to six years, then to a life tenure, and then back again to four years; but 
the internal revolutions have been so numerous that it would be diflficult to 
mention a single president who has lived or been permitted to serve through 
any of these terms. 

When Bolivia formed a part of the Inca empire of Cuzco (1018-1524), it 
enjoyed a high degree of civilization. The Spanish dominion was firmly es- 
tablished in 1780, and for some years the country formed a part of the vice- 
royalty of La Plata. A congress assembled in 1825, after many years of revo- 
lution and bloodshed, and declared the country an independent republic. In 
the following year a constitution was adopted, and General Sucre was elected 
president. In 1828 he was forced to leave the country; in 1835 the Bolivians 
invaded Peru and annexed a portion of their territory; 1839 ^^^ Bolivians 
were defeated by Chili ; 1866 Bolivia joined the alliance of Peru, Ecuador, 
and Chili against Spain; 1868 a new constitution was adopted and in the 
following year was overthrown and restored within three months; and 1879- 
81 a war undertaken by Peru with Bolivia as an ally against Chili resulted in 
Bolivia losing a fourth-part of its territory and a half of its accumulated 
wealth, and in Peru having the flower of its citizenship killed in battle on 
land and sea, and its fairest city bombarded and occupied by the Chilians. 
Between the foregoing events ambitious generals were elected and proclaimed 
president, deposed, expelled from the country, and assassinated with consid- 
erable regularity; and it may be said truthfully that in the hundred years 
ending with 1880, Bolivia was not free from revolution nor war for a consec- 
utive period of five years. 



CITY OF SUCRE. 

UCRE, the capital of the republic, is in latitude 19° 40' south, and 
longitude 65° 35' north, on a small plateau above the Rio de la 
Plata, and at an elevation of 9,343 feet above the sea level. It is a 
well-built city, with clean and spacious streets, and its houses, generally two 
stories in height, are provided with small paved courts with water running 
through them. The city has a grand square on which stands a notable foun- 
tain, and several buildings of considerable repute, among which are the 
magnificent cathedral, built in the Moorish style of architecture, with lofty 
towers and an immense dome; the churches of San Francisco and San 
Miguel; the president's palace; the seminary of St. Christopher, College of 
Junin; the " Colegio de las Educandas," a large female orphan asylum; sev- 
eral monasteries; and a theatre. Sucre is the see of a Roman Catholic 
archbishop, has valuable silver mines in its immediate vicinity, and a popu- 
lation composed mainly of Indians, who speak the Chichua language. The 
whole population was estimated in 1880 at 23,979. 



THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR. 




CUADOR is a republic on the west coast of South America, be- 
tween Peru and the United States of Colombia, and lies directly 
beneath the equator, irom which fact it derives its name. Its 
geographical location is between latitude 1° 50' north and 4° 50' south, and 
longitude 70° and 81° west; area, including the Tortoise Islands, 251,322 
square miles; population, according to the census of 1885, 1,004,651, of whom 
about 200,000 were uncivilized Indians. The territory is unequally divided 
into three districts by the Andes and Cordilleras Mountains, between which 
is a fertile table-land from 8,000 to 9,500 feet above sea level. This section is 
a fine agricultural region, capable of producing all the cereals and vegetation 
known to the temperate zone; but agriculture is there little understood as a 
science, in fact, cocoa is the only article cultivated with any degree of thor- 
oughness, and it forms the principal wealth of the country. 

The mountain ranges in Ecuador are distinguished by the presence of 
sixteen active volcanoes, the most noted of which is Cotopaxi, with an eleva- 



ii62 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

tion of 19,498 feet; Chimborazo is 21,414 feet high, Cayambe 19,386, and 
Antisana 19,140. The country is beheved to possess large wealth in precious 
metals; gold and silver, iron, coal, and salt are known to exist in paying 
quantities; but with the exception of salt, which forms a government monop- 
oh', the mines are undeveloped. The chief rocks are granite, syenite, tra- 
chyte, and porphyry. The forests contain valuable hard woods, and a pro- 
fusion of the cinchona tree, palm, Brazil nut, vegetable ivory, vanilla, 
rubber, tolu balsam, and the croton tiglium from which croton oil is obtained. 
There is but one railroad in the country (1889), connecting Quito, the capital, 
with Guayaquil, the chief port, and there are no telegraph lines. The state 
religion is the Roman Catholic, and no other forms are tolerated ; and the 
whole educational system is under the control of the priests. There is an 
archbishop at the capital, and a bishop in each of the provinces, which are 
subdivided into parishes, each of which has a public school, and in them lit- 
tle more than the primary branches is taught. It is estimated that fully one- 
half the population are unable to read or write. The total number of schools 
in all the provinces in 1885 was 522, with 45,533 pupils and 836 teachers, and 
the whole cost of education that year was only $152,080. 

Ecuador is divided politically into three departments, Quito, Guayaquil, 
and Azuay, and these into seven provinces, Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, 
Leon, Tungurahua, Chimborazo, and Quito. The constitution represents the 
democratic system of government as illustrated in the United States, and 
the legal as exemplified in the laws of Spain. The president holds ofifice 
four years, and the congress sits every two years. The provinces have terri- 
torial forms of government, and their chief executives are governors appointed • 
by the president. In addition to the usual forms of courts, to which the 
judges also are appointed by the president, there are commercial courts to 
which judges are elected by the merchants of the city or parish in which each 
of such courts has jurisdiction. The president and the vice-president are 
nominated by a body of 900 chosen electors, and none but believers in the 
Roman Catholic church are allowed to exercise the right of suffrage. 

The total exports in 1885 amounted in value to $6,680,815; the export to 
the United States was $1,131,169, and the import from the United States 
$1,049,392. The amount of cocoa, the chief product, exported that year was 
23,227,048 pounds, worth $5,080,918. In 1886 the custom house at Guaya- 
quil reported a total revenue of $1,940,536, which was $845,335 i" excess of 
that of the previous year. The ordinary income of the republic is $4,000,000, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1163 

and expenditure $3,360,000. The material and industrial progress of the 
country are retarded by the laws prohibiting freedom of conscience, the tax 
of 10 per cent imposed on all agricultural products, and the lack of proper 
roads. The Hon. Alexander McLean, formerly U. S. Consul at Guayaquil, 
thus sums up some of the disadvantages of a region teeming with undeveloped 
riches : " The crops reach a market in canoes. The implements sparingly 
used are similar to those of the ancient Egyptians. Oats are threshed by 
driving cattle over them, and corn is gathered and sold by the individual ear. 
The crops raised for export are cocoa, coffee, rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco. 
Rubber and cinchona are not properly crops. They are obtained in a bar- 
barous manner by killing the trees, in the case of rubber for the sap and in 
that of cinchona for the bark." 

Ecuador was discovered by Piza-rro in 1526, and passed into the hands of 
the Spaniards on the downfall of the empire of the Incas. It remained a 
Spanish possession till 18 12, when the inhabitants rose in rebellion. In 1821 
New Granada and Venezuela united and formed the republic of Colombia, 
in 1823 the Spaniards were driven from that part of South America, in 1831 
New Granada and Venezuela separated, and Ecuador, or the ancient king- 
dom of Quito seceded from the former, declared itself an independent repub- 
lic, and adopted a constitution. For many years the boundaries between 
Ecuador and Peru and Venezuela were a subject of much contention. In 
1859 there was an unsuccessful revolution at Guayaquil, and a successful one 
at Quito, which nearly resulted in the country becoming subject to Peru. 
In 1866 Ecuador joined in alliance with Chili and Peru to resist the attacks 
of Spain upon those republics. Revolutions and assassinations have been 
frequent, but the country has not been engaged in a war of any magnitude 
since 1823. It was visited by severe earthquakes on August 13th, 1868, and 
June 29th, 1887. 



CITY OF QUITO. 

UITO, the capital of the republic, is built on a side of the extinct vol- 
cano of Pichincha, in latitude 0° 13' south, and longitude 7^° 43' 
west, and at an elevation of over 9,000 feet above sea level. Not- 
withstanding its close proximity to the equator, it enjoys a healthy and equable 
climate, the temperature ranging from 45° to 75° F., and averaging 60°. 
Eight sum.mits of the Andes covered with perpetual snow can be seen from 




Ii64 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

its heights, and, in remarkable contrast, the beautiful cultivated valley of 
Chillo. The houses are solidly built and mostly one story in height, to re- 
duce the dangers of earthquakes. The public buildings embrace the palaces 
of the president and archbishop, the cathedral, and municipal hall, all built 
to face the Plaza Mayor, a university, four colleges, eleven schools of a higher 
grade than those previously mentioned, several seminaries, nearly 300 parish 
schools, a mintj a public library, a polytechnic school established 1872, and 
numerous churches, many of them with convents attached. In its neighbor- 
hood are the ruins of many ancient palaces of the Incas, beside traces of the 
great road which in the days of the Incas led from the city to the southern 
extremity of the valley of Titicaca. South of Quito is Tacunga, or Lacta- 
cungo, which, between 1698 and 1797, was four times destroyed by earth- 
quakes. The modern city of Quito was founded by Benalcazar in 1534, and 
had in 1885 a population variously estimated at from 75,000 to 80,000. 
Guayaquil, the chief port of the republic, is on a river of the same name, in 
latitude 2° 12' south, and longitude 79° 39' west, had a population, 1885, of 
25,000, and has long been noted for its manufactures of Panama hats. 




THE REPUBLIC OF PARAGUAY. 

O portion of South America has sustained such extrcn.c \ icissitudes 
through the terrible ordeal of war, as the republic of Paraguay. 
At one time its territory included the enormous region lying be- 
tween latitude 16° south and the Straits of Magellan, and between Chili and 
Peru on the west, and Brazil on the east. By the war with Brazil and the 
Argentine Republic in 1865-70, the country lost much of its best territory, 
beside the lives of nine-tenths of its entire population. Since 1870 the re- 
public has been confined to the tract between latitude 22° and 25° south and 
longitude 53° and 59° west, and been bounded on the north by Bolivia, on 
the west by Venezuela, on the south by the Argentine territor}' of the Mis- 
sions, and on the east by Brazil. 

Its area was estimated in 1879 at 91,980 square miles, and its population, 
exclusive of 130,000 Indians, at 346,048 — not as much as that of some thrifty 
cities in the United States. The country is well watered by the numerous 
tributaries of the Parana River on the south and east, and of the Paraguay on 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1165 

the west. It also has several large lakes, one covering an area of 100 square 
miles. There are no mountains within its limits, and no land exceeding 3,500 
feet in elevation. The highest portion, in the north, is quite fertile, but the 
greater southern portion is almost wholly covered with swamps and jungles. 
The animal kingdom is similar to that of Brazil, and is without distinctive 
species. It has a vast growth of forest, with some valuable woods ; not more 
than half of its most fertile districts are under cultivation ; and it stands alone 
among the countries of South America in having no mineral resources of 
commercial consequence. 

It is governed, under a constitution, by a president elected for six years, 
who has a cabinet of five ministers. Its dominant religion is the Roman 
Catholic, its language a patois in which the Spanish is combined with that of 
the Guarini Indians, and its educational interests have received but little 
attention till within the last few years. The exports are chiefly yerba mate, 
or Paraguay tea, tobacco, dry hides, tanned hides, tanning bark, oranges, 
lumber, tallow, wax, and wool ; and the imports, silks, woollens, linens, cottons, 
hardware, wines, and general provisions. There is no direct trade with the 
United States worthy of the name. Paraguay has a standing army of only 
2,000 men, and a public debt growing out of the war aggregating $200,000,000. 
It is in no wise prosperous, and there are no indications that it will be for 
many years to come. 

Prior to 18 10 it was a colony of Spain. In that year ii declared its inde- 
pendence, and in 1812 elected Dr. Francia consul, soon afterward making him 
dictator. Under his government, which lasted till his death in 1840, the country 
enjoyed its greatest prosperity, though its development was seriously checked 
by the rigorous policy he purused of excluding all foreigners from the country. 
In 1846 the elder Lopez was elected president for life. He died in 1862, and 
was succeeded by his son, Solano Lopez, the most merciless tyrant of modern 
times. Though a Roman Catholic country, but little respect was shown 
toward the Holy See, either by father or son ; the bishops possessed no im- 
munities by reason of their sacerdotal character, and under the son nearly all 
of the most intelligent priests were arrested, tortured, and put to death. The 
younger Lopez was killed in the disastrous war he precipitated with Brazil 
and the Argentine Republic. Since its termination the country has been 
practically a dependency of Brazil. It was discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 
1526. The first bishop for it was appointed 1554, and took with him laws for 
the protection of the natives, who had been reduced to slavery and divided 



ii66 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

among the conquerors. Jesuit missionaries settled there in 1556, and con- 
ferred great civihzing benefits upon the country, till their expulsion by the 
Spaniards in 1767. 




CITY OF ASSUMPTION. 

SSUMPTION, the capital of the republic, founded in 1536, is on the 
Paraguay River, in latitude 25° 18' south, and longitude 57° 30' 
west. Owing to its advantageous location, it became a city of con- 
siderable importance under its Spanish settlers. The majority of its houses 
are of brick, one story high, and roofed with tiles. It is a bishop's see, and 
contains a cathedral, government palace, custom-house, military hospital, 
college, and public library. During the war of 1865-70, it was bombarded 
and nearly destroyed by a Brazilian fleet. In 1885 the population was esti- 
mated at 19,463, of whom less than 300 were foreigners. 



THE REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY. 




HE republic of Uruguay, long known as the Banda Oriental del 
Uruguay, lies between latitude 30° and 35° south, and longitude 
53° and 58° 30' west, and is bounded by Brazil on the north, north- 
east, and east, the Atlantic Ocean on the southeast and south, and by the Rio 
de la Plata and the Uruguay rivers on the southwest and west, the latter 
separating it from the Argentine Republic. It has an area of 73,538 square 
miles, and its population was estimated in 1884 at 593,248, of whom 60,000 
were Italians, 30,000 Spaniards, 30,000 French, 30,000 Basques, and 20,000 
Brazilians. More than half the entire population was of foreign extraction. It 
has a coast line accessible to shipping of 625 miles: 200 on the Atlantic Ocean, 
155 on the Plata, and 270 on the Uruguay, and a land frontier of 450 miles. 

The general character of the country is that of a vast rolling plain, abound- 
ing in natural pastures, and presenting here and there low, well-wooded ridges, 
from which numerous streams descend in all directions. Its chief water- 
courses are the Rio Negro, formed by the union of several small streams that 
rise in the Grand Cochilha near the Brazilian border, and divides the country 
into two nearly equal parts from northeast to southwest ; the Rio de la Plata, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1167 

the left bank of which now belongs wholly to Uruguay; and the Uruguay, 
which receives the Rio Negro just before entering the Rio de la Plata, con- 
tains a number of falls, and is navigable for over 1,000 miles. The country 
enjoys a temperate climate, somewhat changeable, and resembling that of 
Spain and Italy, and the air is pure and healthy. A large portion of it is 
fertile land, and a vast extent profitable pasturage. As a result the rearing 
of cattle and sheep forms the chief industry of the people, though in agri- 
culture there are large products of wheat and Indian corn. Hemp and differ- 
ent qualities of flax, nearly all kinds of vegetables, cotton, sugar-cane, the vine, 
and the fruit trees common to the south of Europe thrive abundantly. An 
enumeration in 1882 showed that there were 6,711,778 cattle, 20,000,000 high- 
grade sheep, and 1,500,000 horses in the country, and that 35,000,000 acres 
were in pasture. 

For many years previous to 1884 the country was divided for administra- 
tive purposes into thirteen provinces or departments, but in that year a reor- 
ganization of the territory was made and eighteen departments were estab- 
lished. Uruguay is a republic with an elective president, and a national 
legislature of one senator and three representatives for each department, but 
the actual power is generally centred in the president, who, as in most South 
American countries, is usually a successful military officer. In 1882 the ex- 
ports were valued at $21,962,930, and the imports at $18,174,800; 1883 the 
exports w^ere $26,831,555, and imports $-21,634,475; andM885 exports $25,- 
253,600, and imports $25,275,349; of the exports of the latter year $6,000,000 
were on account of hides alone. The public debt amounted to $62,330,491 in 
1886, and in the following year the revenue was $8,181,815 — three-fourths of 
which were derived from custom duties — and the expenditures were $7,414,815. 
Over 500 miles of railroad and over 2,000 miles of telegraph lines were then 
in operation. The prevailing religion of the country is the Roman Catholic; 
but while the constitution of 1864 declared that to be the religion of the state, 
it guaranteed freedom to all other forms. In the admirable educational 
system of the country, in which a number of American ladies and gentlemen 
are employed, there is no apparent denominational bias. 

The first settlement in the Banda Oriental del Uruguay was made by Jesuit 
priests in 1622, though Brazil, of which it was a province many years, was 
discovered by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese navigator, in 1500. The 
Brazilians shook off their allegiance to Portugal and declared in favor of an 
independent kingdom in 18 15. The present republic of Uruguay as well as 



ii68 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

the country called the Seven Missions was comprehended in that portion 
of the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres situated to the east of the Uruguay River, 
When Brazil declared its independence, the republic of Buenos Ayres was 
plunged into civil war, and Brazil took advantage of the circumstance and 
occupied the Banda Oriental. Buenos Ayres protested against the action, and 
as no settlement could be effected the two countries went to war with each 
other in 1825. Through the intervention of Great Britain a treaty of peace 
was concluded in 1828, the Seven Missions territory being ceded therein to 
Brazil, and the southern district declared an independent republic under the 
title of Republica del Uruguay Oriental. The constitution was adopted in 
183 1, and the young republic started on its career with a war with Buenos 
Ayres, precipitated by the failure of an aspirant for the presidency of Uru- 
guay. Brazil interfered in behalf of Uruguay, and asking the co-operation of 
England and France, each of those countries blockaded Montevideo by turns 
till 1849, when treaties were signed which secured the recognition of Uruguay 
by the neighboring republics and nominally closed the strife; but peace was 
not established till 1851. Brazil blockaded Montevideo in 1864, and forced the 
country to aid her in the war with Paraguay, and at the close of that struggle 
the country was rent with revolutions accompanied by assassinations, and it 
was not till 1870 that it began to enjoy the semblance of peace. 



CITY OF MONTEVIDEO. 



ONTEVIDEO, the capital and commercial metropolis of the repub- 
lic, is built on the north shore of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, 
at its entrance into the Atlantic Ocean, and is in latitude 34° 53' 
south, and longitude 56° 16' west. It is on a small promontory which forms 
the eastern shore of its harbor, the western consisting of another projecting 
point connected with a hill 463 feet high, from which the city has derived its 
name. Opposite the city the river is seventy miles wide; the harbor is over 
four miles long and over two wide. The city is well built, with wide, straight, 
paved streets that intersect each other, and tasteful houses with flat roofs and 
picturesque parapets. It has a cathedral, dedicated to the apostles San Felipe 
and San Jago, and noted for its grand facade, which displays a great portal 
composed of three round arches and flanked by two cupola-crowned towers. 
The government buildings, president's palace, three other Roman Catholic 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1169 

churches, a Protestant church connected with the British consulate and built in 
1846, and a Methodist mission chapel, are prominent among the public build- 
ings. During the sway of General Rosas in Buenos Ayres it suffered greatly 
in its commerce and otherwise by the long irregular siege it sustained, and 
which terminated only on the downfall of that agitator. Its commerce has 
rapidly increased since 1870, and during the years 1877-81 its exports 
amounted in value to $11,515,305, and its imports to $17,339,985. The chief 
articles of export are cattle, hides, tallow, and dried and preserved meats. 
The city was founded in 1717, and had a population in 1884 of 104,472. 



GUIANA. 

HIS extensive territory, divided politically between Brazil, Ven- 
ezuela, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands, is situated in 
the northeastern part of South America, between latitude 8° 40' 
north and 3° 30' south, and longitude 50° and 68° west, and is bounded by 
the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Its extreme length 
from east to west is about 1,200 miles, its greatest breadth 800, and its esti- 
mated area 600,000 square miles. The first two divisions, comprising about 
five-sixths of the entire territory, are provinces of Brazil and Venezuela re- 
spectively; the others are colonies known as British, Dutch, and French 
Guiana. 

The discovery of the territory has been claimed both for Vasco Nuiiez, 
who is said to have landed on the coast in 1504, and for Diego de Ordas, who 
subsequently accompanied Cortez in the conquest of Mexico. Some Dutch 
people are said to have made settlements near the river Pomeroon as early as 
1580; Sir Walter Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco in search of the coveted El 
Dorado in 1595 ; the Dutch possession was contested by the Spaniards; New 
Zealanders, English and French made settlements on the Essequibo and 
Surinam rivers between 1600 and 1650; and in 1669 the Dutch possessions 
covered all the region now belonging to British, Dutch, and French Guiana. 
The present division of this section was subsequently arranged between the 
three interested powers by treaty. The territory is watered by the Amazon, 
Orinoco, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, Corentin, Maroni, and Oyapok rivers 
and their affluents. The soil is fertile, the climate in general hot and moist, 
and the temperature averages 81" F. The chief products are sugar, rum, and 



II70 THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH AMERICA: 

molasses. The whole territory forms a forest-clad peninsula, on which grows 
a great variety and an enormous quantity of valuable woods. The most 
notable tree is the mira, which attains a height of 150 feet, and yields timber 
equal to that of the teak. The three eastern divisions of Guiana are the most 
important commercially as well as the best known. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 




HIS division occupies the western part of the territory between 
Venezuela and Dutch Guiana, from which it is separated by the 
Corentin River, and is intersected in its length by the Essequibo. 
It has an area of 86,000 square miles, and in 1884 had a population of 
264,473. The colony is subdivided into three departments, Essequibo, 
Demerara, and Berbice, is under the executive authority of a governor ap- 
pointed by the British crown, and has two important towns, Georgetown, the 
capital, with a population of 49,211, and New Amsterdam. The chief exports 
are sugar, rum, molasses, timber, shingles, and cotton ; and imports, cotton 
goods, casks, machinery, beer and ale, iron, butter, and rice; these in 1885 
were valued at: exports, $8,610,160, imports, $7,970,240. The Church of 
England diocese of Guiana was established in 1842, and in 1880 had sixty- 
nine churches and chapels, with 90,000 communicants. The Church of Scot- 
land had ten ministers, the Wesleyan Methodist fourteen, and the Roman 
Catholics, Moravians, and Congregational Dissenters had several churches 
and mission stations each. The Church of England receives an annual grant 
from the public revenue of $50,000, the Church of Scotland, $25,000 and the 
Roman Catholic Church $12,500. The system of education is denomina- 
tional, and supported by public revenue. 



DUTCH GUIANA. 



HIS division, sometimes called Surinam from its main river, is the 
central one, and lies between the Corentin and Maroni rivers. Its 
i area has been variously estimated at from 45,000 to 58,530 square 
miles, the greater portion of which has never been explored. The population 
was estimated at 69,329 in 1875, of whom between 6,000 and 7,000 were whites, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1171 

17,000 Maroons, and 40,000 negroes. Paramaribo, ten miles from the mouth of 
the Surinam River, and with a population of 22,000, is the capital. The colony 
is divided into nine districts, and governed by a governor-general and a council 
of native freeholders as executives of an assembly partly appointed by the 
home government, and partly elected by citizens, who obtain the right of 
voting by the payment of a special tax. The imports are worth annually 
$1,600,000, and the exports, sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, and cotton, $1,200,000. 



FRENCH GUIANA. 



HE extreme eastern colony is the smallest of the three, and is also 
known as Cayenne, the name of an important island, the capital, 
and the port. The area is estimated at from 48,000 to 53,000 
square miles, and the population in 1877 at 36,750; greatest length of colony 
280 miles, greatest breadth 220. Owing to the prevailing trade winds, the 
heat is here less intense than in the British and Dutch portions. Hurricanes 
are unknown, but slight earthquakes have occurred in 1821, 1843, and 1877. 
Since 1870 gold washing has become the chief industry. The exports in the 
order of value are gold, coffee, sugar, rum, pepper, cabinet-woods, cotton, 
skins, india-rubber, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs. The government 
is vested in a governor and military commandant, an ordonnateur, a director 
of the interior, a procurator-general, a privy council, and a director of the 
penitentiary service, the island of Cayenne constituting a French penal 
establishment. There is a court of appeal and a tribunal of first instance, 
and justices of the peace are appointed for each of the cantons into which the 
colony is subdivided. Cayenne is administrated by a municipal council, and 
religious affairs, which are wholly of Roman Catholic connection, are under 
the authority of an apostolic prefect. The French first settled in the colony 
in 1604. In 1763 the government sent out 12,000 volunteer immigrants, and 
within two years all but 918 perished. Large numbers of political prisoners 
were transported thither during the French Revolution; the colony was in- 
vaded by the British and Portuguese in 1809, and restored to France by 
treaty of 1 8 14; and it was made a convict establishment in 1851. 




A CREOLE BEAUTY. 



THE 



Countries of Central America: 

THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 




HIS division of the America.n continent extends from Mexico to 
the Isthmus of Panama, and from the Caribbean Sea on the east 
to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its exact geographical location 
is between latitude 7° and 18° north, and longitude 81° and 93° west. For- 
merly it embraced Yucatan, now incorporated with Mexico, and Panama, 
now a part of the United States of Colombia, in South America. The country 
was conquered by Don Pedro de Alvarado, an associate of Cortez, in 1525, 
and it remained a possession of Spain from that time till 1821, when the 
people secured their independence, and organized separate States. The union 
of these in 1823 formed the Republic of the United States of Central America, 
which was dissolved in 1839, after a period of civil war, and since then each 
State has been independent, and recognized as a separate republic, though a 
movement was inaugurated in 1887 looking to the re-establishment of a federal 
government for all of them. 

The entire region is exceedingly mountainous. The plateau of Veragua 
has an elevation of 8,000 feet above the sea level in its highest part, those of 
Costa Rica and Castago are from 2,200 to 4,000 feet, the table-land of Hon- 
duras is 4,000 feet, and that of Guatemala 5,000; while here and there are 
peaks rising to a height of 10,000 feet and over. Of the numerous rivers, the 
Usamasinta and the San Juan are the largest. The latter is the outlet of 
Lake Nicaragua, a body of water covering an area of 3,400 square miles. On 
the east coast is the Gulf of Honduras, and on the Pacific are the Gulfs of 
Dulce, Nicoya, Fonseca, and Coronada Bay. A large portion of Central 
America consists of land of remarkable fertility; agriculture is extensively 
pursued but in rather a primitive manner; and almost all kinds of crops could 



1 174 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: 

be cultivated profitably with improved seed and modern implements. There 
are numerous mines of gold, silver, copper, zinc, and other valuable minerals; 
but, like agriculture, they are still awaiting the spirit of enterprise that shall 
develop them as they deserve. Under the disadvantages of inappreciation and 
lack of facilities, the productive wealth of the entire section is practically 
limited to cabinet-woods, cotton, coffee, sugar, cochineal, indigo, cocoa, 
sarsaparilla, and tobacco. The prevailing form of religion is the Roman 
Catholic, which was introduced when the whole territory was one state under 
the Spanish crown, and known as the kingdom of Guatemala. Protestantism, 
however, has been permitted to achieve considerable progress. Each state 
maintains a small standing army, is terribly in debt, and has experienced the 
ill effects of earthquakes, revolutions, and serious political disturbances. In 
1886 the entire area was estimated at 189,689 square miles, and the popula- 
tion at 2,793,723. The republics were five in number, Guatemala, San Sal- 
vador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. 



THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA. 




HIS is the most northerly of the Central American states, and the 
most populous. Under the Spanish occupation it embraced the 
whole of the Central American territory; it was apart of the 
confederation for eighteen years; established itself as an independent republic 
in 1839; adopted its constitution in 1859; and revised it in 1879. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ 
1886 was 44,800 square miles, and its population 1,322,544. The capital was 
New Guatemala. The executive authority was vested in a president elected 
for six years ; the legislative in a national assembly whose members are elected 
for the same period. The president was assisted by a cabinet of four ministers, 
and the " Sociedad Economica," a Spanish institution dating from 1795. 
The republic has an admirable educational system, which receives the zealous 
care and liberal support of the administration. In 1880 there were 666 public 
schools, with 32,786 attendants, beside a number of night schools maintained 
by the government and the several municipal authorities, and many private 
institutions for all classes. The government and municipal aid in that year 
amounted to $216783. Among the institutions of note are several high and 
normal schools, engineering, medical, and pharmaceutical colleges, legal, com- 
mercial, agricultural, musical, and telegraphic schools, art and mechanical 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1175 

academies, and an asylum for the education of the deaf and dumb. The 
National Institute of Technology, established at Ouezaltenango in 1871, has 
already achieved a grand success and influence, and the Belen Female College, 
opened in the capital city in 1876, bids fair to become the Central American 
Vassar. The railroad and telegraphic service of Guatemala is far ahead of 
that of the other republics, and is being extended rapidly in order to facilitate 
the development of mineral and agricultural resources. Rich mines of gold, 
silver, and iron have been discovered, that will justify a judicious expenditure 
to render them accessible. In 1885 the public revenues amounted to $8,518,- 
947, one-third of which was from duties on imports, and the expenditures to 
$8,397»550; the public debt aggregated $10,705,581 ; the imports were valued 
at $3,788,134, and the exports, chiefly cofTee, $5,520,330. There were 112 
miles of railroad, and 1,801 miles of telegraph lines in operation. 



CITY OF NEW GUATEMALA. 




EW GUATEMALA, the first capital of the republic, now known as 
Old Guatemala, was founded by Alvarado in 1524, constituted a 
Roman Catholic bishop's see in 1533, destroyed by a deluge of 
water from the volcano de Agua in 1541, and almost wholly destroyed by an 
earthquake in 1773. It subsequently suffered severely from eruptions of the 
volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, and in 1799 the rebuilding of the city was be- 
gun. In its day it was a very important and interesting place, and contained 
many buildings of great solidity, extent, and architectural beauty. The ruin« 
of .the old cathedral show a length of 300 feet, a width of 120, and a height 
of 70, and the remains of fifty large windows. The old city had a population 
in 1885 of 20,000. The new capital city was built thirty miles east of its un- 
fortunate predecessor, at an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet above the sea level, 
and between the two volcanoes just mentioned. It was laid out in streets forty 
feet wide, and provided with numerous public squares, drinking fountains, and 
statues of noted men. Around the main square, which is 625 feet long and 
535 wide, are grouped the cathedral, built in 1780, the archbishop's palace, 
the government palaces, the ministerial ofifices, the mint, the city hall, and a 
row of business houses. Beside the buildings already mentioned there are 
twenty-four other churches, a hospital, and a penitentiary, spacious military 
barracks, a theatre that cost $200,000, a fine post-oflice, a large hotel con- 



II76 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: 

ducted on the American plan, and many imposing and elegantly furnished 
private residences. The city is the see of a Roman Catholic archbishop, and 
had a population in 1886 of 58,456. San Jose de Guatemala is the principal 
port of the Republic with regard to importations; and Champerico, the 
most northern of the coffee-shipping ports of Central America and the largest, 
is the chief exporting station. 



THE REPUBLIC OF SAN SALVADOR. 



HIS is the smallest of the republics in point of area, and the second 
largest in point of population. It is bounded on the north by 
Honduras, on the east by the Bay of Fonseca, on the south by the 
Pacific Ocean, and on the west by Guatemala. Its area was estimated in 1886 
at 7,226 square miles, and its population at 634,120. The country is traversed 
through its whole extent by a range of volcanic mountains, which have two 
peaks, San Vicente and San Salvador, with an elevation of over 9,000 feet. 
Within the boundaries of the republic, this range presents sixteen peaks which 
are still of an active volcanic character. Although generally mountainous, 
the country has a number of table-lands and plateaus of fertile soil on which 
agriculture is largely and quite successfully pursued. Beside the cereals 
needed for domestic consumption the chief product for export is indigo. 

There are vast tracts of dense forest which yield excellent commercial 
timber, a greatly appreciated quality of cedar, and a quantity of Peruvian 
balsam, averaging 20,000 pounds per annum. The executive authority is 
vested by the constitution in a president elected for four years, who has a 
cabinet of five ministers; and the legislative in a congress comprising a senate 
of twelve members and a chamber of deputies of twenty-four, elected for 
two years. The people are more inclined to modern pursuits than those of 
neighboring states; and beside agriculture are largely engaged in various 
branches of manufactures. Within the last ten years they have also made con- 
siderable progress in developing a number of rich iron mines. All forms of 
religion are permitted by the constitution, though the Roman Catholic has 
the largest number of adherents. Education is highly esteemed, and is pro- 
moted by the government to the extent of its ability. The public revenue of 
the republic in 1887 was $4,315,145, the national expenditures were $4,291,850, 
the aggregate debt was $4,750,000, the exports (1884) were valued at $6,065,- 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1177 

799, and the imports §2,646,628. The finances of the country, therefore, 
were in a much better condition than those of its larger neighbors territorially. 
Upon the dissolution of the Central American federation, Salvador maintained 
a union with Honduras and Nicaragua till 1853, when it established itself as 
an independent State. 






CITY OF NUEVA SAN SALVADOR. 

UEVA SAN SALVADOR, the capital, is built in a beautiful valley 
at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet above the sea level, and is five 
miles from La Libertad, its port. It rests at the base of the volcano 
of the same name, and, though entirely destroyed by an earthquake on April 
15th, 1854, was rebuilt on the same site. It has the usual complement of 
public, ecclesiastical, educational, and charitable buildings; its edifices are 
well built, and, as in all countries liable to earthquakes, are seldom over two 
stories in height; and the population was estimated in 1886 at 16,000. In 
colloquial usage the " San," in the name of the republic and the capital, is 
generally omitted. 



THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS. 




HE third republic in point of population is situated between latitude 
13° 10' and 16° 5' north and is bounded on the north and east by 
the Caribbean Sea, on the south by Nicaragua, and on the west 
by San Salvador and Guatemala. It has a coast line of fifty miles on the 
Pacific Ocean, and of over 400 on the Caribbean Sea. Its area in 1887 was 
estimated at 39,600 square miles, and its population at 331,917. Honduras 
is the most mountainous region of all Central America. The Andes cross the 
entire territory from northwest to southeast, leaving a belt between them 
and the Pacific Ocean from fifty to sixty miles wide, and throwing out long 
branches north, east, and south. These include the Sierra de Copan, the Mer- 
enden, the Esperito Santo, the Omoa, the Selaque the Montecillos, the Mis- 
oco, the Lepaterique, the Comajagua, the San Mareos, and the Macuelizo. The 
table-lands formed by these ranges and branches are among the highest 
known; the Tegucigalpa being 3,500 feet above sea level, Santa Rosa and 
Santa Cruz each 3,200, Siguatepegre 6,000, Olancho 9,000, Yutibuca 9,500, and 



11/8 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: 

Juticalpa 10,000. The chief rivers are the Chamelecon, Ulua, Aguau, Black, 
Patuca, Segovia, Guayape, Choluteca, and Goascaran. The most remarkable 
inland lake is Yojoa, in a beautiful valley, surrounded by high mountains and 
having a length of forty-two and a width of twelve miles. Nearly all these 
watercourses are navigable by boats of light draught, and many of them flow 
over gold-bearing sand. 

For administrative purposes the republic is divided into the following 
departments: Comayagua, Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, Santa Barbara, Gracias, 
Copan, Yoro, El Parais, Olancho, Bay Islands, and Mosquitia. The principal 
ports on the Caribbean Sea are Omoa, Trujillo, and Puerto Cortes, all of 
which have commodious and safe harbors, and the best harbor on the Pacific 
is that of Amapala, on the Bay of Fonseca. The republic is governed by a 
president with a cabinet of six ministers, and an assembly of forty-two repre- 
sentatives. Honduras chiefly exports gold bullion, indigo, cattle, timber, 
hides, and tobacco, of an average annual value of $1,300,000, and its lead- 
ing imports are cotton and silk fabrics from England and cutlery and ma- 
chinery from the United States. The public revenue in 1886 was $1,420,860, 
one-third derived from customs duties and another third from government 
monopolies; the expenditures were about the same; the national debt was 
$31,000,000; and the total value of exports was $1,605,000. There were sixty- 
nine miles of railroad, and 1,338 miles of telegraph lines in operation. Recent 
trade with the United States is thus shown: exports (1886) $730,559; (1887) 
$857,919; (1888) $957,331; imports (1886) $428,104; (1887) $425,741; (1888) 
$672,796. Honduras was discovered by Columbus August 14th, 1502, and 
conquered by Cortes. Under Spanish rule it grew rapidly, and many thrifty 
cities were founded. In 1823 it declared its independence of Spain, became 
a member of the federation of Central America, and for a while after the 
dissolution in 1839 formed a union with San Salvador and Nicaragua. The 
country is rich in archaeological treasures and Toltec history. 



CITY OF TEGUCIGALPA. 




EGUCIGALPA, the capital, in the department of the same name, 
is one of the most important centres of population, richness, and 
production in the republic. It is situated on a plain 3,000 feet 
above the sea level, and is watered by the picturesque Choluteca River. In 
this department are found the renowned mines of Yuscaran, San Antonia, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1179 

Santa Lucia, and San Juan de Cantarranas. Mount Agalteca in the north- 
western part of the department is a huge mass of pure iron metal. The capital 
city is on the right bank of the river, surrounded by steep mountains; its 
streets are regularly laid out, and neatly paved ; and its houses are built almost 
wholly of stone, and with considerable architectural taste. It has six 
churches, including a substantial and handsomely decorated cathedral, a uni- 
versity founded in 1847, ^ mint, the ofiQcial residence of the president, gov- 
ernment buildings, the palace of the Roman Catholic bishop of the depart- 
ment diocese and the National Academy of Science and Art, opened 1888. 
The city is connected with the town of Comayaguela, on the opposite side of 
the river, by a stone bridge with ten arches. Its business is transacted through 
the ports of Omoa and Trujillo, on the Caribbean coast, and through Amalpa, 
on the Pacific. The population in 1887 was estimated at 15,000, and was 
rapidly increasing for Central Amierica. 



THE REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA. 




HE second state of Central America in point of area, though gener- 
ally accounted the first, embraces the territory between latitude 
10° 45' and 14° 55' north, and longitude 83° 15' and 87° 38' west, 
and is bounded on the north by Honduras, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, 
on the south by Costa Rica, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its area 
was estimated in 1886 at 58,000 square miles — 168 less than that of Honduras, 
the largest state, and its population at 300,000. In public circles it is the best 
known and most studied of Central American states, because its natural water 
courses almost bisect the American continent, and indicate an admirable 
location for a ship-canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which 
has been the dream of navigators for nearly a century. 

In 1850 the governments of the United States and Great Britain concluded 
a treaty by which they agreed to co-operate in the establishment of a secure 
and neutral line of communication between the two seas by way of the San 
Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, to be open on equal terms to all nations, 
with a free port at each end of the line. An American company was formed 
for constructing a canal and operating a line of steamships. Concessions 
were freely granted by the various administrations of Nicaragua; survey after 
survey was made by parties who became interested in the general scheme; 



ii8o THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: 

the United States government had the whole region between the two oceans 
examined many times by its best naval engineers; but up to the beginning 
of 1888 the actual construction of the much-desired canal was still a work of 
the future. 

Previous to 1850 communication had been maintained between the Atlan- 
tic and the towns of Grenada and Nicaragua by means of flat-bottomed 
boats. The passage was made from Grenada to San Juan, or Greytown, in 
about eight days, while the return passage, being against the stream, occupied 
from twelve to fifteen. Subsequently the Nicaragua Transit Company oper- 
ated a route which involved but twelve miles of land carriage, and that over 
a good macadamized road. During the early part of 1888 the corps of United 
States engineers, which had -for some time been making most detailed surveys 
and observations to fix the axial location of the purposed interoceanic canal, 
consolidated their reports and presented to the public in July what may be 
considered the most thorough and scientific plan for solving the great problem. 
The reports favored the upper location, and according to them the canal 
would extend from the roadstead of Brito on the Pacific, to the harbor of" 
Greytown on the Atlantic, in all a distance of 169.8 miles. Of this 139.9 would 
be slack-water navigation through the basins of the rivers Deseado, San 
Francisco, San Juan, Lajas, Rio Grande, and Lake Nicaragua, leaving only 
29.9 miles of actual excavation to be made. The canal would be eighty feet 
wide at the bottom in deep cuts, and 120 feet in terminal ones and other 
enlarged sections. At the surface of the water the width would be eighty 
feet in deep rock cuts, and from 180 to 340 feet at other points. The esti- 
mated time of transit from ocean to ocean, on the basis of a speed of five 
miles per hour in the canal proper, eight to ten miles per hour in the river and 
lake, and forty-five minutes detention at each of the five locks, would be twenty- 
eight hours. The total cost was estimated at $50,000,000. Preliminary work 
on the restoration and improvement of Greytown harbor was in progress, and 
work on the construction of the canal proper was begun in the summer of 
1889. 

The principal rivers of Nicaragua are the Segovia and the San Juan ; the 
form.er forms the northern boundary, and the latter the southern. The San 
Juan is the only channel by which Lake Nicaragua discharges its waters into 
the Atlantic. The lake is 100 miles long and about forty miles broad, and is 
the reservoir of a great extent of mountainous country. It contains several 
islands, among which Omotepec is remarkable for a high volcano and for its 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1181 

fertility, and was long the abode of an industrious tribe of Indians. Lake 
Managua empties into Lake Nicaragua through the river Tipi Tapi ; the 
rivers Malacatoya, Rio de Punta Tule, Gil Gonzales, Las Lajas, and Ocho 
Mogo, empty into Lake Nicaragua; and the Sabalo, San Carlos, and Serapa- 
qui, rising in Costa Rica, empty into the San Juan. Upper Nicaragua, where 
the lakes are situated, has a regular rainy and dry season, and lower or eastern 
Nicaragua, which includes Greytown and nearly all the San Juan region, has 
the climate of the Caribbean Sea, where it rains every month in the year. 
The departments of Segovia, Matagalpa, Chotales, and Mosquito, in eastern 
Nicaragua, are munificently endowed by nature. Forests of logwood, morau, 
mahogany, and various cabinet woods abound: large deposits of caoutchouc 
gum are a source of considerable wealth; the mountains of Chontales contain 
gold, both placer, mining, and quartz ; and those of Segovia extensive veins 
of silver. The soil of the republic is in general very fertile; the chief agri 
cultural industries are the cultivation of coffee, cocoa, indigo, cotton, maize, 
and fruits. Cattle are among the principal sources of wealth, very large 
numbers of them being kept on the plains along the eastern sides of the lakes. 
The manufactures are almost wholly confined to articles required for home 
use, and are chiefly coarse cotton and woollen cloths, the former being dyed 
a purple color, by means of a shell fish caught in the vicinity of San Juan 
del Sur. 

The republic is politically divided into five departments, Segovia com- 
prising the northeastern part, Leon the north and northwestern, Managua the 
district south of Leon, Granada that south of Managua, and Nicaragua the 
most southern part bordering on Costa Rica. The capitals bear the depart- 
ment names. Segovia is in a healthy and fertile region, and has a large 
amount of undeveloped mineral wealth ; Leon, the former capital of the re- 
public, is on the road which leads from the best cultivated district of the 
republic to the harbor of Realejo, contains a cathedral, several churches, a 
university and a college, and has suffered greatly from political disturbances; 
Monagua is on the south bank of the lake of that name, is surrounded by 
rich coffee plantations, has a number of manufactories, and in 1889 was the 
capital of the republic, with an estimated population of 12,000; Granada, 
on the northwestern bank of Lake Nicaragua, has a considerable trade through 
the river and harbor of the San Juan, and contains several churches and con- 
vents; and Nicaragua is about two miles from the west bank of Lake Nicara- 
gua, and is surrounded by a district noted for its fertility, especially in cacao 



ii82 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 

and grapes. The modern Greytown, the Atlantic terminus of the proposed 
inter-oceanic canal, has been known as San Juan del Nicaragua, and was the 
chief trading town of the former Mosquito kingdom, on the Caribbean coast, 
of which Blewfields was the capital. Greytown was almost entirely destroyed 
by United States war vessels on July I2th, 1854, but it was subsequently 
rebuilt and improved. It has a natural harbor of considerable extent and 
large commercial importance. 

Nicaragua is governed by a president elected for four years, who has a 
cabinet of four ministers. The legislative authority is vested in a congress 
comprising a senate of ten members and an assembly of eleven representa- 
tives. The chief exports are gold and silver bullion, coffee, hides, and cabinet 
woods. The public revenue in 1887 was $3,393,295, and the expenditures were 
larger; the exports were valued at $5,781,850 and the imports $3,982,640. 

The territory along the Caribbean Sea constituted the Indian kingdom of 
Mosquito or Mosquitia; the first settlement of Englishmen on the coast was 
made in 1730, when families settled at Cape Gracias a Dios on Black River 
and at the mouth of Blewfields River. In 181 3, when Central America secured 
its independence from Spain, Nicaragua claimed the Mosquito territory, the 
king appealed to Great Britain, who rejected the claims and guaranteed the 
sovereignty of the coast to the king. The United States protested against 
the English protectorate and refused to acknowledge it. In 1850, in the 
treaty between the United States and Great Britain, already mentioned, the 
latter abandoned the protectorate, the king of Mosquito was thrown upon his 
own resources, and before long his territory was merged with that of Nica- 
ragua. The republic was the scene of the chief operations of William Walker, 
the American filibuster, in 1854, '55, '56, '57, and '60. 



THE REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA 




HE most southerly state in Central America extends entirely 
across the isthmus, lies between latitude 8° and 11° 30' north, 
and longitude 83" and 85° 40' west; is bounded on the north by 
Nicaragua, on the east by the Mosquito Gulf, on the south by the Isthm.us of 
Panama and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Atlantic and 
had an estimated area in 1886 of 21,495 square miles and a population of 213, 



THEIR CAPITALS AND SEAPORTS. 1183 

785. The surface of the country comprises for the most part a table-land, 
with an elevation of over 2,000 feet above sea level. From the range of the 
Cabecares Mountains in Veragua, east of the plain of Chiriqui, there stretches 
a considerable number of mountain peaks, many of them of considerable 
height, and a large part of them volcanic. Some of them attain an elevation 
of 10,000 feet, and one, the volcano of Cartago, is said to be 11,480 feet high. 
Toward the Gulf the descent is very abrupt, but on the Pacific side it is quite 
gradual. The only important river is the San Juan, common to it and Nica- 
ragua; the Pacific portion has the Estrella, Arena, and Baranca, all with a 
short course. The climate is more regular and healthy than in other parts of 
Central America, the thermometer seldom rising above 85° nor falling below 
65° F. 

The soil is of varied quality, but in many parts highly productive. On 
the more elevated districts there are few forests, but on the lower declivities 
and particularly along the eastern coast they are very abundant, and yield a 
large quantity of Brazil wood, mahogany, and cedar for export. Coffee is 
the staple product, though considerable quantities of wheat, maize, sugar, 
tobacco, and indigo are raised and find a ready sale. Fruits and vegetables 
are largely cultivated for home consumption, and cattle, horses, mules, sheep, 
swine, and poultry are raised in great numbers. Costa Rica has three consider- 
able gulfs, that of Chiriqui on the Pacific side and those of Nicoya and Dulcc 
on the Atlantic. Large gold mines exist' near the Gulf of Nicoya, and valu- 
able veins of silver, copper, and coal elsewhere. 

The republic is divided politically into six provinces, San Jose, Cartago, 
Heredia, Alajuela, Guanaceute, and Punta de Arenas. The executive au- 
thority is vested in a president, formerly elected for six years, but now for 
four, two vice-presidents, and a cabinet of four ministers; the legislative in 
a congress of deputies also chosen for four years. The public revenue for 
1886 amounted to $2,387,290, one-third of which was from the government 
monopoly on tobacco and brandy, and the rest from custom duties and a vari- 
ety of taxes; and the expenditures to $3,088,944; the debt was $11,942,076; 
the imports $3,661,000, and the exports $3,297,000. The Roman Catholic is 
the established religion, but other forms of worship are permitted. The 
church is presided over by the Bishop of San Jose., and. the chief court of 
justice is the Tribunal of San Jose, over which seven judges preside. The 
white inhabitants of the republic are relatively more numerous in Costa Rica 
than in the other republics of Central America ; the eastern side of the country 



ii84 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 

is mainly occupied by Indians, while on the western side of the table-land 
are large numbers of ladinos or mulattoes. The country formed a part of the 
kingdom of Guatemala during the Spanish occupation, and for two years 
after the declaration of independence was united to the Mexican kingdom of 
Iturbide ; but in 1823 it joined the federation of Central America. On the 
dissolution of that union it established itself as an independent State. In 
1882 the towns of Alajuela, San Ramon, Grecia, and Heredia were nearly 
destroyed by an earthquake, which cau#ld a loss of several thousand lives. 
In 1886 there were 170 miles of railroad and 451 of telegraph lines in opera- 
tion in the country. 



CITY OF SAN JOSE. 

AN JOSE, the capital of the republic, is on a table-land, 4,500 feet 
above sea level, in latitude 10° 56' north, and longitude 83° 45' 
west. It is, about fifteen miles northwest of Cartago, the former 
capital, and is connected with Punta Arenas, its seaport, by a carriage road. 
It is a modern city, having been built since the separation from Spain, and 
contains the government buildings, legislative halls, courts of justice, palace 
of the Roman Catholic bishop, and a population (1886) of 26,000. Prior to the 
great earthquake, Alajuela was the second place of importance in the republic, 
with a population of nearly 8,000. It was at the terminus of the railroad that 
started from Cartago, near the centre of the country, ran northwest for twenty 
miles to San Jose, then nearly west for ten miles to Heredia, and then south- 
west ten miles to its other terminus. The town was well built, all the houses 
being one story in height and made of adobe, most of them having tile roofs. 
It was surrounded by rich coffee plantations that extended as far as Heredia, 
which had a population of 6,000. Alajuela stood nearly midway between San 
Jose and Punta de Arenas. Cartago is at the base of the volcano of the same 
name, and was formerly not only the capital of the republic but a place of 
much commercial importance. In 1841 it was almost entirely destroyed by 
an earthquake, which ruined seven of its eight churches and nearly 3,000 houses. 



